Earning rights by tacking
The situation
Red tacks onto starboard a couple of boat lengths in front of Green, who is sailing on port. Red completes the tack and becomes the right-of-way boat.
The question
Can Red expect Green to keep clear the instant she has rights?
The ruling
No. When a boat acquires right of way — here by tacking — rule 15 requires her to give the other boat room to keep clear at first, unless she gained the right of way through the other boat's own actions. So Red must give Green time and space to respond. And while Red was still tacking, rule 13 made her the keep-clear boat in the first place.
Newly acquired rights come with a grace period — give the other boat room to keep clear (rule 15).
Opens the situation on the boat-length grid — scrub it and see exactly how the boats meet. Free, no account needed.
Rules cited
See the underlying rule: Rule 15 — Acquiring Right of Way.
Related cases
- Tacking too close (the lee-bow) · Upwind / Beating
Red, on port, tacks onto starboard close ahead and to leeward of Green, who is on starboard. As Red passes head to wind and settles, Green has to change course to avoid her.
- The lee-bow tack · Upwind / Beating
Crossing on port, Tom decides to tack onto starboard right on the lee bow of an oncoming starboard-tack boat, hoping to slow her and roll over the top. He tacks close ahead and to leeward.
- The lee-bower who claimed starboard · Upwind / Beating
Crossing on port, Red tacks onto starboard right on the lee bow of an oncoming starboard-tack boat, Green. Green has to luff hard to miss Red's transom as Red settles. Red protests Green — “You're windward now, you have to keep clear of me!”
- Port meets starboard on the beat · Upwind / Beating
Both boats are beating to windward and their courses cross. Green has the wind on its starboard side; Red has it on the port side.