Wouter, you scare me sometimes.



OK, this exact situation has beed done to death a few times before and I've even asked the opinion of an international judge.

In this sitiuation. The PORT boat sailing up wind has to keep clear. But they only HAVE TO REACT to the Stb boat with the kite up.

As these are fast boats, then the closing speeds are high and the angles change are fairly great in gusts.

The safest option is to avoid the port layline. HOWEVER, the boat sailing upwing only has to react to the other boat, and the port boat has to be given sufficient room to react, thus if the port boat chose to bear off and sail under, then the stbd boat does have a problem if a gust arrives as the port boat is taking actions to avoid and so the stbd boat cannot alter course even if the kite is driving them over.

This exact thing happened at a 49er event and it was blowing 20kts. The judge indicated that if the port boat was around 3-400 meters away and made a decision to go below, the stbd boat was then committed holding course and to going above the port boat. Thus the stb boat cannot bear off. BUT he said that speeds were important in dictating the distance apart the boats were "committed to actions".

The port boat might win a protest in this situation, but the best thing to do is avoid the port layline; If the wind was gusty in this case, If I was the stbd boat, I would sail slightly lower than I needed to and encourage the port boat to go above me; thus, they are clear quickly and I don't get messed up by a incident. If I was the port boat I would wave the stbd boat over in front of me and pinch for a few seconds to encourage them to do this. Both in this need to understand the rules fully and also need to know that a course is commited to at some point and cannot be changed by the stbd boat.