Rule 18 and Room at the Mark
How to keep boats out of a dangerous area without giving them rights under Rule 18, 19 or 20?
We have a situation on our starting and finishing line which has been a source of issues for some time. I'd be extremely grateful for the group's wisdom on a solution. This is for club-level racing.
The issue:
The start/finish line at our club is an imaginary line between our race tower (sitting on a breakwater) and "A-Mark". However, near the breakwater there are submerged rocks which we do not want boats to hit and so have laid a buoy 'H-Mark' and stated in our SIs that boats shall not pass between H-mark and the tower at any point while racing.
In previous iterations of our Sailing Instructions we have called the area between H-Mark and the Tower an obstruction. However, this has created risky situations where an inside boat (on the same tack) calls for room to tack at the obstruction, and tacks (usually onto port given the prevailing wind) against a fleet of finishing boats on starboard. We want to avoid this situation if possible as recently it contributed to a collision.
We would like to eliminate boats' ability to call for rights/water at H-mark. What is the best way to do this?
Options we have considered are:
1. Designating H-Mark a crowding buoy and stating that boats must stay between H and A...however can a crowding buoy be used after the finish?
2. Making the area an 'exclusion zone' and clarifying that boats do not have the ability to call for water when approaching H. But a question has been raised as to whether an exclusion zone operates in a similar way as an obstruction.
Thoughts on the best approach would be appreciated!
Best
Jolene
The issue:
The start/finish line at our club is an imaginary line between our race tower (sitting on a breakwater) and "A-Mark". However, near the breakwater there are submerged rocks which we do not want boats to hit and so have laid a buoy 'H-Mark' and stated in our SIs that boats shall not pass between H-mark and the tower at any point while racing.
In previous iterations of our Sailing Instructions we have called the area between H-Mark and the Tower an obstruction. However, this has created risky situations where an inside boat (on the same tack) calls for room to tack at the obstruction, and tacks (usually onto port given the prevailing wind) against a fleet of finishing boats on starboard. We want to avoid this situation if possible as recently it contributed to a collision.
We would like to eliminate boats' ability to call for rights/water at H-mark. What is the best way to do this?
Options we have considered are:
1. Designating H-Mark a crowding buoy and stating that boats must stay between H and A...however can a crowding buoy be used after the finish?
2. Making the area an 'exclusion zone' and clarifying that boats do not have the ability to call for water when approaching H. But a question has been raised as to whether an exclusion zone operates in a similar way as an obstruction.
Thoughts on the best approach would be appreciated!
Best
Jolene
Created: Yesterday 22:48
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You are faced with two 'competing' risks:
I would suggest that"
You have placed the H-Mark there to prudently mitigate your risk of boats hitting the rocks.
Assuming that the H-Mark is placed at only a reasonable (small) distance from the rocks, there would be little difference between a boat's entitlement to RRS 19 room at the H-Mark, and at the obstruction itself constituted by the rocks.
I think that using the H-Mark with an entitlement to room and room to tack mitigates a certain and severe risk.
Removing the entitlement to room to tack would reduce the risk of boat on boat incidents, but that risk only arises if the RRS, which are the existing controls are not obeyed by boats. That risk is less likely and the consequences may be less severe.
I would suggest that you do not pursue removing any entitlements to room to tack.
The additional detail that I perhaps could have included is that there is one rock that only boats with keels over 2.3 metres would possibly hit…there are few boats in our fleet with keels this deep however the complaint we get is that they are disadvantaged by not being able to sail as close to the tower to finish as smaller boats, making for a longer approach to the line. Hence H mark was placed in (many years ago) to both avoid the rock and for fairness.
There is also considerable distance for boats to tack to port (between H and the breakwater) safely and reapproach the finish line.
While this doesn’t change that there is an obstruction for some boats, and therefore the points you made stand, it complicates the issue as the boats hailing to tack often could actually sail between H mark and the tower safely and are only given rights to tack based on our calling the area an obstruction, which then creates the secondary risks.
What is the meaning of 'inner distance mark'?
What are a boat's obligations at an 'inner distance mark'?
my suggestion is education - knowledge of the rocks and hail early enough that boats affected have time to respond.
Or avoidance - put out a committee boat and a finish mark in open water.
John
In which case I knew that drafty old starters box and the waters around there quite well back in the 1980s and 1990s.
Jolene's later post 22510 puts a bit of a different complexion on the safety risk.
Jolene said
So, there is one rock, not several, as I understood from the OP. There's a charted spot depth of 2.6m immediately to the SW of the starters box. I guess that's the culprit. There's another spot depth of 2.9m further SSE of that one. I'm guessing that it was the shoal depth between these two spots on the approach from the south that was the main concern, but that doesn't create the room to tack from starboard onto port situation Jolene is concerned about: that arises in a southerly breeze, with boats beating to the finishing line from the north.
I note that passing to seaward of the H-Mark does not prevent boats from sailing over the 2.6 and 2.9m shoal, it merely deters them from doing so.
Looking at the chart, there is navigable water all around the H-Mark, and it is not 'a reasonably small distance' from the rocks: it is well away from them.
The H-Mark is not an obstruction in its own right: it only becomes an obstruction when the SI makes it the end point of a line designated as an obstruction in the SI (RRS Definitions, Obstruction (c)). In my opinion for the SI to 'designate' a line or area as an obstruction the SI need to use words like 'Line A to B is an obstruction'. A mere implication arising from a requirement not to cross a line does not 'designate' that line as an obstruction.
The SI quoted in OP were: 'boats shall not pass between H-mark and the tower at any point while racing.'
In my opinion that makes the H-Mark an object the SI require a boat to leave on a specified side: that is, it is a mark (RRS Definition, Mark), but it is not an obstruction. Therefore RRS 18 may apply, but not RRS 19 or RRS 20.
If you are calling the H-Mark an obstruction, then in my opinion, you are mistaken. In my opinion the wording in your SI do not effectively designate the mark or the line it ends as an obstruction.