Note: This is the fifth and last blog in my series on the new Section C rules that came into effect January 1. In these blogs, I’ll refer to the 2005-2008 Racing Rules of Sailing as the “old rules” and to the 2009-1012 version as the “new rules”.
The focus of these blogs is on changes in the game induced by the new rules of Section C, and on places where it looks as if there might be a game change, but I believe there will be none.
In my last blog, we looked at rule 19, in particular the lack of zones around obstructions that aren't marks. In this, the last of the series, we look at rule 18.4, the rule that requires inside right-of-way boats to jibe at jibe marks and at leeward marks they have to jibe to round. The change is simple: rule 18.4 no longer applies at gates, and it's the third big game change in the new Section C.
Throughout this blog, I refer to the gate marks as if we were looking downwind at them: the one to be left to port is the "left-hand mark" and the other one is the "right-hand mark".
Game Change 3. Rule 18.4 (in both the new rules and old rules) says that if a boat needs to jibe at a mark she can sail no farther from the mark than her proper course, before she jibes. The main purpose of this rule is to ensure safe roundings at port-rounding leeward marks – an outside port-tack boat needs to know whether the inside starboard-tack boat is going to jibe and go around the mark or keep going straight, and rule 18.4 says she’s got to jibe. But with the advent of leeward gates, this rule causes a problem: it wasn't at all clear whether a starboard-tack boat S sailing across to the right-hand mark and cutting through the left-hand mark’s zone had to jibe, or whether she could proceed across to the other mark. This effectively removed the safety feature of the rule – a port-tack boat, P, headed for the left-hand mark didn't know whether S is required to jibe or not. So the new rules simply remove rule 18.4 at gates.
What does this mean, tactically? Not much for a port-tacker headed for the left-hand gate mark, because she didn't know whether inside starboard-tackers had to jibe or not, anyway. It does mean that a starboard-tack boat headed for the right-hand mark will be able to change her mind, jibe and head for the left-hand gate mark instead; her status under old rule 18.4 was unclear but it was certainly possible a protest committee could have disqualified her for not jibing when her proper course to the left-hand mark required it.
Other than that, the removal of rule 18.4 at gates just makes the game simpler and clearer for everybody. Without that rule, it's simply a question of ordinary right of way and mark-room as laid out in rule 18.2(b). Let's look at three common situations:
1.At the left-hand mark, a boat coming in on starboard tack is in very good shape. She was almost certainly inside all the port-tackers at the zone, and also has right of way. Port-tack boats outside her don't know if she's going to jibe or not until she actually does so, and if and when she does jibe for the left-hand mark the port-tack boats outside her have to give her room to sail to the mark, and then to round it on her proper course. In short, life is good for the starboard-tacker. Tactical lesson: If you want the left-hand gate mark, be the starboard inside boat.
2.At the right-hand mark, a boat coming in on starboard tack has right of way but will generally enter the zone overlapped outside the port-tackers, so she has to give them all mark-room. This includes room for them to approach the mark on port tack, as well as room to jibe to get there, because that's what sailing to the mark entails for them, and then room to sail on starboard tack to the mark (if necessary). However, they can only take the room necessary to carry out those actions in a seamanlike way, and no more, because they are keep-clear boats both before the jibe (port/starboard) and after the jibe (windward/leeward). This means that if one of the inside boats "takes too much room" and fouls the outside starboard/leeward boat, the inside boat has to take her turns or face disqualification.
3.Inside both zones. Theoretically, the zones around the two gate marks should never overlap, but in practice they sometimes will – after all, to avoid this the RC has to put the marks 6 boatlengths apart, so if there are, say, 40-foot boats in the race, the marks have to be almost a football field apart to avoid overlapping the zones. Fortunately, if the zones only overlap slightly there won't be much of a problem because the area of intersection is directly between the marks, far enough downwind so it doesn't get used much. But suppose two boats do find themselves in both zones at the same time? Who decides which mark they have to go to?
Generally, but not always, either boat can go to the mark where she'll be inside boat. This has nothing to do with the rules, just the geometry. But what if they each want to cross and go the mark at which they're outside? If they were overlapped at the zone, then they're each the "outside boat" at the mark they each want to go to, so nobody gets mark-room. The right-of-way boat thus gets to decide which mark they go to, because she's got right of way and rule 18.4 is turned off. If the boats were not overlapped at the zone then the boat that was clear ahead at either of the two zones can sail to the mark for that zone. Rule 18.2 gives her the right to "sail to the mark", so the boat that was clear astern can't prevent her from doing that, even if she has right of way.
I suppose that it's possible that one boat was clear ahead at one zone and the other was clear ahead at the other; maybe they've been sailing around aimlessly and going back and forth. Then I say each should go to the mark she's nearest, and forget we ever brought the subject up.
A more tactical answer to the overlapping zones would be, "What are these boats doing there in the first place?" If there was a reasonable chance of encountering other boats at the gate, why didn't the boat that wants to round the left-hand mark go to the left of the fleet, so she comes in on starboard tack and inside at the mark, and why didn't the boat that wants the right-hand mark go to the right, so at least she's inside at the right-hand mark? To round leeward marks successfully, especially in big fleets, make your "inside move" earlier rather than later. As usual, the rules tend to reward tacticians who think ahead
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