Avoiding races - how out of line was I?

[Donald R]

I agree with Fast Tracks. Standard rules of the road apply. Starboard or port tack? Windward or leeward boat?

[GBR134]

Originally Posted by Djarraluda

Of course there is also the fact that many racers do not know the rules themselves. Racing some weeks ago, dead down wind approaching the mark on Stbd, a bigger boat comes inside me, on Pt and calls overlap. Having told him No, I am on Stbd he gets aggressive and pushes me, his crew using my staunchions as leverage until I hit the idiot on his hands and swore at him. The turkey blithely ignores port/Stbd regularly when it suits him
Roger

Im confused - at a downwind mark once in the zone, port and starboard are virtually irrelevant in the RRS. If the inside body is overlapped as you enter the zone she has Mark room.

[Feeling546]

I have raced extensively around Puget Sound and at the skippers meeting before the race we were always told while we were racing we had right away over no one. This will not holdup with the CG but it makes life better for everyone not racing.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by clymbon

Please read up on the rules regarding "room" at the mark. Under certain circumstances you can't force someone to miss rounding the mark, even if you otherwise have priority. Others have posted that this applies if the other boat has overlapped you within 3 boat-lengths of the mark. But I'm always fuzzy on the details. One of the things that's a mystery to me is - whose boat length? I sometimes race in "just for fun" mixed fleet races in which there are all different shapes and sizes of boats. 3 boat lengths for me may be six boat lengths for him!

We race a mixed keelboat fleet here with anything from 20ft to 50ft in the same race

RRoS: "Zone The area around a mark within a distance of three hull lengths of the boat nearer to it."

If the boat closest to the mark is a 20fter, the zone is 60ft.
If it is a 50fter, the zone is 150ft

It makes sense because it is the boat nearest to the mark that needs the room. How much room they need is a factor of their length.

[Feeling546]

I didn’t make myself clear on my earlier post, when I said the in the pre-race skipper meetings that we had right away over no one while racing. That statement was ment for all non-racing boats what ever the type, all race rules applied to everyone in the race. So some pore person out for a the day of boating isn’t being yelled at to get off a race corse, especially if they in the traffic lanes or fairways.

[SuW]

Yeah, I've had the "Eff off, we're racing!" remark. It was unclear what was going on as they appeared to be crossing the bay, and we were out for an afternoon cruise and were the stand-on vessel.
Funnily enough, I worked in the same place as the woman who swore at us. She didn't recognise me - she was not pleasant, on or off the course.
I think passing boats should be considered natural hazards by racers. If we'd been racing too, they would still have had to give way.

[jleeglenn]

It sounds like your heart was in the right place. The only clarification that might help in the future is that the race course is not limited by the marks you observed. These were likely rounding marks that the racing boats had to leave on one side or the other. Correspondingly, you have to be aware that tactically they will be all over the place heading for these marks, but that they have no special right of way to do so.

Don't take the yelling personally. It's a common part of this high-focus sport.

[Hamish_ct]

I race a lot on the LIS as well as my kids race too. As one of the very experienced yachtsman and avid racer told me once, Always be polite to other sailors, Just because you are in a race does not mean that you have the right of way in any public open body of water. Which means that the general rules of sailing and boating always apply.

One incident I'll note, I was on a support boat for a kids Opti Regatta, ages 7 -11. These races are usually a small course with about 90 kids going around 4 marks. A 36 ft J boat, who was in his own race sailed right through the kids course yelling at the kids to make way. Other boats in "his" race took measure to avoid the kids. We politely went over to the sailor and asked him to avoid the kid Opti Regatta as he would be putting himself and the children into a potential unsafe position. We approached this sailor way in advance giving him enough time to change course. The skipper yelled angrily at us that he was in a race and had rights. This so called experience sailor put young kids who were sailing close to shore with many support boats, into an unsafe position. He barreled right through 20 kids trying to make their way around a race mark. The owner was reported to his club commodore that his actions put children in jeopardy on the water.

Just because a boat is in a race does not give that boat any rights, General boating and CG rules always apply. Its written in the US Sailing Racing manual.

Fair Winds.

[Lepke]

In the days of steam powered destroyers, 2 of us raced from San Clemente Island to San Diego. Because it was a race, 4 boilers were on line instead of the usual 2. My ship won, but before entering the channel we blew tubes (steam is sprayed on the boiler tubes to remove soot). Stack exhaust is noticeably black. You can't do it in port, too many complaints, other ships trying to clean, paint, etc.
As luck would have it, a sailboat race was coming out and we sooted them good. Days later the admiral was still getting complaints.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

......That guy was likely a nice enough chap off the racecourse, but in the heat of the moment, not so much! I try to remember such things now that my racing days are over!

Jim

And that Jim is the rub of it !

Sailboat Racers feel Entitled to be Rude, Intimidate and Ignore a non racing boat's inalienable right of safe passage !

Perhaps we've just identified the nautical origin of "Racist"!