Rules at Windward Mark - Video

laser193713 has got it spot on.

and also leeward boat IF it decides to duck has to be careful that W can also duck, as W has a call for water

Originally posted by laser193713 Plain and simple really, they are a boat that has come in late on a port layline and the tactician has realised he has messed up so gets vocal and bullies his way through.  He either knows he is in the wrong or is not very good and having got them stuck there in the first place the latter seems likely! They if a collision occured here they would have been in the wrong, the starboard boat couldnt be wrong, the boat that they shouted at have a choice of how to avoid the starboard boat, therefore had the middle boat asked for room to tack then they should have let them go. I think this is what happened, the middle boat called for room to tack and he replied with there is no room having not understood the request for room to tack.  In that situation they should have tacked out and bailed, then protested later if they really thought they had a case.  In the heat of the moment this is the reaction that most club level shouty tacticians would take though.  As to why they posted this video online I do not know!?  Makes them look very unproffesional and not a boat that I would want to sail on because of characters like the tactician!

+1 from me. There are plenty of characters out there like this. There may be more to it, but this video does not paint the guy in a good light

Pretty clear the mark is rounded to port at the end of the video.  They tack around the mark so they are bang on the port layline.  The leeward boat clearly wanted to tack but had to bail out to leeward and that is shown in the video.  Doesnt matter that the starboard boat has only just tacked either, they are outside the 3 length zone when they do tack and it is fairly clear that rainmaker are inside so have the right to tack inside provided they dont force the starboard boat above close hauled. 

Thanks for the +1s guys, i just have no time for shouty tacticians.  Had an incident this weekend where a boat called for "water" at a leeward mark, there was never an overlap so i responeded with "no room, you have no overlap" at the point we reached the zone.  The muppet shouting on the other boat got louder and louder shouting from the back of his boat.  I was sat on the back quarter of our boat looking straight down out transom so knew exactly what was going on.  He kept getting louder and louder until it became clear he was the mainsheet trimmer of the other boat and as they rounded the mark he was still shouting and the main was left flogging until his helm gave him a telling off and he very quickly sat down and got back to work.  We had a good laugh about it as we sailed off into the distance!

As a tactician i make a point of talking to other boats around and coming to an agreement with their crew about the situation before we reach the mark. I use hand signals to point down the transom and our bowman tells me what he can see of their transom, if he can see it we arent overlapped so we always drop early and take a tight line.  It is always faster to do this than pile around the outside.  At this point it is always important to tell other boats behind what you are doing and that you will not be leaving them space just because you are dropping early.

Whatever the situation, communication is the key to getting what you want. If a boat shouted at us like that they would not get any special treatment, in fact we would probably do our best to put them in their place! If a crewmember from a boat talks calmly to us we are much more likely to do the same.