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I recently attended a really excellent interactive rules seminar (3 night - 2.5 hours each) hosted by Sail Canada and some excellent Canadian judges who were very generous with their time and expertise! The final scenario presented for discussion is shown below. This got me thinking about the wording of RRS 19 and RRS 20 and the differences in language, particularly how those differences relate to what I think the outcome of this scenario should be. In RRS 19, the phrase 'pass an obstruction' is used ... both in the title and the text. In RRS 20, Pass is not used, but rather 'approaching' and 'avoid' are used. If we assume this is deliberate, it would have implication for what it means to pass an obstruction, rather than to approach and avoid it. I find myself having a different interpretation of the outcome of the protest in this scenario than many others and am interested in opinions/discussion from the group here.
My thought is that at position 1 and 2 Blue is ROW boat (RRS 11). Blue has a choice .... per RRS 19 they could choose to pass the obstruction (Yellow) on their starboard side and under RRS 19.2(b) Green is obligated to give them 'room between her and the obstruction'. However, Blue can also choose to avoid the obstruction by gybing as they did. Given that they have not chosen to pass the obstruction they are not constrained by RRS 19 to give Green room between them and the obstruction (presumably the reason for the hail of protest). Indeed, Blue didn't have a choice to pass the obstruction on their port side as they couldn't cross Yellow, even by changing course. Presumably if the rule writers had wanted to give Green the right to gybe between blue and the obstruction there would be a separate rule entitled 'ROOM TO GYBE AT AN OBSTRUCTION' which would have a similar layout to RRS 20 with a separate section on Hailing and one on Responding etc? By this reasoning the protest would not be successful.
(also at the same seminar assisting with one of the breakout rooms)
Why wouldn't gybing to pass Yellow on "her (Blue's ) port side" not be considered "passing"?
There isn't an explicit requirement to be successful in their attempt to "pass". Blue is simply attempting to "pass Yellow on her port side" as stated in the rule. Blue maintains right-of-way throughout, so in this case gybing doesn't affect the application of 19.2(a).
I don't think that rule 19.1 turns off rule 19 here because the first sentence says, "Rule 19 applies between two boats at an obstruction except when rule 18 applies between them and..." Since there is no mark, rule 18 does not apply between the two boats.
Happily proven wrong, it’s “and” not “or” in 19.1.
I still say disallow because green made the choice to go up instead of down. Had green gone down, and there was room, then blue would have to give room.
Agree that some punctuation would be useful to clarify. Irrespective of how 19.1 says in a convoluted manner, whether 19 does or does not apply, the last "however" in the final sentence in the definition of obstruction, clearly defines yellow as an obstruction. That turns on 19.2 Giving Room at an obstruction, and in particular, 19.2 (a) says that Blue, the ROW boat has the right to choose, which they did by gybing.
With respect to Colin Mann's conundrum, that blue didn't "pass" yellow I think one could interpret that as follows: The only purpose of "passing" an obstruction, is to make a move to avoid colliding with it. By blue gybing and sailing parallel to yellow, they achieved that primary purpose of avoiding contact with it. Therefore it stands to reason that they "passed" / avoided the obstruction. By blue gybing, green was given room and had no constraints on keeping clear, which they did by heading up.
Why wouldn't gybing to pass Yellow on "her (Blue's ) port side" not be considered "passing"?
There isn't an explicit requirement to be successful in their attempt to "pass". Blue is simply attempting to "pass Yellow on her port side" as stated in the rule. Blue maintains right-of-way throughout, so in this case gybing doesn't affect the application of 19.2(a).
Happy to be proven wrong.
Since there is no mark, rule 18 does not apply between the two boats.
I still say disallow because green made the choice to go up instead of down. Had green gone down, and there was room, then blue would have to give room.
With respect to Colin Mann's conundrum, that blue didn't "pass" yellow I think one could interpret that as follows:
The only purpose of "passing" an obstruction, is to make a move to avoid colliding with it. By blue gybing and sailing parallel to yellow, they achieved that primary purpose of avoiding contact with it. Therefore it stands to reason that they "passed" / avoided the obstruction.
By blue gybing, green was given room and had no constraints on keeping clear, which they did by heading up.
Bottom line: no rules broken. Case closed.