Forum: The Racing Rules of Sailing
Rule 47 Trash
John Standley
Certifications:
- International Judge
0
I have received a query about trash and am interested in opinions.
In any of the following situations does a boat break rule 47?
1. There is a problem on the foredeck and the spinnaker has to be jettisoned to prevent injury. The boat picks up the spinnaker
2. There is a problem on the foredeck and the spinnaker has to be jettisoned to prevent injury. Another vessel picks up the spinnaker
3. There is a problem on the foredeck and the spinnaker has to be jettisoned to prevent injury. No one picks up the spinnaker before it sinks.
4. The skipper leaves the drop call too late and jettisons the spinnaker. The boat returns and picks up the spinnaker.
5. The skipper leaves the drop call too late and jettisons the spinnaker. A chase boat picks up the spinnaker. (known as a chase boat drop)
6. The skipper leaves the drop call too late and jettisons the spinnaker. The spinnaker is picked up by another vessel.
4. The boat trawls the spinnaker and it shreds. A vessel picks up most, but not all of the debris.
In any of the following situations does a boat break rule 47?
1. There is a problem on the foredeck and the spinnaker has to be jettisoned to prevent injury. The boat picks up the spinnaker
2. There is a problem on the foredeck and the spinnaker has to be jettisoned to prevent injury. Another vessel picks up the spinnaker
3. There is a problem on the foredeck and the spinnaker has to be jettisoned to prevent injury. No one picks up the spinnaker before it sinks.
4. The skipper leaves the drop call too late and jettisons the spinnaker. The boat returns and picks up the spinnaker.
5. The skipper leaves the drop call too late and jettisons the spinnaker. A chase boat picks up the spinnaker. (known as a chase boat drop)
6. The skipper leaves the drop call too late and jettisons the spinnaker. The spinnaker is picked up by another vessel.
4. The boat trawls the spinnaker and it shreds. A vessel picks up most, but not all of the debris.
Comments
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If the spinnaker was shredded during a drop, and whilst cleaning up, the foredeckie threw the remains overboard, then that would be intentional.
In 1, 2, and 3, safety comes first.
4 doesn't break the rule as the material is recovered.
5 dubious, as Greg suggests, but a class rule may cover this situation.
6, as 5. Unless the first boat returns to the recovery vessel to take the equipment with which it left the dock onboard to finish the race with it. Could be considered dumping ballast in some circumstances.
7, the action wouldn't be seen as intentional, so unlikely to be considered as breaking the rule.
These are just my opinions, and those of others on the panel may vary.
Two violate 41.
Trash is not defined within the RRS so we have to go to the dictionary definition, and I would agree that the posed situations do not match any meaning I have found, except perhaps when a spinnaker is totally abandoned. That is before we get to discuss intent!
However, I think this shows a disregard for the environment within the rules.
In fact, it looks from Philip's response that, in some cases, the rules may actually encourage boats not to arrange for equipment to be recovered as this may infringe rule 41.
I don't think this is a responsible position for the sport to take and maybe there should be a (discretionary) penalty for boats that do not return with all of their equipment. As this does not seem to be clearly covered within the RRS (unless there are some changes in the new book that comes into force in January which I am not aware of) maybe classes should look at their class rules to discourage the behaviour described in 2,3 5,6,and 7.