Team Race - CALL G 05  

Rule 10 On Opposite Tacks
Rule 15 Acquiring Right of Way

Question
Boats A and X are running on port tack, overlapped and level, with their hulls between ½ and 1 length apart. A, the windward boat, gybes onto starboard tack and then holds her course. X responds promptly by gybing but her boom hits A's hull. A protests. What should the call be?

Answer
When A gybes onto starboard, she acquires right of way, and must initially give X room to keep clear.
If X reacts promptly, and in a seamanlike way, and contact occurs, then A breaks rule 15. Penalize A.
If X either delays her response, or gybes in an unseamanlike way, and as a result contact occurs, then X breaks rule 10.
Penalize X.

When a boat gains right of way and another boat must take action to keep clear, the keep-clear boat must begin to take that action immediately and the right of way boat must give her room to do so. A seamanlike gybe includes letting the boom go out at the end of the gybe, but not necessarily fully. It also includes rolling the boat, but only to the extent required to facilitate steering. See also Umpire Principle 4.