Over the line

OK the situation is this:

A very short beat. The start gun goes and someone is over. It is a large(ish) fleet and the guy who “thinks” he is over but unsure carry’s on sailing to the windward mark because he can not get clear of the pack to bear off or tack and restart. He then thinks he will sail past the mark where he will have room to turn around and then restart. So what happens to the poor old boat stuck to windward of him at the mark, was not over the line and wants to round the mark but is forced to sail past the mark due the boat beneath him?  

Being unsure of what rule applied I just gave him a sharp hail and got him to crack off but not before sailing a number of boat lengths past the mark.

Why he did not round the mark and gybe back to the start line I do not know.

Ta

Paul,

That is what I thought at the time, hence my sharp hail to him to get him to crack off because I do not believe there is anything I could do. I was windward so I had to keep clear. The beat was one of those horrible beats – very short, could lay it in one, everyone was overstanding because of an adverse tide and so on. He should had gone back at his earliest opportunity or made an opportunity. But that was not my issue.

Thanks

Cheers Gordon, I had a senior moment there!

"a boat that is over the line shall keep clear of a boat that is not"

That's not the way that rule 21.1 is written. It's a boat sailing towards the pre-start side of the line that has to keep clear. If you are an early starter and continue to race, then you have all the normal rights...

It does raise the question of what happens if the course is set to pass through the start line each lap...Once approaching this point, the early starter has no rights - at all!

Colin