ROW - Tacking to Give Sea Room

[Ascalon]

Three boats are on starboard tack. Lowest boat calls for water and tacks. Second boat must tack to yield water. This will immediately put the second boat on a collision course with the third.

Does the second boat have rights over the third?

[Rick486]

Depends. Assuming everyone is close-hauled and boat 1 tacked to avoid shallow water or an obstruction, since boat 2 tacks and is now on port, and boat 3 remains on starboard, boat 3 becomes burdened only if boat 2 is close aboard 3 and cannot safely cross 3's bow or maneuver to take 3's stern and thus 2 also needs sea room to safely avoid the obstruction, which now includes boat 1. Otherwise, 2 is burdened and must avoid 3 as she remains on starboard. In other words, if 1 calls tacking and 2 calls tacking, 3 must tack only if 2 has no way to avoid 3. I can imagine a lot of yelling on this one. :-)

[paulk]

Boats have to give others "room and opportunity" to respond. Leewardmost boat should consider this and perhaps announce their intentions BEFORE they get to an obstruction. Such a hail may not be required, but might help avoid a big mess.

[Rick486]

Originally Posted by paulk

Boats have to give others "room and opportunity" to respond. Leewardmost boat should consider this and perhaps announce their intentions BEFORE they get to an obstruction. Such a hail may not be required, but might help avoid a big mess.

Perhaps a bit stronger than that: if 1 and 2 are close aboard and 1 just throws in a tack to port with no warning, she would have a tough time defending herself in the resulting protest hearing against a charge of tacking too close without warning 2, obstruction or no obstruction.

[Faster]

This is an area where all the boats, esp 2 and 3 need to keep abreast of the 'big picture'. If they were as close as that, and in an area where they knew full well there was an obstruction these moves should not come as a surprise and all the boats should be prepared as to how they'll deal...

I think the above assessments are spot on rules-wise, but the situation is pretty easily anticipated.

Doesn't mean there wouldn't have been a lot of yelling, though!

[Rick486]

Ah, now we're getting to the fun part. If I'm boat 2 I'm trying to get boat 1 to take my stern after she tacks, then tack on her wind, so I'm pinching up to get separation, even at the loss of a bit of speed, so I don't have to tack when 1 goes. And I'm yelling at boat 3 to get ready to tack as we both need room. So I win if 3 tacks when 1 tacks, then I stand on letting 1 duck me, then I tack on 1's wind and 3 is under my lee. Boy, I miss this stuff. :-)

[blt2ski]

This is SOOOOO common at some of my clubs races. The RC sets up the start close to shore, where there is a drop off, starboard tack to shore, a deeper boat by literally a foot has to tack sooner than later as leeward boat, others are not worried........

Anyway, will get off soap box. BUT, i do agree, that the leeward boat should hail sooner than later, along with boat 2 and 3 should know that there is an issue as I described too, as it is sooner or later ALL three will beach them selves, just depends upon if you are the 7', 6' 5' r 4' shoal draft as to how far inshore you can go!

marty

[Ascalon]

Originally Posted by Faster

This is an area where all the boats, esp 2 and 3 need to keep abreast of the 'big picture'. If they were as close as that, and in an area where they knew full well there was an obstruction these moves should not come as a surprise and all the boats should be prepared as to how they'll deal...

I think the above assessments are spot on rules-wise, but the situation is pretty easily anticipated.

The problem is that it's the first work after the start, and you want to push to shore as much as possible on that tack because you're fighting the tide up the course. So although it's anticipated, everyone wants to get as close as possible to that side of the course before beating back.

Originally Posted by Rick486

Ah, now we're getting to the fun part. If I'm boat 2 I'm trying to get boat 1 to take my stern after she tacks, then tack on her wind, so I'm pinching up to get separation, even at the loss of a bit of speed, so I don't have to tack when 1 goes. And I'm yelling at boat 3 to get ready to tack as we both need room. So I win if 3 tacks when 1 tacks, then I stand on letting 1 duck me, then I tack on 1's wind and 3 is under my lee. Boy, I miss this stuff. :-)

This is what we originally wanted to go with with (we were boat 2). I should have mentioned that all boats gave plenty of notice of their intention to tack/take water, so lack of warning wasn't an issue. The problem was there was some disagreement between boats on what constituted a reasonable amount of space for 'safe avoidance' after tacking.

Basically, all 3 boats were roughly the same distance apart. It's a one-design class so we're all travelling at roughly the same speed and pointing about the same, so theoretically the conditions are pretty much identical.

We yielded water to 1 (which IMO was the safest decision), but 3 was an arsehole and made us duck. The problem was that they were so close that we barely avoided a collision and basically stalled ourselves in the process.

I contend that it was in no way reasonable to make us avoid them (only some deft piloting from our helmsman and some sharp work on the sheets stopped us having a real disaster). So although there was no collision I don't think that taking their stern was the right option by the rules of racing.

Oh well. Couldn't be arsed protesting so whatever.