there is a bit more to it than that.
The boat needs to be given room to make the course change to avoid the luffing boat, you cannot just sling the tiller over !
Actually if the windward boat is correctly keeping clear, the leeward boat can just sling the tiller over. Check out your definition of "Keeping Clear"
"One boat keeps clear of another if the other can sail her course with no need to take avoiding action and whent he boats are overlapped on the same tack, if the leeward boat can change course in both directions without immediately making contact with the windward boat."
That doesn't mean the leeward boat can plow straight into the side of the windward boat.
Tiger Mike
Mike,
I was assumin (again as we don't have the whole picture) that the boats were close enough so that the leaward boat could not head-up or tack without the windward boat taking avoiding action.
In that case the windward boat should be protested for failing to keep clear. (read the definition quoted above - typed word for word from the rule book) Once the leeward boat goes past head to wind the windward/leeward rule switches off and it's an entirely different ball game though.
For a fun race I would have done exactly as Robi did. If I were fighting out a match racing worlds and I didn't have room to round up to windward without immediately hitting the windward boat I'd put up the red flag.
Tiger Mike
But you say
That doesn't mean the leeward boat can plow straight into the side of the windward boat.
So you cannot just sling the tiller over, UNLESS you are going to clear the other boat anyway.
I was referring to rule 14. If things are so close that I can't round up without immediately hitting the windward boat then you are bound by that rule not to hit the boat although.... I would consider giving it a very light touch up to re-inforce the point (note light - not to cause injury or damage!).
If you are nearly head to wind when you strike the windward boat you are probably in a bit of a pickle because you probably didn't immediately strike the windward boat and you were not satisfying rule 16 (Changing course)
You have to sail in such a was as the boat CAN keep clear, you can only protest (and win) if you can PROVE that you gave them time to react. In a laser, this is not very long, but in a cat it is longer as they take longer to turn.
You cannot put the tiller over at will and expect the boat to windward to keep clear, they have to have time to react to the movement of the boat below, the windward boat can only react to a change of course, and so must be given time to do so.
I thought we were talking about boats in very close quarters where the leeward boat was unable to round up without hitting the windward boat??? In this situation the rule is crystal clear - keeping clear does allow the leeward boat to change course without having to worry about immediately collecting the windward boat. How more simple can we make it???
Tiger Mike
