Hi John, I’m not a rules expert, but as a fellow longtime participant in “Cityfront ping pong” (for those not familiar, this involves boat tacking maybe a dozen times close to the San Francisco shore when sailing against the current), I find the communications protocol outlined in Rule 20 pretty useful, especially in high winds where it’s hard to hear other boats:

1) We know how to initiate the process: “Room to tack.”
2) We know the  allowable responses to a hail of “Room to tack” (either tacking, hailing “Room to Tack” to the boat on your hip per 20.3, or hailing “You Tack”).
3) We know the next step for the boat the boat that hailed (tack ASAP per 20.2.d).
4) We know how to handle edge cases where the hailing boat might be hailing too soon — respond first, protest later. 

IMO, Rule 20 explicitly outlines a protocol for boats to follow in a specific situation, that is fairly easy for new racers to read and understand. Keeping the rules understandable is important for us to grow our sport. 

What happens when you’re the leeward boat and bow out or clear ahead and there isn’t enough room to complete your tack to stbd without fouling the other boat (or boats are on stbd approaching a shore), and it’s sufficiently windy that you can’t “luff and hold” to wait for the other boat to tack?
Alternatively, mixed fleet racing and the boat to leeward is much larger/deeper than the boat to windward? 
Conditions may not allow for a prolonged luff while the windward boat passes or tacks away which seems to make something in addition to 11 & 19 necessary. 

Al -
How often have you seen the leeward boat go that extra 1/2 length before tacking, claiming they had to wait to see what the windward boat was going to do and getting a huge advantage?  How often have you seen boats continue on port after competing their tack and breaking rule 10 when they could have immediately tacked back to starboard or ducked another oncoming boat on starboard?  IMHO - rule 20 is the most often rule broken on the Bay, both before and after the boats have tacked.

How is this different than the leeward boat luffing and the windward boat keeping clear under rule 11 and, rather than sitting there HTW, tacking away?  Note that the windward boat does not enjoy the protection of getting room to complete her tack and keep clear of oncoming starboard tackers that the leeward boat gets.

Eric -
As the leeward boat you can always luff to HTW.  If you can't luff and hold that close to the obstruction, maybe you shouldn't have gotten that close in the first place.  if you eliminate rule 20, the result is that all this happens further from the obstruction, which is safer than if you are expecting rule 20 to bail you out of the bad situation you have sailed yourself into.  This is why I think rule 20 is 'anti-safety'.

This doesn't change for mixed fleet racing.  When the leeward boat decides that she needs to tack, it is her option to go head to wind.  The size and type of the windward boat are irrelevant.  Just like the proper course of the windward boat is irrelevant when talking about rule 17.

Think about what happens just after a start when the leeward boat is pinned by a group of starboard tackers and she wants to go right.  The leeward boat doesn't call to the group that she needs to tack, forcing them all to tack.  She slows down and makes room so she can tack.  It's the same here.  Again, as you see the situation develop, you make a plan and execute it.  And all this will happen further away from the obstruction than we allow the boats to get when they have rule 20 in their back pocket as a get out of jail free card.

John;
I don’t entirely disagree with your logic, but have you tried to hold a 35-50’ keelboat HTW in 30+ knots for more than a second or two? Once your boat speed goes to zero you’re not going to stay HTW. This creates a dangerous situation irrespective of the obstruction.
I think there are situations where no matter how situationally aware and tactically prepared you are that you can become trapped in that inside leeward position without a real means to safely get out. 
I agree that post RRS 20 there are frequent rule breaches; the classic “you tack” and then the boat now on opposite tack doesn’t tack back or duck because they somehow think they're entitled to a free pass. That is a completely separate issue from RRS 20 itself though. 
Another scenario. Three boats sailing to windward on port the leeward-most and ahead boat tacks. Leeward (formerly middle) can’t duck and crossing is unlikely. They can’t go HTW and wait as delaying a prompt tack will result in a foul, so a hail and tack is your only practical escape. You didn’t put yourself into that situation, it evolved around you.
I believe RRS 20 has a valid purpose, but I do agree that it is abused and it is misunderstood. It would be nice if there was a better, more fluid, way to implement it. 

Eric,
I understand what you are saying.  I just think that rule 11 gives you everything you need.  Having sailed (and skippered) on a variety of boats of all types on the Bay for years (more than I want to admit), in many ways it is easier to slowly luff in heavy air in a long heavy boat than a small light boat.  Momentum is a wonderful thing.  Again, without the 'protection' of rule 20, I think all this happens further away from the obstruction.  The leeward boat can even make some pre-emptive luffs in early to get the boats off her windward hip earlier.

I think the free pass notion comes from a mis-understanding about what rule 20 actually requires of the other boats.  The tacking boat always thinks they get to complete their tack and get up to speed before someone can make them do something, that's all part of their 'room to tack'.  It's certainly an education issue, but they will always cry 'safety'.  That's why I think it is the rule most often broken.

I am reminded of Dave P's comments about the speed at which things evolve.  Generally, we are sailing in things that are only going the speed of a slow jog, especially upwind.  As a boat on port tack you don't get to claim that starboard appeared out of nowhere.  :-). It's the same here, the situation may evolve around you but you can't claim you didn't see it coming and you have time to make a plan.

Hi John,

Without Rule 20, I'd worry that we'd get into essentially "dial-up" situations, similar to match racing, where two boats luff up to just below head to wind, but with the added risk of drifting backward and running aground. Thinking of the Cityfront in particular, the seafloor consists of mud interspersed with concrete blocks, which are highly effective at damaging foils (you can ask me how I know). 

Playing this out, if I were a windward boat pinning a leeward boat from tacking, I might hold the luffing position until just before a third boat came along on starboard. I could complete my tack, and hope the leeward boat, which has been luffing for a while now and probably has lost foil flow and control, might cross head to wind and foul the incoming starboard tacker. Both boats might get tangled up while I sail off cleanly.

Mercenary? Yes. Effective? Yes. Violation of Rule 14.b? Maybe; we need to see cases. Good for our sport? No.

Rule 20 takes a challenging and potentially dangerous situation and gives everyone a relatively straightforward way to handle it. 

(If anything, I wish that Rule 18 took a similar approach and was split into multiple rules for each of windward port roundings, windward starboard roundings, off-wind mark roundings, and off-wind gate roundings. But I digress.)

To answer your questions:

Never, because when I'm the windward boat, I say, "You tack". Then I time my tack so that I end up close to leeward them and have a shot at pinching them up. It's a way to play the game that's within the rules but competitive.

But, if I did tack away and the other boat didn't tack "as soon as possible," it's a straightforward violation for me to see and very easy to protest.

Not often. Given the southwest wind direction on the Cityfront, on port tack you're often sailing close to parallel to the shoreline. You'd have to be sailing for 20-30 seconds before you'd be in deep enough water to tack. After that much time has passed, everyone agrees that a port tacker should duck a starboard tacker (or tack below them).

I think it's important to note that Rule 20.1 has the words "room to tack and avoid." To me, avoid is a crucial word. Avoidance is easier in some boats than others. In a Laser with a proper mainsheet setup, a good sailor can tack, luff for a moment on port, and duck a starboard tacker. On the other hand, in windy conditions, a duck might be impossible on a J22 with a mainsheet that doesn't ease out properly (I recently learned that the hard/expensive way). So, Rule 20.1's "boat may hail" clause largely depends on the boats being sailed and the wind conditions (as is the case with many of the rules).

Al -
I don't think this would result in dial up situations for the same reason we don't see them anywhere else on the race course.  Think of a pair of boats at a layline to a mark.  Strategically and tactically it makes no sense for the windward boat to not tack if they were being luffed HTW.  There are all the other boats in the fleet that they are losing to.  In your example, does the windward boat want to wait for another boat on starboard to get that close?  Makes no sense whatsoever.

If you move the action away from the obstruction, everything is safer.  What is dangerous is sailing so close to an obstruction that you need rule 20 to get you out of trouble.  And even that is not guaranteed as the leeward boat may not be aware of how many boats are going to have to be hailed up the chain.  The leeward boat may already be on the rocks before the first boat tacks.  The only safe thing to do is call earlier than they actually need to, for 'safety' but a huge advantage to the leeward boat.

I have seen the leeward boat continue on just that little bit and gaining a huge advantage more times than I can count.  Rarely is the leeward boat actually prepared to tack, i.e. their crew is not off the rail and at their stations, when they call for room.  They aren't ready to immediately luff and tack.

While you can tack immediately and then protest, how often does that result in a DSQ in a hearing?  Can you really show that the leeward boat didn't tack immediately if the leeward boat says they did?

Avoid is a critical word and what the port tacker off the beach is relying on.  Your responsibility to avoid starts the moment that you complete your tack and you have to be prepared to do it.  You might have to tack back immediately and then make a new call for room.  Or you might have to continue turning down in one continuous motion and taking a boat's transom.  You do not get any room to continue sailing on port close-hauled and then start to avoid.  You don't get to choose how to avoid, you just have to avoid.  And if you haven't figured out that you should have blown the sheet at the moment you started your luff to tack so that can turn down after the tack and avoid the other boat then you have taken more room than required to avoid the other boat. People think they get to complete their tack, build up speed again so that when they have to tack it isn't a down speed tack or that they get to start easing to duck once the tack is complete.  This is why I maintain that the rule is constantly being broken.  People take way more room avoiding then they are entitled to. 

A vast improvement to rule 20 might be that you have to be head to wind before you can call for room.  Then you have done everything you can within the rights you have before you ask to be allowed to break the rules and be exonerated.

Your wish to have a rule for each rounding situation is to go back to the rules pre-1997.  Those rules were very situational, i.e. if this is the situation here's who can do what.  The rules post-1997 got away from that and greatly simplified things.  The right of way didn't keep switching between boats depending on the situation.  But that is a different topic.

The thought of this in lightweight dinghies is more than a little intimidating. In wind and waves especially holding a boat head to wind just isn't going to happen. A tack must happen at speed and first time. 

It would be interesting to hear what catamaran or foiling Moth sailors had to say too. I'm not even sure what you describe is a problem. It feels more like just another part of the game to me. And in boats that can safely execute it your option of going head to wind further from the obstruction is always available anyway. 

I'm having trouble getting boats.exe to run so I can't draw it, but what about the scenario where three port boats approach a starboard shore. The first / Leeward / ahead boat tacks to starboard with a little room. The Middle boat cannot duck or will hit the shore, and cannot tack or will hit the Windward boat, and cannot luff or Leeward-turned-Starboard will be upon her. We might argue RRS 15 on L/S, but in this scenario, RRS20 helps.

Also as others have said, round and deliberate tacks in wavy conditions are difficult. We definitely don't want intermediate sailors going backwards on the race course.

Niko - I think this is what you are talking about:

Obviously, I don't think rule 20 helps at all.  Think about how would this situation play out with and without rule 20.

With rule 20, Yellow will/must sail close to the obstruction before calling for room to tack.  If she calls for it too early, she has broken the rule.  If she calls too late and doesn't give Blue the time she needs, she has broken the rule and is on the rocks.  If Yellow doesn't see Green she has no idea that Blue can't tack when hailed, but must pass the hail up the chain first.  So now Yellow has sailed into an unsafe situation and can't get out of it without causing contact between Blue & Green or forcing Blue and Green to do something unseamanlike that puts her crew in danger.  This is exact opposite of what proponents of rule 20 contend the rule is supposed to do.

Without rule 20, Yellow, as she approaches the obstruction from a distance, knows that she will have to tack.  Yellow then, knowing the kind of boat she is and how it handles (can she luff slowly or does she need to turn quickly?) can make a plan.  Does she start to pinch up and get Blue and Green to tack away earlier?  Does she luff and hold?  The point is, without rule 20, Yellow will be forced to make these plans well in advance of the obstruction rather than sailing on into an unsafe situation and expecting Blue and Green to get out of the way at the last moment.  If Yellow doesn't make a plan and just luffs when she gets to the obstruction, then she has sailed herself into that situation and must take responsibility for the outcome.  No different than any other maneuver.

By eliminating rule 20, the action will naturally be moved away from the obstruction, which is what we want.  We don't want people sailing up against areas where they can get in trouble by hitting rocks or other hard things and expecting other people to bail them out.  We also don't want to force boats to crash tack, which is bad for both equipment and people.

Jim - while luffing head to wind and holding may not work for all types of boats, the people sailing those boats know the behavior of the boats and can make their plans accordingly.  They can try to pinch off the other boat, they can slow down or bear off to give themselves room to tack and duck so that they don't break rules 13 or 15.  But rule 20 allows a boat to sail themselves into a situation where they get to break rules (13 & 15 and maybe 10) and be excused for that when there are other options that could be taken, like slowing down and getting clear so that they can tack.

I remembered an alternate drawing solution. I present this because OP originally stated "I would be interested in learning about situations where this belief is not true."
Green is in trouble trying to give room to Orange while also avoiding Pink and the wall. We might argue RRS 15, or that G and O should go opposite ways, but the simplest solution is to maintain the option for the leeward boat to choose which side of the obstruction to pass.

Ultimately, I don't disagree with a lot of the points made regarding RRS 20. It is a rule that is more about increasing competitive sailing than avoiding contact.

It would be worth testing. My hypothesis is that the start would become more important, and particularly starting near the edges would be further advantaged, while racing in the middle of the course, and particularly the first beat would be less interesting.

John C, isn't the fundamental issue here that the boat approaching the obstruction can only go HTW and that them going HTW doesn't guarantee the other boat will eventually be forced to tack away?  

2 boats going HTW side by side ... eventually loosing speed and way creates an unpredictable and potentially dangerous situation, as they are in irons or the wind catches the boat and either sends the one boat back into the obstruction or into the boat next to them. 

Rule 20, IMHO, supplies the execution-certainly that is necessary to keep boats moving, in control and importantly avoiding contact between themselves and objects best not hit. 

As far as rule 20 abuse .. I agree 100%. 

When I call for room to tack ... I count out loud "1... 2 .3 ..". If no response I call again and if no immediate response I say "tacking" "protest". 

The same on receiving a hail. If I decide to tack, I start counting as soon as I start my tack.  If I get to "3" and the other boat isn't tacking ... I protest. 

It's a good practice to get into as it makes good witnesses out of your crew as they hear the count. 

I can't help thinking that you need to go for a sail with one of your local IC sailors... I really don't have much confidence that any of your suggestions will work for the average sailor in such classes. 

From my experience RrS20 is a rule that works reasonably well and creates few problems. I'm with Angelo, if you have rule observance problems you need to fix that, not change the rule. I think, too, making life much more difficult for the ROW boat is not the best philosophy. As a general principle ROW can sail where she likes, subject to various limitations. To me it really seems appropriate to give her free rein to tack when at an obstruction. I submit that if RRS20 is abused the worst that happens is that ROW gains a small and undeserved tactical advantage, but if "no RrS20“ is abused we end up with boats on the rocks and maybe sailors injured or worse. 

Hi John,

You're probably right about Rule 20 being abused by leeward boats that sail a few boatlengths after the windward boat has tacked. But at the same time, it seems very easy to remedy in two ways:

1) Windward boat hails "you tack", and waits for leeward boat to tack; or

2) On a keelboat, after the tack, one of the crew pulls out their phone and records a video showing the gap between themselves and the formerly leeward (now windward) boat and the wakes stretching back to nearly the shore. I'm not a judge, but that kind of video evidence would seem hard to refute in a protest.

--

As for avoid, here's how I look at it. if I were on a jury, I'd look at the conditions, boat, turning radius, stopping distance in that wind, and gauge between the tracks of two boats (the track of the hailing boat and that of the hailed boat), and maybe angle of duck below close-hauled. Two examples, all assuming the classic Cityfront situation of approaching the shore on starboard tack:

1) Boat: Laser. Conditions: 15 knots, ebb current (lots of chop). Stopping distance: 0.5 boatlengths given the wind and chop. Track gauge: 2 boatlengths (24 feet). In this case, a Laser handled in a seamanlike manner should be able to tack to a fully luffed sail, wait for the hailed starboard tacker to sail by, then sail behind them to avoid. There's no duck needed, just luff.

2) Boat: Knarr (for those unfamiliar: 30 feet, full keel, rudder hung behind the keel, 5000 pounds). Conditions. 15 knots, ebb current. Stopping distance: 3 boatlengths (i.e., doing the Laser maneuver above is out of the question). Track gauge: 2 boatlengths. Angle of duck: 45 degrees (i.e., you need to bear away to a wind direction of 75 degrees, almost a reach). In this case, it'd be hard for the Knarr to duck and avoid. They turn slowly and coast to windward in the tack, so by the time you come out, your bow is maybe half a boatlength below starboard's track. It's hard to imagine any type of bootable to get down to a beam reach in such little distance, especially when the ebb current disrupts foil flow.

The point of working through those two examples is that, in identical situations, what's whether you can duck or not depends on the boat.

Of course, if the track gauge is just a bit longer, say three boatlengths, a 45-degree duck might be possible, even in a heavy boat with a keel-mounted rudder. And it should be very doable in four boatlengths. Just my two cents.

Ang - Actually, the leeward boat has more options than simply going HTW.  They can slow down and take the windward boat's stern.  That is an option that many people seem to forget.  I'll diagram that shortly.

Jim - By IC do you mean International Canoes?  I personally haven't sailed one of those but I have seen them and also watched a fair amount of WASZP and I14 sailing so I have a pretty good sense of high speed sailing and how those boats behave.  My point is simply this, rule 20 is not needed.  We have other rules, primarily rule 11, and tactics that allow us to handle these situations and it would be better not to have the rule at all.  Look at the thread discussing the new hailing requirements.  If a rule is consistently being broken as I contend, it isn't working and does create problems.  It is also my contention that without rule 20 to bail you out from sailing into a dangerous situation, you resolve the issue before that situation develops.

Al - 
A jury will take into consideration all of the factors you mention.  But it is up to the crew to know their boat and its characteristics and not sail themselves into situations they can't get themselves out of.

Consider the following situation just after the start:

Suppose Magenta has a strong desire to get to the right.  What do they do?  Do they get to call to every boat above them and say 'We want to tack' and they all have to tack?  No, they slow down (or even gybe!) and take sterns.  They could also luff HTW and try to get the other boats to tack away.  No one is upset by this, after all Magenta is being controlled by the boat to windward of them and so on, up the line.  Magenta is behind all the boats to windward of her.

Now we change this slightly by adding an obstruction

Because of rule 20, Magenta is now suddenly in control of the situation.  She can force all the other boats to tack away.  Her other options haven't changed one bit and are just as viable.  If she slows, tacks, and takes sterns, why is that somehow bad?  If she chooses to luff and wait for everyone else to tack away, that's her option too.

Why do we consider these situations differently?  It's only because of rule 20.

Hi John,

From my experience, in big fleets, the congestion headed into the shore can be so bad that tacking onto port and into a massive duck of several starboard tackers isn't possible without hitting a bunch of boats.

Also, when doing that large duck, I'm not sure how safe it would be for a port tack boat to be on a broad reach, threading through a bunch of boats going upwind on starboard tack. The closing speed in Lasers would be around 15 knots, enough to do serious damage to sailors' bodies.

In high winds, it could also be unsafe for a starboard tacker approaching the shore to attempt to jibe its way out; if it spins up after its jibe onto port, it could put a hole into a starboard tacker that is going upwind.

The feasibility of all these maneuvers needs to be considered while sailors are pushing their bodies to their physical limits; mistakes are bound to happen.

Here are some photos from the ILCA North Americans on the Cityfront, in a flood tide, to illustrate some of the close situations. Rule 20 was very helpful in letting everyone communicate clearly to get around the course safely, and in my experience, no one abused it. Yes, these are telephotos, but it doesn't come close to the intensity of what we saw on the water.

Anyways, we can agree to disagree, but I thought I'd share my experiences with Rule 20, in Lasers in heavy air.

Al - I truly appreciate what you are saying.  I have spent a fair amount of time as an on-the-water judge for ILCA/Laser events on the Bay.  I am amazed at the skill of the sailors, especially the masters and grandmasters.  Not that you are old enough to be in one of those groups!  I just don't see how that is that much different than coming off a starting line when the entire fleet is there.  I have watched boats pinned on the left tack and duck and weave through the fleet to get to clear air as they go through the boats that have started in the second or third tier.  And all of that is done without the benefit of rule 20.  I also think that boats are sailing closer to the obstruction, and thus into danger, because of, rather than in spite of, rule 20.