Excerpt from Understanding the Racing Rules of Sailing
by Dave Perry, Illustrations by Brad Dellenbaugh
- Now Available -

This is a very strong rule regarding contact. It talks to all boats in a race, including right-of-way boats, and tells them to avoid any contact whatsoever if reasonably possible. The intent of the rule is to minimize the amount of collisions that occur during a race, and particularly the intentional ones. Collisions can be dangerous, expensive, frustrating to all sailors and particularly intimidating to newcomers and novice sailors. They are not part of the sport.

When two or more boats converge, the possibility of contact exists. The rules clearly assign the right of way and the requirement to keep clear or to give room in each situation where boats could hit. A basic principle of navigation is that when one boat is required to keep clear, the other shouldn’t do anything to make the situation more dangerous. Rule 14(a) makes it clear that the right-of-way boat or the inside boat entitled to room can hold her course until it becomes “clear” that the other boat is not going to avoid contact. At that moment, the right-of-way or inside boat must take action herself to avoid the contact if reasonably possible. For instance, consider a port-tack boat crossing a starboard-tack boat. If S holds her course and hits P, with no attempt to avoid or minimize the contact, P has broken rule 10 (On Opposite Tacks) and S has broken rule 14.

However, rule 14(b) states that a right-of-way boat or one entitled to room can be penalized under this rule only if the contact causes “damage or injury.” “Damage” is what a boat suffers; “injury” is what a person suffers. Therefore, if the contact causes no physical damage or injury to any boat or person, the right-of-way boat or the one entitled to room can be found to have broken rule 14 but cannot be penalized for doing so. On the other hand, if there is any damage or injury at all to any boat or person involved in the incident, no matter how slight and regardless of whether the damage or injury has any effect on the speed or handling of the boat, these boats will be penalized if it was found that it was reasonably possible for them to have avoided the contact.

Note that if the give-way boat fails to avoid contact, she technically can be penalized under this rule; however, this is a moot point because she will be penalized under the Section A rule she broke, and a boat can only be penalized once per incident, regardless of the number of rules she may have broken in that incident (rule 44.4(b), Penalties for Breaking Rules of Part 2, Limits on Penalties).

“If I’m involved in contact that causes damage or injury, can I do a Two-Turns Penalty or put up a yellow flag to avoid disqualification?”

If there is just “damage,” then Yes! But if anyone got “injured” or if the damage was “serious,” then No! Rule 44.1 (Penalties for Breaking Rules of Part 2) permits a boat that may have broken any rule in Part 2 while racing to take a penalty at the time of the incident. The penalty is the Two-Turns Penalty unless the sailing instructions specify the use of some other penalty (rule 44.1). So if you are a right-of-way boat or an inside boat entitled to room and you cause damage in an incident, you can quickly do two turns in the same direction including two tacks and gybes and continue in the race. If you are the give-way boat, you can also do two turns which absolves you of all Part 2 rule breaches you may have committed in the incident (even if you broke more than one rule in the incident; see rule 44.4(b)). There is one exception, however. Rule 44.1 goes on to say, “if [a boat] caused injury or serious damage…her penalty shall be to retire.” In other words, you can’t absolve yourself with a Two-Turns Penalty if anyone got injured in the incident or there was “serious” damage.

See the explanation of rule 44 for a discussion on how to properly do a Two-Turns Penalty and what constitutes “serious damage.”

“I understand that if I’m the right-of-way boat, I can be penalized for causing any damage or injury at all; what constitutes ‘damage or injury’?”

ISAF Case 19, published when rule 14 only used the term “damage” which included the concept “injured,” offers an interpretation of the term “damage or injury.” “It is not possible to define ‘damage’ comprehensively, but one current English dictionary says ‘harm or injury impairing the value or usefulness of something, or the health or normal function of a person.’ This definition suggests questions to consider. Examples are:
1. Was the current market value of any part of the boat, or of the boat as a whole, diminished?
2. Was any item of the boat or its equipment made less functional?
3. Was a member of the crew injured?”
In my opinion, a related question to number 1 above is, “Did the contact result in something needing to be repaired or replaced?” And related questions to number 3 are, “Does the person need attending to; and/or is the effect on the person brief or longer lasting?” Regarding “injury” as used in the rules, I think an “injury” is something that physically hurts a person more than just briefly, and that ordinarily affects the person’s ability to function normally and/or requires the person to be attended to at some point.

Clearly, boats will have contact that will cause no damage or injury to either boat or crew. Examples will include two boats having light side-to-side contact while rounding a mark, or incidents where the crews fend off and the hulls never touch. On the other hand, there will be contact that clearly causes “damage or injury:” a hole or dent in the boat, a torn sail, a bent stanchion, a nick out of the rudder, a broken finger, etc. The hard calls will be the situations where the gel coat gets scratched, the sailors hear the fiberglass ”crunch” though there is no visible sign of “damage or injury” or a crew member gets a temporary soreness from fending off, etc. Protest committees will need to exercise their best judgment in these situations. Notice that the judgment that “damage or injury” occurred is not a “fact found;” it is a conclusion based on the “facts found” and therefore subject to appeal.