Sail in Stunning Northumberland

KWSC News Articles

(Article from March 2004)

Rules Clinic

This section of the newsletter is going to focus on the rules of sailing - something often taken for granted, often mis-understood and not always applied correctly!  Contributions or questions from members are welcome as this is an ambitious section and, as editor, I do not want the burden all to myself!

In order to ensure this section of the newsletter appeals to as wide an audience as possible I will try to cover something simple in every edition as well as perhaps something more complex (good luck I hear myself say)!

So contact me with either your questions or your suggestions, or for the more experienced among you perhaps an article.  Keep it focused and simple and try to tackle a single issue (perhaps one that came up in a race) rather than a broad spectrum of problems and examples.  If you are not sure of the actual rules which apply or cannot produce suitable diagrams then contact the editor and I will see what I can do to help.  If you have a query you would like someone to explain then you could contact the editor and I will see if someone could write an article to explain the situation.

In this Edition we have two articles: the first is submitted by Mike Scott and covers some basic rules we all need to get to grips with; the second is by Steve Gibbon and covers the starting sequence and in particular asks the question: "Just what do those flags mean?".

Mike has won this edition's prize for the best article for bravely getting the rules clinic started with his article.  Many thanks Mike.

Basic Rules

When two boats meet in open water (i.e. when there are no obstructions or other boats in the way, or racing marks about to be rounded) there are three essential rules: Port avoids Starboard, Clear Astern avoids Clear Ahead and Windward avoids Leeward. But what do these terms mean and how do the three rules interact?

The number one rule is Port and Starboard. 

Rule 10 WHEN BOATS MEET ON OPPOSITE TACKS.  When boats are on opposite tacks, a port-tack boat shall keep clear of a starboard-tack boat)

If the wind is coming from the starboard (right hand) side of your boat you are on starboard tack and boats on port tack must give way to you. If you think they may not have seen you, you can shout ‘Starboard’, thus asserting your rights. However the rights come with responsibilities – you must not then alter course in such a way as to make it more difficult for the other boat to avoid you. Indeed the other sailor might shout ‘Hold your course!’ in response to your ‘Starboard!’ hail, both to make it clear that they have seen you, and to remind you of this obligation. If a ‘Give Way’ boat is not avoiding you, you must take evasive action to avoid a collision. If racing, they are then required to do penalty turns and if they do not you should protest.

(Diagram lost) The blue boat must keep clear.

You may have spotted a catch in all this – what if the wind is coming at you from dead ahead or dead astern? Are you on Port or Starboard?

If you are running dead downwind this is simple - you are considered to be on starboard tack if the boom is out on the port side. This applies even if you are running ‘by the lee’ (close to a gybe).  However while tacking the position is trickier. If you tack from port to starboard, you are considered to be on port until you are ‘Head to Wind’, but from then until the sail is filling on the new tack, you are on neither tack and have no rights. Therefore, if tacking in the path of another boat, you must make sure you can complete your tack before they have to start avoiding you.

(Diagram lost) The blue boat must keep clear.

If both boats are on the same tack, the next rule kicks in – if you are ‘Clear Astern’ of the other boat you must avoid it.

Rule 11 WHEN BOATS MEET ON THE SAME TACK, OVERLAPPED.  When boats are on the same tack and overlapped, a windward boat shall keep clear of a leeward boat.

and Rule 12 WHEN BOATS MEET ON THE SAME TACK, NOT OVERLAPPED.  When boats are on the same tack and not overlapped, a boat clear astern shall keep clear of a boat clear ahead.

As for judging whether you are ‘Clear Astern’, it is convenient that sailing dinghies tend to have flat transoms – the International Canoe is the only exception I can think of. If you are behind the line extending straight out in either direction from the transom, you are Clear Astern. When you cross this line you are ‘Overlapped’ until either of you becomes Clear Astern of the other. Note that one of the boats altering course may make or break the overlap with little warning because of the way the turn changes the angle of the overlap line, so who has right of way can change quickly at this point.

Only when you are on the same tack AND overlapped does the third of the essential rules come into play ‘Windward – Leeward’. The boat which is ‘to windward’ of the other must keep clear, and as with the Port and Starboard rule the windward side of the boat is always the opposite side from the boom. The usual hail by the right of way sailor in this case is ‘Windward Boat’. Why, you may well ask, do you shout ‘Starboard!’ to demand your rights when you are yourself on starboard, but ‘Windward Boat!’ to do the same when you are NOT the windward boat? Possibly it is just the grand old folk of sailing being deliberately difficult, but I suspect it might have something to do with nobody quite knowing how to pronounce ‘Leeward’ without sounding like Long John Silver.

Clearly, by tacking, gybing or just altering course, you can immediately change the right of way situation, but when you do alter course to become the right of way boat, you must not do so suddenly that the other boat has difficulty in taking avoiding action.

The blue boats must keep clear.

Mike Scott

 

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