question, if you foul someone in a race by not giving way to the boat on the starboard tack durring a distance race and they have to fall off to avoid hitting your sterns... can you do an on the course correction? if yes, what is required?

First the guy you fouled has to yell "Protest" to alert you to the foul and then give you a chance to do a 360, if that is allowed.

AND if you know you have fouled them you can do the penalty on your own, if an alternative penalty is allowed instead of retiring.

Thanks guys,

They HAVE to yell foul? if they don't can they still protest after the race?

and how do i know if its allowed? some rule in the NOR or verbal notice at the skippers meeting?

And you get the bad(post one) and the good(post two). You know if you fouled someone and whether they protest you or not the right thing to do is whatever penalty was prescribed by the race committee. Its a self policing sport, is it not?

And my understanding is that in most instances this means going off course a spinning a 360, correct?

Depending on your class, they can be picky about actually displaying a protest flag and a hail is not valid, if you ever see a whiffle ball hanging on a dinghy boom, it's got the flag in there!

No, you do not -always- know if you did or not, especially in a distance race.

Depends on size of boat. Less than 6m flag is not required (usually).

As for hailing protest; that is not required either. If you foul, you should do your turn(s).

It's possible you get seen fouling, but out of earshot and so you cannot hear the protest hail.

61 PROTEST REQUIREMENTS
61.1 Informing the Protestee
(a) A boat intending to protest shall inform the other boat at the
first reasonable opportunity. When her protest concerns an
incident in the racing area that she is involved in or sees, she
shall hail ‘Protest’ and conspicuously display a red flag at the
first reasonable opportunity for each. She shall display the flag
until she is no longer racing. However,
(1) if the other boat is beyond hailing distance, the protesting
boat need not hail but she shall inform the other boat at
the first reasonable opportunity;
(2) if the hull length of the protesting boat is less than 6
metres, she need not display a red flag;
(3) if the incident results in damage or injury that is obvious
to the boats involved and one of them intends to protest,
the requirements of this rule do not apply to her, but she
shall attempt to inform the other boat within the time
limit of rule 61.3.
(b) A race committee or protest committee intending to protest a

"As for hailing protest; that is not required either. If you foul, you should do your turn(s)."

So what if you had no idea you fouled the other boat because a. you were not even aware of his presance or b. what his intended course was (he said it was a distance race, so "proper course" could be open to speculation)

Any jackass could walk up to you after a long distance race and say, "I am protesting you because you fouled me way back when..." Now you have no way to exonerate yourself, or maybe even no knowledge of the foul, or even if the protest was legitamate. I've seen it done.

When in doubt, you can ask him if you fouled him, if he has not hailed you, and if allowed, you do your 360 and press on.

I'm all for self policing, and don't intentionally foul people, but just going to do turns when a guy is hunting me and then protesting?...and other times I've talked to a skipper after a race that I wasn't sure I had fouled but held off doing turns, and found out they didn't think anything was wrong, so....

Exactly my point, thanks.

Care to explain what you mean by HUNTING.

He states he fouled the guy by not giving right of way, your immediate response was only if the other boat hailed protest should he do the turns. My point was that he knew he had fouled so turns should be done whether he was hailed/protested or not.

Maybe the guy was fkng with him to try to get him to tack? Not that anyone would ever do that...

;^)

actually it didnt happen to me, it happend to a friend durring a race last month, and we talked about it last night. I asked if he could have corrected on the water, and he had no idea... but thanks for the info

Andrew, it would really help to hear the specifics. Since the boats in our distance races are usually REALLY spaced out across the Gulf and/or bay, the only place where interactions should occur would have been in the narrow pass. Constrained by light air, strong currents, abrupt shoal edges, etc., the truthful and realistic boat-to-boat interaction would probably not just be a port/starboard problem. You can scream STARBOARD all you want at a boat who has no wind, no steerage, and pinned against a lee shore.

Not many whiners in our group. I wonder who it could be?

Hunting is a slang term for sailing below your proper course to on starboard to force a P/S situation.

Right... a sexy slang term that I would argue does such harm that this term should not be uttered.

It is the most misused and misunderstood term in sailing and many think its part of the rules. A get out of jail free card because..." you were hunting me"

Even bringing it up in this situation lets port consider for a moment that starboard was breaking a rule (ie hunting).

coupled with how misunderstood "proper course" is... Its just a mess.... on par with mast abeam.

Oh now there you go. Had to bring up 1990s rules to boot? I knew YOU were hunting when you posted that question. I don't think sbflyer saw it coming.

Anyway, I know, I still hear it occasionally too. Pretty funny actually, right up there with "I misremembered"...

Mike