SAILBOARD
LEEWARD MARKIntermediateChallenging

Mark-room, then a wide swing

The situation

Inside with mark-room at the leeward mark, Green rounds but swings wide on the exit, forcing outside boat Blue — who had been keeping clear — up and out of her water. Green, sure she had mark-room, protests Blue for not keeping clear.

At first glance

Green had mark-room and was the inside right-of-way boat through the rounding — so Blue, to windward, should have kept clear, and Green's protest looks right.

The question

Green was owed mark-room — so why might Blue's defense win?

The ruling

It flips onto Green. Mark-room is only the room she needs to sail to the mark and make a seamanlike rounding — not a licence to swing wide. By taking more than that and forcing Blue out, Green — the right-of-way boat changing course — broke rule 16.1 by failing to give the keeping-clear boat room to respond, and because she had exceeded her mark-room she gets no exoneration under rule 43. A tidy “in wide, out tight” rounding would have kept her clean; the wide exit makes her the one penalized.

Key point

Mark-room is only what you need for a seamanlike rounding — swing wide and you lose your exoneration and the protest.

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.

Related cases

  • Taking more than your room · Leeward Mark

    Rounding the leeward mark with mark-room, the inside boat swings wide on the exit and forces the outside boat — who had kept clear — up and out of her water.

  • “The overlap broke — so I shut the door” · Leeward Mark

    Blue is the outside overlapped boat as the two reach the leeward-mark zone, so she owes Green mark-room. Coming in, Blue drops back, the overlap breaks, and Blue closes the door at the mark, sure she now owes nothing. The boats touch and Blue protests Green for forcing in.

  • Inside overlap at the leeward mark · Leeward Mark

    Two boats run down to the leeward mark on the same tack. As the first of them reaches the three-length zone, Green is the inside overlapped boat (closer to the mark) and Blue is outside.

  • Which gate mark? · Leeward Mark

    The leeward mark is a gate (two marks). Coming down overlapped on the inside, Owen is committed to rounding the left-hand gate mark; the outside boat is set up for the same one.

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