I was asked recently by some team-racing umpires, when a boat entitled to mark-room stops while rounding a mark, is she still entitled to mark-room? The question arises naturally in team racing, where boats commonly slow or stop in order to impede their opponents, but the question is equally valid in fleet and match racing. The issue comes down to the mysterious word "promptly" in the definition Room, a word that is used in the definition Mark-Room. The significance of "promptly" in the context of mark-room was introduced to me by Dick Rose, 20 years or so ago, and I never felt the need to address the issue because, in my experience, the problem never occurred. But now that it has, I'd like to address it.
The definition Room says (emphasis added):
Room The space a boat needs in the existing conditions, including space to comply with her obligations under the rules of Part 2 and rule 31, while manoeuvring promptly in a seamanlike way.
The definition of Mark-Room says:
| (a) (b) (c) | to sail to the mark when her proper course is to sail close to it, to round or pass the mark on the required side, and to leave it astern. |
Because the definition Mark-Room uses the term Room, we can put the two definitions together to get something like this (emphasis added):
| (a) (b) (c) | sail to the mark when her proper course is to sail close to it, round or pass the mark on the required side, and leave it astern. |
What does "promptly" mean in this context? If Yellow reaches the zone of a port-rounding leeward mark several boatlengths clear ahead of Blue, she is entitled to mark-room (see rule 18.2(a)). Suppose that, instead of sailing promptly to the mark, Yellow stops -- maybe her spinnaker drops into the water, or maybe she's team racing and wants to slow her opponent, Blue (see the animation below). Does she thereby lose the right to mark-room?
Certainly that's not how we generally interpret the rule. In team racing, that interpretation would effectively prohibit mark traps.
But now suppose Blue enters the zone and approaches Yellow. Yellow sails down past the mark, jibes onto port tack and stops (see diagram below). Blue is on starboard tack and needs to take avoiding action. Should Yellow take a penalty?
I think the answer is yes. When Yellow stopped earlier, with no other boats around, she was not sailing within the mark-room to which she was entitled because she was not sailing to the mark promptly. But that didn't matter because she didn't need mark-room -- Blue was far behind and Yellow did not need room to do what she was doing, nor did she need exoneration for breaking a rule of Section A or rules 15 or 16 (see rule 43.1(b)). But now, at the moment when Blue must take avoiding action, if Yellow is not promptly sailing to the mark, or sailing to round the mark and leave it astern, she is not sailing within the mark-room to which she is entitled and this time it does matter, because she is breaking rule 10. The rules are always interpreted on a moment-to-moment basis, so when Yellow breaks rule 10 and is not doing at least one of the things listed in (a)-(c) of the definition Mark-Room promptly, she is not exonerated under rule 43.1(b). In the incident shown, penalize Yellow.
