Numpty rules question ?

Apologies if this seems like a numpty question, but I’m not very confident with my knowledge of the rules, so here goes :

Club racing today in my Vareo, I went round the first mark only to fine that I was sandwiched between two boats, a Blaze on one side and a Phantom on the other. Both of these boats could sail straight at the next mark (their proper course?) however, I needed to either drop-back or sail past them in order to put my kite up, I was pretty tightly boxed in, so I just held my position so that I didn’t impede the progress of the Phantom or Blaze pending a gap opening up. Was there anything in the way of rules that I could have used to break out of the situation of was it just bad sailing on my part to have found myself in that position? 

Nigel,

See the situation developing and try and position your boat so it does not happen!

As you want to get the kite up, you might want to try and get lowest so you can bear off and hoist the kite, or you might want to be above everyone so you can sail high and then put the kite up later.  An interesting one is that you might be able to justify proper course as bing sailing above te mark so you can THEN piut the kite up.

There is a variation on this when you (the boat with the kite) cannot sail all the way with the kite up.  Remember that a "proper course" is the course you would sail in the absence of the other boats to get to the next mark as soon as possible.  THIS MIGHT BE to sail high (as you cannot carry the kite all the way to the mark) and then hoist.  BUT you need to be able to justify this and pursuade the protest Ctte and other boats that this IS the fastest way.

In terms of the boat to windward of you, you can sail your proper course. Therefore if you could set your kite, you could require the boat to windward to luff to allow you to do so.

However if you also needed to bear away to set the kite in the first place, there is no obligation on the part on the boat to leeward to allow you to do so.

The proposition that you could generate room to bear away to set by luffing before setting your kite, on the grounds that it would be your proper course if only you had the kite up, isn't one I'd like to take into a protest room.

Bloody Phantoms!

We had similar a few weeks ago when I was crewing for Adam's dad. General concensus of opinion was that a proper course is high enough to fill your kite, but whether you then soak or go high is still going to be contentious in a mixed fleet.

But how far from the mark does "mark rounding" extend? When is it OK to start pushing the windward boat up where he doesn't like to be?