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Each week this season, we will offer a “quiz” question regarding the Racing Rules of Sailing. Read the scenario below, formulate your answer, then move your mouse over the box to reveal the correct answer. Need further explanation? This quiz was borrowed from the Inland Lake Yachting Association‘s #FairSailing initiative Each week this season, we will offer a “quiz” question regarding the Racing Rules of Sailing. Read the scenario below, formulate your answer, then move your mouse over the box to reveal the correct answer. Need further explanation? Red and Green are sailing upwind. Red asks permission to cross, and Green replies, “cross.” Green then ducks Red. A third boat, not involved in the situation, protests Red for not keeping clear of Green. Neither boat should take a penalty. Red should not be penalized, since she kept clear of Green. A boat is keeping clear if the right-of-way boat (Green) can sail her course. Her course implies the course of her choosing – it specifically does not say proper course. Sailing the course of her choice is accepted as normal behavior because starboard may choose to duck due to tactical considerations or for any reason of her choosing. This quiz was borrowed from the Inland Lake Yachting Association‘s #FairSailing initiative Each week this season, we will offer a “quiz” question regarding the Racing Rules of Sailing. Read the scenario below, formulate your answer, then move your mouse over the box to reveal the correct answer. Need further explanation? Boats P (on port tack) and S (on starboard tack) are beating to windward. P tacks into a position just in front of S. When P reaches a close-hauled course, she is a few feet clear ahead of S. S, who has not needed to change course prior to that moment to avoid P, immediately luffs above a close-hauled course, avoids contact and protests. S’s protest is dismissed; neither boat breaks a rule. While P is on port tack she is required to keep clear of S by rule 10, On Opposite Tacks. While P is tacking, she is required to keep clear of S from the moment she passes head to wind until she reaches a close-hauled course by rule 13, While Tacking. A boat “keeps clear” if the right-of-way boat can sail her course with no need to take avoiding action (see the definition Keep Clear). S does not need to take any avoiding action before P reaches a close-hauled course. Each week this season, we will offer a “quiz” question regarding the Racing Rules of Sailing. Read the scenario below, formulate your answer, then move your mouse over the box to reveal the correct answer. Need further explanation? Blue and Yellow are approaching the leeward mark. Yellow does not give Blue room to round the mark. Blue keeps clear of Yellow. Yellow should take a penalty, since she broke Rule 18.2. Since Blue was overlapped with Yellow when Yellow reached the zone (Remember: overlap is taken from the transom… look carefully), Yellow was required to give mark-room to Blue. This quiz was borrowed from the Inland Lake Yachting Association‘s #FairSailing initiative Each week this season, we will offer a “quiz” question regarding the Racing Rules of Sailing. Read the scenario below, formulate your answer, then move your mouse over the box to reveal the correct answer. Need further explanation? Boats W (a windward boat) and L (a leeward boat) are reaching towards the gybe mark on converging courses. L becomes overlapped with W from clear astern within two of her lengths of W. They are both sailing proper courses and are on a collision course. As they near each other, W hails, “You came from clear astern and I’m on my proper course.” L replies, “I’m on my proper course.” W’s boom then touches L with no damage or injury and both protest. Boat W is penalized under rule 11, On the Same Tack, Overlapped, for failing to keep clear of a leeward boat, and rule 14, Avoiding Contact, for failing to avoid contact when it was reasonably possible to do so. When L first becomes overlapped with W, she is required to give W room to keep clear by rule 15, Acquiring Right of Way, which she does. Because L overlaps W from clear astern within two of her hull lengths, rule 17, On the Same Tack; Proper Course, requires L not to sail above her (L’s) proper course. L is sailing on her proper course (not above it) and W fails to keep clear.Racing Rules Weekly Quiz
something we can discuss on the porch on Sunday.
This Week’s Question
Blue and Yellow are sailing upwind. Blue tacks. During Blue’s tack, Yellow heads up to avoid Blue. There was no contact. Yellow alleges Blue broke Rule 13. Blue alleges she kept clear.
Which boat(s) should promptly take a penalty?
Answer
Blue should take a penalty. Rule 13 requires Blue to keep clear of other boats until she is on a close-hauled course. The definition of keep clear states:
Keep Clear. A boat keeps clear of a right-of-way boat:
(a) if the right-of-way boat can sail her course with no need to take avoiding action and,
(b) when the boats are overlapped, if the right-of-way boat can also change course in both directions without immediately making contact.
Blue did not keep clear between the time she passed head to wind until she was on a close-hauled course. Yellow was forced to head up to avoid Blue.
Learn more at sailzing.comRacing Rules Weekly Quiz
something we can discuss on the porch on Sunday.
This Week’s Question
Which boat(s) should promptly take a penalty?
Answer
Learn more at sailzing.comRacing Rules Weekly Quiz
something we can discuss on the porch on Sunday.
This Week’s Question
You are on the protest committee: how do you decide this?
Answer
When P reaches a close-hauled course, rule 13 ceases to apply and P is the right-of-way boat under rule 12, On the Same Tack, Not Overlapped. Because she acquired the right of way by her actions, P is required to give S room to keep clear of her by rule 15, Acquiring Right of Way. S is able to avoid P in a seamanlike way; therefore P complies with rule 15.
This quiz was excerpted from Dave Perry’s 100 Best Racing Rules Quizzes available from US Sailing. For a comprehensive explanation of the rules, read Dave Perry’s Understanding the Racing Rules of Sailing through 2024, which is also available from US Sailing. Permission to reprint this quiz for non commercial use is granted by the author.Racing Rules Weekly Quiz
something we can discuss on the porch on Sunday.
This Week’s Question
Which boat(s) should promptly take a penalty?
Answer
Learn more at sailzing.comRacing Rules Weekly Quiz
something we can discuss on the porch on Sunday.
This Week’s Question
You are on the protest committee; how would you decide this?
Answer
L could have avoided making contact with W, but didn’t; therefore she breaks rule 14. But a right-of-way boat is exonerated (freed from penalty) for breaking rule 14 when the contact does not cause damage or injury (see rule 43.1(c), Exoneration).
This quiz was excerpted from Dave Perry’s 100 Best Racing Rules Quizzes available from US Sailing. For a comprehensive explanation of the rules, read Dave Perry’s Understanding the Racing Rules of Sailing through 2024, which is also available from US Sailing. Permission to reprint this quiz for non commercial use is granted by the author.