Racing Rules: Luffing

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Luffing

Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Racing Rules
Forum Discription: Discuss the rules and your interpretations here
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12953
Printed Date: 25 Jun 25 at 5:03am
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Topic: Luffing

Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Subject: Luffing
Date Posted: 14 Jan 18 at 1:18pm

The word 'Luffing' is not mentioned in the current RRS. On Sunday last an incident occurred, I was sailing on a short, close reach amongst a bunch of Solos. I was passing one slowly to leeward and was hailed to stop luffing. I was sailing as directly to the mark as I could and it was not my intention to affect the Solos who were a different fleet any more than by my simply being there.

Although it was not my intent, am I right in my interpretation of the rules that I was entitled to sail whatever course I deemed to be fastest (e.g. to heat up for pressure if I thought it might get me planing) provided I gave the windward boat adequate room to keep clear?

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Spice 346 "Flat Broke"
Blaze 671 "supersonic soap dish"

Replies:

Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 14 Jan 18 at 1:37pm

Almost.

As leeward boat with right of way you are mostly entitled to sail wherever you want. But if you have overtaken a boat to leeward and when the overlap started you were less than two boat lengths apart you are not allowed to sail above your proper course.

The big caveat here is that your proper course is the one you would sail if the other boat wasn't there. So you can't heat up because of the windward boat's wind shadow.

As a rough rule of thumb I reckon that if you are sailing the same angle before and after the overlap as when overlapped then you are in the clear. If you heat it up during the overlap then you're probably breaking the rule, and if you cool it down again after getting clear you definitely were.

To my mind this is one of the rules that is most widely misunderstood.

Posted By: davidyacht
Date Posted: 14 Jan 18 at 1:44pm

Originally posted by JimC

To my mind this is one of the rules that is most widely misunderstood.

And difficult when mixed fleet racing with different types of boats on the water

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Happily living in the past

Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 14 Jan 18 at 3:04pm

My intention had been to avoid disrupting the Solos race out of courtesy as I was not racing against them, that was what I was trying to do by sailing as direct a route to the mark as I could which is why I was just a little surprised (and slightly p155ed) at the Solo sailors hail.

Were I in an assy boat I would have been entitled to come up underneath him, gaining the overlap from within 2 boat lengths while sailing 20º higher and expect him to keep clear?

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Spice 346 "Flat Broke"
Blaze 671 "supersonic soap dish"

Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 14 Jan 18 at 3:35pm

Originally posted by davidyacht

And difficult when mixed fleet racing with different types of boats on the water

Its not really difficult at all though. The ROW boat is always entitled to sail *her* proper course. The proper course of the give way boat is utterly irrelevant. It shouldn't be hard to grasp that a proper course need not be the rhumb line because we sail angles, not straight at the mark, on every damn beat...

Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 14 Jan 18 at 5:15pm

Not difficult from a concept point of view, but difficult for a handicap fleet to all play nicely together. It certainly pays to have an understanding of other boat's needs in terms of proper course and plan your race accordingly.

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Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686

Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 14 Jan 18 at 5:58pm

I would agree with that, nobody benefits from a conflict on the water, even if you are ROW boat it's a distraction from the main business of getting around the course as fast as possible, it pays to try to plan a route that avoids it. Obvious exceptions being you immediate rival in a race to the finish.......

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Spice 346 "Flat Broke"
Blaze 671 "supersonic soap dish"

Posted By: Hitcher
Date Posted: 14 Jan 18 at 8:07pm

Originally posted by Sam.Spoons

Were I in an assy boat I would have been entitled to come up underneath him, gaining the overlap from within 2 boat lengths while sailing 20º higher and expect him to keep clear?

Basically....(HA!)...it all depends what course you were sailing before you established the overlap when someone tries to work out what your proper course would be.

This is because it is very easy to believe your proper course, if as you caught the Solos, you were sailing at an angle 20º higher than the Solos, travelling faster than the Solos, established an overlap to leeward, and continued to sail at the same angle, which meant that the Solos had to alter course to keep clear of you.

It is harder to believe you are sailing your proper course if you catch the Solos sailing at a certain angle, and then alter course by 20º and claim that this is actually your proper course because you are an assy boat.

Obviously the position of the next mark can change what angle your proper course is as well.

Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 14 Jan 18 at 9:42pm

Originally posted by Hitcher

Originally posted by Sam.Spoons

Were I in an assy boat I would have been entitled to come up underneath him, gaining the overlap from within 2 boat lengths while sailing 20º higher and expect him to keep clear?

Basically....(HA!)...it all depends what course you were sailing before you established the overlap when someone tries to work out what your proper course would be.

not really, in the case of an assy boat it would depend on the course you needed to sail to keep on the apparent wind, it the gust was passing you'd sail higher to maintain pressure.

no argument there

true but see above

Obviously the position of the next mark can change what angle your proper course is as well.

yup

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Spice 346 "Flat Broke"
Blaze 671 "supersonic soap dish"