Brain Buster!

To keep you on your toes, we will be running regular rules brain busters - some will be pretty easy (if you have done any reading at all), but some will require a bit more grey matter.

Who is in the right?

So in the diagram, which boat is going to end up "toast" in the protest room? The green boat on port, but clear ahead? Or perhaps the red boat on starboard, but clear astern?

And the answer is ....

The red starboard boat is in the right. This is a straight port/starboard incident covered by Rule 10.

"Clear Astern" does not apply in this case because if you have a read of Rule 12 (the clear astern rule) you will see that it only applies "When boats are on the same tack", which in this case they are not.

The one thing you have to keep in mind is if you are both on port tack, then the boat clear astern gybes and becomes the right of way boat, they must "initially give the other boat room to keep clear", so you can't gybe just before you hit the other boat and try to get out of it on a port/starboard.

This situation usually comes up when you are getting close to the leeward mark, so you also need to be careful as the mark rounding rules will apply.

Happy sailing.