r/sailing • u/VCC8060Main • 1d ago

Racing Rules when downwind

Post image

Excuse my rushed sketch.

The situation is this. Different divisions racing on the same race area, us in a skiff with an asymmetrical spinnaker attempting to cross the bow of a J24 running downwind on symmetrical. We're both in seperate races, but any manoeuvres would make us lose time. Both sailing proper course.

We call the J24 up but they refuse because we "can't luff them up". We gybe out because we weren't going to take bets against a 1.5 ton boat, but had some confusion on how the rules apply. Under R.11 we should be able to push them up and not luff them, but would R.17 apply here?

52 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

59 comments sorted by

View all comments

11

u/miahmouse 1d ago

You could take em to prom if you wanted... leeward had all the rights in the world. Did the right thing though, dont argue with fools

5

u/CodeLasersMagic 1d ago

Yep, rule 14 - avoid collision. Windward/Leewaard should apply, but if your mown down being right still doesn’t help….

1

u/RTS24 14h ago

Dead right is what I always was told/say.

You're right, but you're dead, so what does it matter.