luffing another boat downwind

I find it incredible that the rules effectively grant the give way boat temporary right of way to get themselves into shape to give way. I'm not aware that RoW has to give 'room' to the GW boat, only 'time and opportunity' to keep clear. Having been given time & opportunity GW has to give RoW room to sail their course.

What happens if the kite from w/w touches l/w during the drop? Who is at fault then?

In the situation described, I would have thought that w/w has to give room to l/w to sail their course, even if w/w has to flog or stall their kite to do so.

Whilst w/w is protected from a l/w ambush by the 2-lengths to leeward rule if the overlap is achieved from astern, in the OP situation l/w was rolled while getting up to speed, so it doesn't apply. IF this went to protest, I would expect w/w to have made some allowance for the fact that they made themselves g/w boat by going to w/w. The rules say that g/w does not have to anticipate any moves RoW makes (don't they?), but they put themselves there, so should suffer the consequences.

Scooby - I reckon you'd just have to slow / stop 'till l/w has gone through to avoid an infringement...

Luffing as a weapon is only really any use when used against a boat in the same class or of similar performance to yourself. As you have rightly pointed out, clear air is king (especially on smaller inland waters).

It's generally good not to get caught up in luffing matches/ bumps of rapid takcs - they all slow you down!

Unfortunatley, when push comes to shove, you need to know which boat to hit first - or at least which boat should give way.

The Racing Rules (and indeed the Collision Regulations) are not written with specific examptions like "I was windard multihull, therefore I could not give way to a leeward boat - because I need to turn downwind to slow down".

Perhaps the multihuills should fly code flag "D" - or the "ball + Diamond + ball" for a vessel restricted in its ability to manoeuvre? Otherwise the assumption is that the normal rules will apply - and that can raise a significant risk of damage and injury.

Colin