rules query

 Two boats sailing dead downwind on the rhumb line.The boats are on opposite tacks and parallel with each other, but no more than a booms length between them.. The boat on starboard tack then very gradually sails a bit higher focing the port tack boat to sail by the lee . due to the change in angle the port tack boat must gybe (either inadvertently or intentionally), but due to the proximity of the boats there is no way that he can do so without his boom fouling the starboard tack boat. and naturally when the gybe occurrs contact is made. Who is in the right ???

Port was required to keep clear. As soon as Port got in a position where he/she could not gybe without contacting Starboard she/he was failing to keep clear and was breaking the rules. Port should have said something on the lines of "I can't gybe without touching you: bear away and I'll do my turns" What Port should have done was gybe before it got to that point.


Edited by JimC

Option B for the port tack boat would be to slow down dramatically to make space.

if starboard didnt tell the port boat he was there and needed to keep clear before luffing isnt it his problem because he isnt given port room. but otherwise port starboard incident.

There is nothing in the rules that says you have to tell the give way boat what you're doing. you do have to give them the opportunity to keep clear, but unless the port boat is suddenly transported into that position, they've had plenty of opportunity to keep clear. The important thing is that the starboard boat doesn't alter course in such a way as to prevent the port boat keeping clear. It would be very difficult for the port boat to demonstrate she was keeping clear once she got to a position where a gybe would cause contact. In my view the protest committee would consider how she got in that position in any protest. providing the starboard boat was generally steering a reasonable course to the next mark it would be a clear infringement.

ISAF definition:

Keep Clear One boat keeps clear of another if the other can sail her course with no need to take avoiding action and, when the boats are overlapped on the same tack, if the leeward boat can change course in both directions without immediately making contact with the windward boat.