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?
something we can discuss on the porch on Sunday.
This Week's Question
Boat Q, a doublehanded trapeze boat, wins the race. On shore, Q is listed as OCS on the score sheet. Q makes a scoring request to the race committee and is told that, though her hull was not over the starting line, her crew’s head and shoulders were on the course side of the starting line when she went out on the trapeze seconds before the starting signal. Q requests redress.
You are on the protest committee: how do you decide this?
Answer
Boat Q is entitled to redress under rules 62.1(a), Redress, and 64.3, Decisions on Redress. She should be scored in her finishing place. The definition Start says that a boat starts: “…when, her hull having been entirely on the pre-start side of the starting line at or after her starting signal… any part of her hull crosses the starting line from the pre-start side to the course side.” Q’s hull is entirely on the pre-start side of the starting line at the starting signal and therefore she starts correctly. It is immaterial where her crew’s body is at the starting signal.
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.