Forum: Rule 18 and Room at the Mark
2025 RRS Definition of mark-room and RRS 18.2 Giving Mark-room
P
John AllanCertifications:
- National Judge
- Regional Race Officer
1
Definition of mark-room
The definition of mark-room has been made much simpler. It is:
Mark-Room Room for a boat
(a) to sail to the mark when her proper course is to sail close to it,
(b) to round or pass the mark on the required side, and
(c) to leave it astern.
A boat is only entitled to the room that is necessary for her to do each of these things in chronological sequence.
A boat that leaves a rounding mark astern before she has rounded it (say overrunning the mark with a late spinnaker drop), has not yet rounded the mark, so subparagraph (c) does not switch off her mark-room. But she needs to still be in the zone when she does start rounding the mark.
A boat that is rounding a leeward mark, and wishes to tack, remains entitled to mark-room when she sails higher than is ‘necessary to sail the course’ without tacking, because the ‘necessary to sail the course’ condition has been deleted from the definition.
While she is rounding the mark she remains entitled to room to luff above close hauled all the way to head to wind, preparatory to tacking, including:
· room to start her sheets, where this is a seamanlike manoeuvre to allow her to come head to wind, and
· room for her stern to swing out while she is changing course.
This was the ‘room to tack’ that was previously provided, and reference to which has now been deleted.
So, bottom line for the definition is no game change in the vast majority of cases.
RRS 18 Mark-room
RRS 18.1 When rule 18 applies
RRS 18.1 When rule 18 applies has been re-punctuated. There is no change to the substance of the rule.
RRS 18.2 Giving Mark-room
RRS 18.2 Giving Mark-room has been completely re-arranged, so that the most common situations, where boats are either overlapped or one is clear ahead of the other when the first of them reaches the zone, now appears first, as subparagraph (a), while other situations are dealt with in the second subparagraph.
Old rule 18.2(c), which granted room to sail a proper course in some very limited circumstances has been deleted, and other subparagraphs of RRS 18.2 remain effectively unchanged.
Change to RRS 18.2 Boats not overlapped when the first of them reaches the zone
Old rule 18.2(b) said
If a boat is clear ahead when she reaches the zone, the boat clear astern at that moment shall thereafter give her mark-room.
This did not deal with the situation where the boat clear ahead missed the zone, and the clear astern boat reached the zone before her.
2025 RRS 18.2 now provides
When the first of two boats reaches the zone, … if the boats are not overlapped, the boat that has not reached zone, at that moment shall give the other boat mark-room.
In other words, if boats are not overlapped when the first of them reaches the zone, whichever boat reaches the zone first is entitled to mark-room.
A clear astern boat reaching the zone before a clear ahead boat is quite a rare situation. It can occur in the following scenario involving planing dinghies or sportsboats approaching a leeward mark on a broad, but tight reach.
@3, B is clear ahead of G.
@ 3 + delta, G reaches the zone first, before B does.
Under the old rules, 2021 rule 18.2(b) would not apply, and, when B gybed back towards the mark, she would be overlapped inside G, and 2021 rule 18.2(a) would require G to give B mark-room.
Under the 2025 RRS 18.2(a)(2), the boats are not overlapped, G is the first of them to reach the zone, and B is required to give G mark-room throughout.
Comments
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For instance, the facts found and diagram contradict each other: B reaches the zone first in the diagram (sailing faster/further from 3 to 4, AND has a shorter line to the zone). The disconnect between the description and the diagram are indicative of the delicacy of the facts found here, as well as why this situation will rarely if ever be an issue. In most on-water scenarios, Blue will be calling for room at position 2.5, and will be right to be discussing it at this point.
(I also note that Blue's boom is artificially over-trimmed to keep it out of the zone at position 3.)
Indeed, we already have somewhat similar situations when a boat clear astern arrives at a mark with no room, but way faster; that boat simply goes around the outside as the rules require (or slows and follows behind).
ADD: I see now that your post poses no question. Is your point simply to note that the rule change offers a potential conflict area that we need to teach people about so they can alter their strategy? If so, I agree.
A boat that leaves a rounding mark astern before she has rounded it (say overrunning the mark with a late spinnaker drop), has not yet rounded the mark, so subparagraph (c) does not switch off her mark-room. But she needs to still be in the zone when she does start rounding the mark.
The ROW boat that is giving mark room ((a) to sail to the mark when her proper course is to sail close to it, (b) to round or pass the mark on the required side, and (c) to leave it astern.) I believe has the same onus as before and is not required to give room for a late drop. She only need to give room to round it on the required side not required to give room for a 'tactical' rounding. I would argue that 18 does turn off when fails to sail close to it when rounding the mark.
I think the removal of "as necessary to sail the course" and the lack of a sequential modifier like "then" make the above statement more opaque than before. In other words, I don't think it reads necessarily as sequential.
Do we now assume that the undefined term "round" includes the removed phrase? ... unless they make that clear when updating a WA case that relied upon the phrase previously.
I guess that's a Q for the forumy ...
Q: Do you think the common understanding of "round" functionally includes the meaning "as necessary to sail the course" and thus to a certain extent, the phrase was redundant in previous quads?
The point I'm making is that under the 2021 and previous rules, the boat planing in, clear ahead but to windward, could gybe back to the mark confident that no matter which boat reached the zone first, he would end up having mark-room and right of way at the mark.
The 2025 rules now remove that certainty.
Sue, Thanks for the feedback: very helpful. Yes, I agree that a boat that has overrun the mark so as to leave it astern will then be gybing in a space at least one boat length away from the mark and will be taking more room than she needs to round the mark. I'll amend the description.
Well ... unfortunately (for clarity's sake) it didn't make it into the rule.
Thanks for this analysis.
I'd like to clarify exactly why the game has not changed with regard to preventing an outside boat tacking in front of an inside boat, now that the definition of mark-room has removed the language about room to tack.
Consider the situation of boats A and B, both approxing a starboard rounding mark on starboard on or near the starbard lay line (sorry no time for a diagram). A is clear ahead, but not on the layline (i.e in a lane leeward of B). B is clear astern, but on the layline.
Currently, A is prevented from tacking in front of B by the explicit exclusion in the definition of mark-room for room to tack unless inside overlap to windward on a beat to windward. In this case, A does not have an inside overlap, so the mark-room owed to her by B does not include room to tack. Thus 16, 13, 14 and 10 apply to any tack that A does.
With the new version of the rule, mark-room does not mention tacking. However, as A passes head through wind, A and B are now on opposite tacks on a beat to windward, so by 18.1(a)(1), rule 18 does not apply. This is immediate, as whilst A is still tacking, she is by definition on starboard tack. Thus any mark-room that B owed to A, is turned off with the rule being turned off. Thus 16, 13, 14 and 10 apply to any tack that A does.
Is this a correct interpretation?
I don't think 'prevented' is the right word.
So, without ever talking about 'room to tack':
RRS 18 applies while boats are on the same tack, and A is entitled to mark-room by 2021 RRS 18.2(b) second sentence or 2025 RRS 18.2(a)(2).
Under both the 2021 and 2025 RRS, as A changes course towards the wind, and all the way up to head to wind, she is rounding the mark, entitled to mark-room, sailing within that mark-room, and if she breaks RRS 16 she is exonerated.
Once she passes head to wind,
Once she passes head to wind, she's exposed to RRS 13 and 10, and indeed, 14.
I think so, but it would be better worded if it didn't talk about 'tack' and 'tacking' and talked about 'passing head to wind'.
The image that I have is 2 boats on a port beat, very closely overlapped, enter the zone of a windward mark to be rounded to port just below the port lay line . The leeward, ROW boat is so close to the windward boat that there is not room for her stern to rotate to get her to HTW.
OK, leaving aside the evidential difficulties, there was a compliance difficulty in the past if one boat was moving fast and then expecting room after turning hard and arriving within three boat lengths. The fact that we now need to decide the order of operations in advance is of value to the game. It's generally a good thing if rules designed to avoid collisions also force people to slow down a little and approach in and ordered manner with conversations occurring in advance of arriving at the zone.
No disagreement that it has changed ever so slightly, but the result should be a slower and more tactical approach to the zone, rather than additional confusion.