Rule 18 and Room at the Mark
Pin Near Hazard
Hello, friends!
I am not an official and only a recreational racer. It would be a pleasure to see your thoughts on the following.
Scenario: A starting pin that is a permanent red channel marker is located 20 feet from a white float warning of a sunken marine hazard thought to be 5 feet around. Racing boats are 35 feet long.
A. Please confirm/deny the correctness of the following decision tree.
Is the pin an obstruction? If yes,
Is the pin a continuing obstruction? If no,
Is the pin surrounded by navigable water? If no,
Then Rule 18 applies at the pin.
I am not an official and only a recreational racer. It would be a pleasure to see your thoughts on the following.
Scenario: A starting pin that is a permanent red channel marker is located 20 feet from a white float warning of a sunken marine hazard thought to be 5 feet around. Racing boats are 35 feet long.
A. Please confirm/deny the correctness of the following decision tree.
Is the pin an obstruction? If yes,
Is the pin a continuing obstruction? If no,
Is the pin surrounded by navigable water? If no,
Then Rule 18 applies at the pin.
B. Please discuss whether under the facts the pin is actually a continuing obstruction and whether the pin is actually surrounded by navigable water.
C. If Rule 18 applies under the above facts, please discuss whether Rule 18 can be “turned off” by defining the starting pin mark as “collectively the red channel marker and white float.”
Thank you.
Thank you.
Created: Today 16:17
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Neither is it a continuing obstruction.
As I live in France I willl give you the standard answer to everything : It depends. Is the water tidal? Does the white mark move significantly? How much water is there above the sunken marine hazard? How wide are these 35 feet long boats? Could any boat of that type, with a crew with an expected level of competence, manoeuvre in a seamanlike manner around the mark in any expected weather conditions/sea state?
C: RRS 86.1 A rule of Part 2 cannot be changed. To get around the whole issue, my preferred wording in the SIs would be along the lines of: No boat may cross a line between the starting mark (red channel marker) and the white float, in either direction.
Here are my thoughts:
A. Your logic isn't quite right. If the pin is both a mark and an obstruction and is large enough to be a continuing obstruction then rule 18 does not apply per 18.1(a)(4) and the last sentence of 19.1. It doesn't matter whether it is surrounded by navigable water. Note the italics as you have to read the definitions for each carefully.
B. It depends on the size of the channel marker.
C. As Ant says, you cannot simply turn off rule 18 and default to rule 19 or 20. If you create a new obstruction line between the pin and the hazard and prohibit boats from crossing that line as Ant describes, you are getting closer. However, from the sizes you describe, the obstruction line may not be long enough to meet the definition of a continuing obstruction.
The red channel marker is a start mark, so the first question should be, “is it surrounded by navigable water or not?”
The hazard (5’ underwater obstruction) is 20’ away, so can a 35’ boat safely pass on either side of the start mark? Probably. So, if it’s decided that the start mark is surrounded by navigable water we can stop there because the Section C rules do not apply.
If the start mark is NOT surrounded by navigable water then R18 applies, the start mark is an obstruction, but that is irrelevant because of R19.1(a).
Almost certainly not, but the side of the channel may be.
Not enough information.
But just because something meets the definition of obstruction it doesnt necessarily mean the obstruction rules apply. Most marks are large enough to be obstructions.