Forum: The Racing Rules of Sailing
Crossing the finish line the wrong way
Jody Abrams
Nationality: United States
0
On a recent distance race the tide and winds were not cooperating and one our competitors found him self on the windward side of the finish line which was an upwind finish. The debate became could he sail through the line the wrong way (nothing in the SI say the line is closed) and then after clearing the line turn back and cross it correctly or does this put him in a DSQ scenario ? The debate was in line with the use of a string for the course in that unwinding it he will not have rounded all marks correctly. Thank you for your advice on this as we all continue to learn.
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The boat violates . However states only the Protest Committee may penalize her and only for a valid protest.
Any competitor or the Race Committee or the Protest Committee may protest her.
Using the string-rule, the boat could have crossed the line in the wrong direction (going outside the pin), turned and crossed in the correct direction, unwound around the pin and recrossed in the correct direction. The RC in that case must record both times the boat crosses the line in the correct direction.
Even though the string would then be on both sides of the pin, there is no rule against that..
I believe, the correct procedure for the RC would have been to record the finish at position 6 and again at position 12, given Ang’s diagram.
RC should also observe if the boat is doing any other parts ( a,b,c) of definition “Finish” and make notes regarding such.
Kim
Force 5 midwinters. 40 boats. Start and finish line in the center of the course. Start, W, R, L, W, L, finish. Start on left, finish line on right.
2 boats finished on the wrong side (they finished on the start line) and then, above the lines they dipped into the finish line and then finished.
Here's the twist. The SI's said that both lines were open and had this language: Boats may cross the start and finish lines while sailing the course. Boats can pass on either side of the signal boat while sailing the course.Boats must start on the starting line and finish on the finish line."
It seems as if even the best sailors cross start and finish lines by mistake so, we opened up both.
We took the finishes and did not protest the boats because of the language in the SI's. What do you think?
- Given that language and your interpretation/allowance at the finish, would you have allowed a boat to start by crossing the finish-line side? If not, why not?
- Was the RC in the middle a mark or an obstruction between 2 marks?
AngWhilst I agree with Angelo and Philip that the diagram in Angelo’s post above is generally accepted as a proper finish I am not sure I agree the boat has correctly sailed the course.
Yes, the course sailed does meet the definition of finish.
However, I am not convinced that the string rule (28.2) has been met completely.
The part of the rule that I do not think is satisfied is 28.2 (a) which requires boats to ‘pass each mark on the required side and in the correct order’. (my emphasis)
When the string is pulled tight the boat passes the pin on the wrong (none required) side when she first passes the pin ‘in the correct order.’
In the interval between the previous mark and the proper finish, the boat may sail circles around anything it pleases, including the Race Committee boats and flags.
However this does not mean that the wording in the rules or cases should not be questioned from time to time.
One of the advantages of a forum such as this is that these issues can be raised so that, where possible, the rules might be reworded to avoid the need for interpretations that, in some cases, do not appear to be in strict accordance with the actual wording of a rule.
The items that Philip mentions above are 'removed' when the string is pulled taught but a 'live' mark is not!