J Peters wrote:

This came up the other day in a Etchells start.

The line is set square to the wind which is blowing 5-7 knots.

Two boats, A and B are sailing down the line on Stbd.
A and B are overlapped but B's bow is close enough to A's
transom (overlapped by a two or three feet) to limit
A's ability to head up without hitting B.

There are a series of boats, close hauled on stbd, below B
calling for room.

What's B's responsibility in this situation? Does she have to
slow down or bear off to give A room to head up? If the boats
coming up from below reach B before she has been able to
untangle herself from A, is B in the wrong?




11 ON THE SAME TACK, OVERLAPPED
When boats are on the same tack and overlapped, a windward boat shall
keep clear of a leeward boat.

This is limited by

15 ACQUIRING RIGHT OF WAY
When a boat acquires right of way, she shall initially give the other
boat room to keep clear, unless she acquires right of way because of the
other boat’s actions.

and

17.1 If a boat clear astern becomes overlapped within two of her hull
lengths to leeward of a boat on the same tack, she shall not sail above
her proper course while they remain overlapped within that distance,
unless in doing so she promptly sails astern of the other boat. This
rule does not apply if the overlap begins while the windward boat is
required by rule 13 to keep clear.

and that is modified by the definition

Proper Course A course a boat would sail to finish as soon as possible
in the absence of the other boats referred to in the rule using the
term. A boat has no proper course before her starting signal.

Now it's hard for me to pin down the situation exactly from your
description (whether that is my fault or yours I don't know) but it
sounds as if A (to windward) has let themselves get into a really bad
situation. I think if I was B, I'd tap A's transom, shout PROTEST
loudly, and hope everyone else had the sense not to get involved!

(not that I'm an expert - I'm just bored....)
Andy