Very informative thread, but I want to make sure I understand this:
BTW, rule 16.1 is why you must "close-out" or luff a barging boat BEFORE she gets to the committee boat. If you wait, then she no longer has room to respond to your luff and must be permitted room (it is not seamanlike to hit other boats). Racers commonly think that bargers have no rights at any time and that is simply not the case. Luff while they have an escape route or you will both be wrong.
This is only true if the leeward boat changes course to luff, right? Maybe my question needs a better description:
I'm leeward and holding a steady close hauled course that will take me right next to the committee boat.
A windward barger comes reaching in and gets his nose inside the committee boat.
Before the barger gets clear ahead, I have to bear away to avoid contact.
The barger has fouled me, correct?
Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16
Clinton, Mississippi
