Overtaking boat?

Which is what I said

"Before the starting signal the leeward boat has no proper course, she can therefore luff as far as head to wind, as long as she gives the other boat room to keep clear."

The rule doesn't change, it is the application of the definition of proper course that changes

Gordon

The rule to be applied is 17.1 : If a boat clear astern becomes overlapped within  two of her hull lengths to leeward of a boat on the same tack, she shall not sail above her proper course  while they remain overlapped within that distance, unless in doing so she promptly sails astern of the other boat. This rule does not apply if the overlap begins while the windward boat is required by rule 13 to keep clear.

This rule is a "general limitation" to the right of way rule 11 "on the same tack, overlapped". Windward boat keeps clear but there is a limit to the course that the leeward boat can sail

The rule does not stipulate how the overlap is created, the leeward boat is not necessarily overtaking. The rule applies all the time that the overlap exists, and ceases to apply when the overlap ceases to exist. One way to break the overlap between boats is to gybe.as the term overlap does not apply to boats on opposite tacks (except when rule 18 applies). If the leeward boat gybes then gybes back then rule 17.1 does not apply between the two boats as the new overlap was not established from clear astern.

As the leeward boat establishes an overlap from clear astern she must give the windward boat room to keep clear, unless the overlap occurs  as a result of the actions of the windward boat (deliberately stopping for instance).

Before the starting signal the leeward boat has no proper course, she can therefore luff as far as head to wind, as long as she gives the other boat room to keep clear.

Simple really - its all in the book. In my version (ISA) the Part 2 rules "when boats meet" take up 5 pages, including 2and a half pages for rule 18. Read, learn and inwardly digest...and refer to the definitions. Not really all that difficult., much simpler than the arcane laws of cricket or even the Highway Code.

Gordon DAVIES

i think you can't sail into a gap that small, as the windward boat has no obligation  to anticpate your manouvers, and once you are overlapped to leward, you must give him ample time and opertunity to keep clear- making him move his boom out of your way whemn you have not yet established an overlap is illegal.

Goes to show you need a new book, I'm afraid. I think it was 1997 that mast abeam disappeared from the rules.