SAILBOARD
WINDWARD MARKAdvanced

Inside at the windward mark

The situation

Boats approach the windward mark (to be left to port) close-hauled. Green is overlapped inside Blue as the first of them reaches the three-length zone. Nearby, a third boat is about to tack onto the layline inside the zone.

The question

Does Green get mark-room, and what about the boat tacking in the zone?

The ruling

On the same tack, the outside boat gives the inside overlapped boat mark-room (rule 18.2), so Blue owes Green mark-room. But rule 18 does not apply between boats on opposite tacks on a beat to windward — a port-tack boat gets no mark-room from a starboard-tack boat there; rule 10 governs. A boat that passes head to wind in the zone must give mark-room to a boat that was fetching the mark, and rule 13 still applies to her (rule 18.3).

Key point

Mark-room applies between same-tack boats; opposite-tack boats on a beat fall back to port/starboard, and tacking in the zone is restricted.

Play this on the board

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 18 — Mark-Room at a Windward Mark.

Related cases

  • The inside boat who tacked in · Windward Mark

    Short of the layline, Ella tacks from port to starboard inside the zone, ending up overlapped inside a boat that has been on starboard fetching the mark since before the zone. Ella calls for mark-room as the inside boat; the boats nearly touch and she protests.

  • Tacking in the zone · Windward Mark

    Short of the layline, Ella tacks from port to starboard inside the zone, right in front of a boat that has been on starboard since before the zone and is fetching the mark.

  • Denied room at the windward mark · Windward Mark

    Approaching the windward mark, Finn comes in on the port-tack layline, overlapped inside a starboard-tack boat that is also laying the mark. Finn hails for mark-room as the inside boat, is refused, has to bear away, and protests for being denied his room.

  • Weather-mark pile-up · Windward Mark

    A pack of Optis converges on the windward mark on starboard. As the leaders reach the three-length zone, Kai is overlapped on the inside of the boat next to him; behind, boats are stacked up.

Related guides

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