Forum: Match and Team Racing Rules
Rule 18 in match racing - how much power does the clear ahead boat has???
P
Stavros KourisCertifications:
- International Judge
- National Umpire
1
The situation is the following (I also tried to draw a picture of the situation):
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Blue with an outstanding penalty enters the zone of the RC vessel clear ahead of Yellow.
Blue starts luffing and then at position 5 starts taking her penalty. Yellow at that moment just entered the zone on starboard
Blue never leaves the zone throughout the incident.
Just right before position 7, Blue reaches a course more than 90 degrees from the true wind.
Both boats try to bear away and there is contact between the boats at position 8
Both boats display the Y flag
What should the call be?
I will also try to give you my thoughts and I would like your comments
- B enters the zone clear ahead of Y so 18.2(a)(2) applies
- At position 5 B is taking her penalty and shall keep clear of Y under 22.1 (which she does). Because Y acquired the RoW because of the actions of the other boat she is not required to give her initially room to keep clear.
- Just before position 7 B completes her penalty when she reaches a course more than 90 degrees from the true wind
- B throughout the incident never leaves the zone so she is entitled to mark room all the time.
- Although Blue is not sailing a proper course while she is taking her penalty, mark-room is still the space she needs to sail her proper course, which is the course she would sail to finish as soon as possible in the absence of Yellow (This is something taken from the MR Call K6 and I don't see why we cannot apply the same concept also here)
Y fails to give B that space and breaks RRS 18.2(a)(2)
First signal penalty done for B, just before position 7 and then signal penalty to Y and probably second penalty to Y because she gained an advantage by breaking a rule after allowing for a penalty
B breaks RRS 10 but she is exonerated under 21(a)
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Let's assume that Y has to take avoiding action just before Y reaches a course more than 90 degrees from the true wind, would the answer be different?
In my opinion in that case
Penalty B for breaking 22.1
As soon as B reaches a course more than 90 degrees from the true wind, 1st Blue flag down because breaking 22.1 does not make the penalty invalid
Yellow then fails to give mark room to B so penalty Y for breaking RRS 18.2.(a)(2)
Remove both flags as penalties are offset
Signal second penalty to Y because she gained an advantage by breaking a rule after allowing for a penalty
If it is like this, then how much power does the clear ahead boat has in side the zone?
Thank you for your answers
If it is like this, then how much power does the clear ahead boat has in side the zone?
Thank you for your answers
Comments
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I do however, think too much power is given to the clear ahead boat in such cases.
As some will know I have long been an advocate of 'Use it or lose it'.
In this case tit would be a lot easier for umpires if the 'use it or lose it' principle applied.
At position 1 Blue has to be given room to sail her proper course to pass the mark and finish. She has been given plenty of room, time , opportunity etc. to do that. Yellow has therefore fulfilled her obligations.
When Blue luffs to take her penalty, she is no longer sailing her proper course (C2.3) and, in my opinion, has chosen to waive her rights for mark-room.
I think this interpretation would provide much more clarity for both umpires and sailors alike and would be significantly simpler to adjudicate.
Would like to see the rules changed to reflect the 'use it or lose it' principle.
To Angelo, I don’t know if including finishing marks to the penalty limitations would mess-up things, just change the game a bit. If the boat is delaying taking the penalty close to the line (which they often do, at least now), then judging the zone during the penalty would be an added burden on umpires..
3 BL's (2BL for zone and 1BL for good measure) from the line is still pretty darn close! :-)
You said ..
At the bottom I've copied the drawing from K6.
So pulling this all together, what K6 is pointing out is that though a boat can not claim she is sailing a proper course while she is taking a penalty, her taking a penalty does not negate her right to mark-room because there is nothing in MR's 18 that turns-off mark-room for a boat taking a penalty or for tacking in the zone. Since mark-room still applies, Blue has the right to sail her proper course as long as 18.2(a)2 applies between them.
Since proper course applies while Blue remains in the zone, then you remove Yellow and what course would Blue sail inside the zone? Her tack from #4-#5 was just a setup for the penalty, but she stays inside the zone so 18.2(a)2 still applies. From #6-#7, in the absence of Yellow, Blue would have continued to fall-off, past completing her penalty and moved into the space Yellow-#8 is occupying to finish more quickly.
Yellow attempted to take room she didn't have rights to .. gambled and lost. As Case 63 states .. "At a mark, when space is made available to a boat that is not entitled to it, she may, at her own risk, take advantage of the space."
I hope that an experienced Umpire will chime in here and possibly set us both straight. :-)
Before we get into K6 again, I think maybe I'll share a habit I've tried to get into whenever "proper course" is used, and that is to try to be very clear in my mind how the rule is using proper course.
For instance, in fleet racing when considering Rule 17, the aspect of proper course is that the limited boat can not sail above it. Likewise other rules use proper course as a test as to whether or not a boat can do something, as is done in Mark-Room.
When I read K6, I see them laying out a 2-track analysis, because there are 2 rules that simultaneously use proper course that applies to Blue and Yellow.
I think K6 is pointing out that if you take the mark out of the picture and Blue was taking her penalty, she can not claim her path through the water is her proper course (Track 1). In other words, she can't make the argument that she needs to take her penalty to finish as quickly as possible and therefore taking her penalty is part of her sailing her proper course.
Again, this is from K6 ..
That's at least how I understand it after reading the Call and the MR Rules.
I hope someone else with a better way of explaining it (or showing that I have it wrong) can take a swing at it.
Ang