[dpboatnut]

Paulk,
In my case, it wasn''t a "what if" argument, but a real situation that I had found no answer to in the time since it happened. Clearly, the other boat thought as you do, that the overlap needed to be broken for 17.1 to cease to apply. It seems that Jeff and Geohan read the rule the way I did, that the rule ceased to apply when the overlap was no longer (didn''t "remain") within two boatlengths.

Interestingly, I''ve searched the ISAF animated casebook and the UK sails rules quizzes for an applicable clarification, and found nothing.

Thanks to all for your thoughts,
Chad