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Hi,
Jay:
Good
to hear from you! And you are quite right! The relevant Rule is #17:
17
On
the Same Tack; Proper Course
If a boat clear
astern becomes overlapped
within two of her hull lengths to leeward of a boat on
the same tack, she
shall not sail above her proper
course while they remain on
the same tack and overlapped
within that distance, unless in doing so she promptly sails astern of
the other boat. This rule does not apply if the overlap
begins while the windward
boat is required by rule 13 to keep clear.
The
key phrase in this scenario is Proper Course which I can refresh you on:
Proper
Course
A course a boat would sail to finish as soon as possible in the absence
of the other boats referred to in the rule using the term. A boat has
no proper course before her starting signal.
...
...
Now
that rule 17.2 is no longer with us, Windward is allowed to sail below
her Proper Course as
she pleases, always keeping in mind that she must keep clear of any leeward boat which has
right of way under rule 11. Thus,
in your diagram, Windward
is allowed to sail below her Proper Course. However,
once you became overlapped
to leeward, rule 15 very briefly applied, i.e. you
had to give Windward room to
keep clear
before the situation came down to Rule 11
(windward boat keep clear). So when W bore down on you, you were
entitled to hold your course (unless there was danger of a collision
that would cause damage - Rule 14)
and protest Windward under rule 11.
Even if W does not bear away at all but you are converging from leeward
while sailing Proper Course,
W must keep clear of L - see Case 50 of my
Rules Quiz.
Well,
Jay! This was fun! Don't let 'em do it to you again!!! Your skipper
owes you a beer, by the way!!! Best wishes for successful and
enjoyable sailing,
Uncle
Al (W3854)
PS:
My curiosity is aroused. Where do you sail? I sail mostly in the
Toronto area in Canada.
-----
Original Message -----
From:
Jay Wadsworth
To:
'Al Schonborn'
Sent:
Tuesday, May 15, 2001 4:31 PM
I
sail in the only place worth sailing, :)...San Francisco Bay...nothing
like a steady 28 knots gusting to 35 on a sunny day! Thanks for
the ruling, e-mailing skipper right now.
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