You’re in first place in a team race, coming up to the starboard-rounding windward mark on starboard tack, with one teammate close astern and the other, far behind. An opponent is approaching on port tack, overstood by about two boatlengths and bow-even with you. You’d like to hold up the opponent using your starboard-tack advantage, and let your teammate slip through behind you. You will then tack and secure the 1-2 winning combination. So you sail past the mark to intercept the opponent as your teammate approaches the mark. The opponent bears off sharply, intending to duck you and follow your teammate around the mark. You bear off to prevent that move. She immediately bears off more and protests, and the umpires signal a penalty on you. The dreamed-of 1-2 suddenly turns into a 1-4-6, and your team has its work cut out, even to get back in the race.
What happened here?
The simple answer is, you broke rule 16.2, which says “…when after the starting signal a port-tack boat is keeping clear by sailing to pass astern of a starboard-tack boat, the starboard-tack boat shall not change course if as a result the port-tack boat would immediately need to change course to continue keeping clear.”
Rule 16.2 is deleted for match racing (though limited by a strange MR Call that prohibits the starboard-tack boat from dialing down more than 90° relative to the true wind direction) but still applies in team racing, and in the situation above it’s very difficult to dial down and prevent the opponent from ducking you without breaking the rule, because the boats are so close.
Note the words “sailing to pass astern …” in rule 16.2. The rule makers didn’t use the obvious alternative, “on a course to pass astern …”, and I think that was intentional. In my view at least, there’s a real distinction between the two phrases. “Sailing to pass astern” signifies a clear intent, not a compass course. So a boat that’s bearing off to pass astern of another boat is “sailing to pass astern” of that boat, even if her bow is still aimed at the other boat – or even if it’s aimed ahead of that boat, as long as it’s clear that the port-tacker is keeping clear by sailing to pass astern of the other boat, not to cross her.
So, what could you have done at that windward mark, to avoid breaking rule 16.2? Obviously, your opponent won’t duck you if that means sailing below the layline, so one answer is to slow while you’re still at the mark and wait for her to commit to crossing ahead of you. Once she can no longer duck you, there’s nothing that prohibits you sheeting in and sailing up to her line, forcing her to tack. Rule 16 only applies to boats changing course, and you’re not doing that.
A second course of action would have been to sail toward her and then, while the boats still far enough apart so you aren’t tacking too close, tack to leeward of your opponent. You may not secure a clear 1-2 immediately if your teammate is too far back, but you now have the opportunity to luff your opponent at the next mark to achieve the balance you were looking for.
A third alternative is to bear off early and hard, so the other boat didn’t have to change course immediately to keep clear, then sail straight at her. That would keep you out of trouble with respect to rule 16.2, but if your opponent doesn’t duck but instead continues on a close-hauled course, you risk having her cross you. You could dial back up to keep that from happening, but now you’ve got to be careful not to break rule 16.1, which says, “When a right-of-way boat changes course, she shall give the other boat room to keep clear.” If your opponent can still keep clear by tacking, then you’re OK – you gave her room to keep clear. But if your dial-up puts her “like a deer in the headlights” you’re about to break rule 16.1. Once she’s crossing in front of your bow there’s nothing she can do to keep clear – tacking would be too close (breaking rule 13) and going straight will lead to a possible T-bone collision (breaking rules 10 and 14).
My friend Charles Higgins says he thinks the rules require her to tack, even though she can’t do so without breaking rule 13. Charles says, “If she tacks, I’m going to luff up and make sure she keeps clear – after all, she’s doing what I want her to do. If she continues to cross, I’m going to go as far as I can without hitting her, then bear off sharply and protest her on port-starboard.” To my mind, the problem with this argument is that it assumes a kind of tacit agreement between the two boats – if the port-tacker does what the starboard-tacker wants her to do, the latter won’t protest. But where in the rules can we find anything like that?
My opinion is that once the port-tack boat has nowhere to go without fouling the starboard-tack boat, it doesn’t matter which option she chooses as long as she doesn’t add to the chance of contact (see rule 14). As it’s clearly to her advantage to go straight, she might as well do so. If there’s contact she should win a protest under rule 16.1.
Suppose you do dial up and prevent your opponent from keeping clear, then you tack or duck so that she ends up keeping clear, after all? Then the incident should be green-flagged. Team Race Call B4 says, “A right-of-way boat changing course may comply with rule 16.1 by changing course further and thus giving the other boat room to keep clear.” So basically if you don’t actually hit your opponent, even if you earlier changed course in such a way that your opponent couldn’t keep clear, you can’t be penalized for breaking rule 16.1.
Finally, note that this whole argument applies equally to boats encountering each other anywhere on a beat, as long as they’re close together when the starboard-tack boat bears off to prevent the other boat from ducking her. And of course it also applies to fleet racing situations, because the applicable rules for fleet and team racing are the same in this situation.
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