CASE 28

Rule 32.1(d) Shortening or Abandoning After the Start
Rule 64.1(b) Decisions: Penalties and Exoneration
Definitions Start

When one boat breaks a rule and in so doing causes another to touch a mark, the other boat is to be exonerated. The fact that a starting mark has shifted, for whatever reason, does not exempt a boat from the requirement to start as defined. A race committee may abandon under rule 32.1(d) only when the mark has moved a significant distance.

Summary of the Facts
As S and P, close-hauled, approached the port end of the starting line, a strong tide was setting them toward the line and the starting line mark. When S was two hull lengths from the mark, she hailed P to keep clear. There was no response, and S was forced to bear away to avoid collision. Immediately after the starting signal, P rode over the mark. As S luffed back to close-hauled, on a course to the wrong side of the mark, it jumped out from under P’s hull and bounced against S. P did not take a penalty, and S did not return to start between the starting marks.

S protested P under rules 10 and 31.1, and also requested redress, asking that the race be abandoned, citing rule 32.1(d). The protest committee disqualified P, refused S’s request for redress, and scored S DNS. The latter decision was referred to the national authority with a question: If S had returned to start according to the definition Start, could the race have been abandoned under rule 32.1(d) because of the mark having shifted?

Decision
S touched the mark. However, she could not be expected to anticipate how it would move when another boat touched it. Therefore, as provided in rule 64.1(b), S is not penalized for contact with the mark because P’s breach of a rule resulted in the mark touching S.
Because S did not start, the race committee was correct in scoring her DNS.
Rule 32.1(d) applies only to a mark that has moved a significant distance from its designated position. It does not apply to a mark that is temporarily pushed out of position as the result of a boat touching it. Therefore, abandonment was not an option open to the committee.

ARYF 1971