Rules question - interesting situation

We were racing this past weekend in Manistee, Michigan with Cramracing.com and had an interesting finish on Sunday that resulted in two protests being filed and a huge swing in the results. I would like to get input on best racing strategy, and confirmation if it was ruled correctly.

Downwind leg toward the finish line, 200 yards out, we had 3 boats abreast all heading towards the pin end of the line, all on starboard tack. We will call them boats 1, 2, 3. Boat 1 was leeward, boat 3 was windward. Boat 1 was clear ahead when the sequence starts, but was being overtaken by boats 2 & 3. Boat 3 was heading a clear course to just inside the pin end of the finish line.

Boat 1 realized he was being over taken, and yells 'Leeward boat!' and starts heading to the pin. Boat 3 on the far end holds his course, sandwiching boat 2, which hollers the name of the skipper on boat 3 (we are all good friends) and starts to give way. There is simultaneous contact between all three boats and boat 1 hollers 'Protest, Protest, Protest', as they all proceed to the finish line with boat 3 crossing 1st, then boat 2, then boat 1.

After hearing the protest of boat 1 and boat 2 (which did NOT yell protest on the course), it was decided that both boat 2 and boat 3 are disqualified and awarded points as number of registered boats +2.

It was very exciting racing, and although the contact seemed very coincidental, the change in the results was huge! Almost too much penalty as it significantly altered the final results. (Due to lightning the 1st day, we didn't get enough races in to throw one out)

What are your thoughts on the ruling, and the strategy here?

Thanks in advance. By the way, I was on race committee and didn't even realize all this was going on until we hit the beach 4 hours later and got the protests. I did watch the exciting finish, and just thought it was great racing!

_________________
Steve
2017 Hobie 16 "Cayman" sails 114795
1985 & 1973? Hobie 14 "Sea & Ski"

That's a tricky call without having a diagram of how close the boats where to the marker. I'm assuming the incident was further than 3(?) hull lengths from the marker, as if it was in near proximity, the call would have gone the other way.

I'm not expert racer, but it sounds like the correct call by the race committee. (being the correct call still would make me rage if I was on boats 2 and 3.)


Boat 1 was stand-on the whole time. Their decision to point upwind more to pinch the other boats is devious, but strategic move in racing.

Boat 2 should have pointed upwind too, as soon as #1 did, so as to avoid the stand-on vessel. Boat #2 can more-or-less ignore #3.

Boat 3 was put into a dilemma, with no real good options to get victory. #3 had some potential options, all of which involve pointing more to avoided the collision. unfortunately #3 picked a bad options, headed up too late, and cause the whole incident. Boat #3 needed to avoid #2.

So, as far as the race committee ruling:

#1 was not-at-fault: they were stand-on the whole time, and followed the racing rules. They won by the book, not necessarily fair, but certainly square.

#2 did not yield to #1 soon enough.
#3 did not yield to #2

100% boat #3 should be disqualified.
100% boat #1 should be given the win.
?% that boat #2 got the smelly end of the (censored), They were a casualty of boat #1's devious maneuver, and #3's inattention.

If Boat #2 pointed sooner, and collided with #3, but not #1, it race committee would have probably given #2 the 2nd place finish.

What was the speed of the boats? What was the wind speed? Shifting or steady? Were the seas fat, lumpy, big swells?

Time element depends on speed, but at 200 yards, deducting 15 yards for Rule 18 (zone around pin), leaves us with 185 yards, approximately. That gives us 8.6 seconds at 15 mph, or 17.1 seconds at 10 mph, or 25.7 seconds at 25.7 mph. Was the collision at the 200 yards, or was the collision closer to the line? Any closer to the line and the less time in which to respond. Remember that boat 1 does not gain right-of-way until boat 1 establishes an overlap with either boat 2 or 3. Rule 15 provides that boat 1 needs to provide both boats 2 and 3 room in which to respond to boat 1 acquiring right-of-way. There's not enough information provided to determine how Rule 15 plays into this.

If any of the boats had any damage, I'd probably disqualify all three boats, as boat 1 breaks Rule 14. Boat 1 should have yelled "protest" and immediately borne away to provide the other boats with room. Failure to do so, when it is clear that boat 2 had no options, and boat 3 was not giving room that boat 3 was required to give, means that boat 1 must avoid as it appears to be reasonably possible.

Jim Clark-Dawe