Young sailors are not alone in breaking these essential racing rules

Luffing in the Prestart

Before the start, while ­starboard-tack boats are stalled, with sails luffing just below the line, boats that come into that lineup from clear astern with speed don’t seem to understand their rights and obligations. While they are clear astern, they are required by Rule 12 to keep clear of a “parked” boat ahead. Immediately after a leeward overlap begins, the new leeward boats become the right-of-way boats under Rule 11, but they also have two obligations. Under Rule 15, they must initially give the windward boat room to fulfill its new obligation to keep clear, and under Rule 16.1, if they change course, they must give the windward boat room to keep clear.

In the first diagram, just after Bob becomes overlapped with Alice, he holds his course and hails “Go up!” to Alice. But she is not required to go up. Her only obligation is to keep clear, and Bob must give her room to do so.

Fran luffs right after she establishes her overlap on Ed and hails “Go up!” To keep clear, Ed will have to luff, but if he does, his stern will swing into Fran’s bow. If he doesn’t luff, or if he bears away, Fran will have to take avoiding action to keep from having her bow hit Ed’s starboard side. Thus, there’s no way that Ed can keep clear after Fran luffs. Fran’s luff, therefore, breaks Rule 16.1 because when she luffs she does not give Ed room to keep clear. Because she luffs immediately after gaining right of way, she also breaks Rule 15.

A boat’s hull pivots about its centerboard when it turns. Therefore, if a leeward boat luffs before it is bow even with the windward boat, there is likely to be contact. However, if the two boats are bow even or if the leeward boat is bow out, then the windward boat will be able to luff to keep clear. Lou handles this starting-line situation appropriately. Because he delays his luff until he is bow even with Ken, Ken can easily luff and keep clear, so Lou does not break either Rule 15 or 16.1.

Keeping Clear

On downwind legs, Nelson reports that boats frequently break Rule 15 and then Rule 16.1. This occurs when two port-tack boats are overlapped and close to each other. The windward port-tack boat breaks Rule 15 by jibing onto starboard so close to the leeward port-tack boat that there isn’t room for the port-tack boat to keep clear. What’s more, the jibing boat often makes things worse by immediately luffing and, thereby, breaking Rule 16.1.

All the violations discussed so far suggest coaches and instructors should spend more time on two definitions — “keep clear” and “room,” on the limitations imposed by Rules 15 and 16.1, and on the risks of tacking from port to starboard inside the zone at a windward mark.

Taking Penalties

Nelson reports that collisions resulting in damaged boats are uncommon, indicating that new sailors seem to understand Rule 14’s requirement that boats avoid contact. He also sees quite a few boats making two penalty turns, each including a tack and a jibe, after they are involved in an incident in which a rule of Part 2 may have been broken. However, the turns they take frequently do not meet two requirements of Rule 44.2 — that before beginning to spin, a boat must sail “well clear of other boats as soon after the incident as possible” and then make the two turns “promptly.” When asked why they delay their turns, new sailors often report that they were waiting for the perfect time to spin or that they thought it was OK to delay spinning provided they completed their penalty turns on the same leg they were on when the incident occurred.

The late spinners don’t seem to realize that late turns simply don’t count. If they were protested, they would be disqualified by the protest committee even though they had spun. This suggests that coaches should teach the details of Rule 44.2 and run drills to practice taking a two-turns penalty as quickly as possible.