Hi Scooby,

I have several points to make that I hope will help you and others understand this basic Right Of Way (R-O-W) rule 11; When boats on the same tack are overlapped, a windward boat shall keep clear of a leeward boat. (that is the actual wording) So the burden is mandatory on the windward boat. That is limited in this case by rule 16 which requires the R-O-W boat to give the other boat room to keep clear. This has all been pointed out already but since room is a defined word it is also a rule. It is "The space a boat needs in the existing conditions while manoeuvring PROMPTLY in a seamanlike way. I emphasized the word "promptly" because that seals the deal against your devil's advocate position. You must not only respond to the luff but you must do it promptly (no excuses). You must be prepared to handle your boat promptly in a seamanlike way at all times. It is not seamanlike to capsize, shrimp the spinnaker, teabag while trapeezing, steer erratically with your foot on the tiller, etc. That may happen at times with any of us, but it is not an "out" with the rules. They explicitly state what is required and that IS something that you need to anticipate no matter what your course.

The first and main purpose for the RRS is to make racing safe. It is not safe to require a R-O-W sailor to know how every different boat on the race course may handle. It IS safe to require every sailor to know how his own boat may handle so it is up to that sailor to allow himself the room necessary in the existing conditions to maneuver safely and responsibly near R-O-W boats.

In rereading the earlier posts, it still strikes me that several racers thought that the windward boat in this scenario was O.K. to pass close to weather of the leeward boat. I hope everyone now understands that to be a high risk maneuver. Matt McDonald described the classic tactic for the faster boat to qickly pass through to leeward but it seems to have escaped attention. Most experienced racers WOULD anticipate a sloop rigged boat luffing an overtaking spinnaker rigged boat even though the rules do not require that as you correctly wrote. The rules also do not require the leeward boat from anticipating that the windward boat may not manoeuver promptly in a seamanlike fashion but, again, most experienced racers WOULD so that they can be ready for the consequences (read rule 14). I hope this helps.