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).
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.
Opens the situation on the boat-length grid — scrub it and see exactly how the boats meet. Free, no account needed.
Rules cited
- Rule 18.1 — When Rule 18 Applies
- Rule 18.2 — Giving Mark-Room
- Rule 18.3 — Tacking in the Zone
- Rule 10 — On Opposite Tacks
- Rule 13 — While Tacking
See the underlying rule: Rule 18 — Mark-Room at a Windward Mark.