Tacking too close (the lee-bow)
The situation
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 question
Red says she's now the starboard-tack boat with right of way. Is she right?
The ruling
No — Red breaks rule 13. From the moment she passes head to wind until she is on a close-hauled course, Red must keep clear of Green; she does not get starboard-tack rights the instant she crosses head to wind. Because Green had to take avoiding action in that window, Red is penalized. Even once fully tacked, rule 15 would require her to give Green room to keep clear.
A boat tacking keeps clear until she is on a close-hauled course — a lee-bow that forces the other boat to react is a foul.
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 13 — While Tacking.
Related cases
- 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.
- Two Optis tack at once · Upwind / Beating
On a big shift, two boats near each other both tack onto the new tack at the same moment. As they come out of their tacks close together, who had to keep clear?