Question 1
Boats A and X are overlapped and X, the windward boat, is keeping clear. A luffs head to wind, X luffs in response, and both reach head to wind, side by side. X continues to change course and passes through head to wind. As a result X makes contact with A. There is a protest. What should the call be?

Answer 1
If, when A begins her luff, X responds promptly and continues to do all she can to keep clear throughout the incident, but there is contact anyway, then A is not giving X room to keep clear and A breaks rule 16.1. Penalize A.
If X could have kept clear, but either responds too slowly or not enough, or over-rotates, then X breaks rule 11 or 13. Penalize X.

Question 2
In similar circumstances, A luffs without breaking rule 16 and X responds. When head to wind X maintains this position when she could have tacked off. Slightly later A bears away and their sterns make contact. There is a protest. What should the call be?

Answer 2
If A’s change of course immediately results in contact with X, then X was not keeping clear and broke rule 11. Penalize X.
If there is a greater distance between them, and A bears away hard without giving X room to keep clear, then A breaks rule 16.1. Penalize A.

Question 3
In similar circumstances X keeps clear but, when she reaches head to wind, she maintains this position for a while. X then passes through head to wind and, slightly later, A bears away and their sterns make contact. There is a protest.
What should the call be?

Answer 3
When X passes head to wind, the boats are no longer overlapped on the same tack so the second part of the definition of Keep Clear no longer applies.

If the contact would have occurred without A bearing away, X breaks rule 13. Penalize X.

If the contact would not have occurred without A bearing away, A breaks rule 16.1. Penalize A.