Martin Baxter wrote:
Jeff Morris wrote:



Rule 17(a) means that a port tack close hauled boat is standon wrt a
starboard tack boat running free. Under the current rules, of course,
a starboard tack boat is always standon wrt port tackers (not counting
overtaking situations!)

Note that is is the opposite of the old racing rule the DSK mentioned
whereby a spinnaker is standon wrt closed hauled. Otherwise, it would
have been worth a half point.


Jeff, do you know why the rule was changed? Was it because there were to
many bozos out there who were unable to tell the difference between
running free and sailing close hauled? Perhaps more likely two vessels
on opposite tacks but near a beam reach, could get into an argument
about who was running more free?

It is interesting that the rule allows for a certain ambiguity,
especially since what was "close hauled" for the old ships would be a
close reach (if that!) for a modern sailboat.

The common explanation is simply that in the days of square rigged ships
sailing "close hauled" was a huge effort for little gain. Ships could
spend a day trying to gain a few miles to round a cape, so requiring
them to give way would be a tremendous burden. Now that almost all
sailboats are fore-and-aft rigged, and have auxiliaries, this is no
longer important.

I found it more interesting that the rule survived the 1948 re-write,
since clearly the days of windjammers was over by then. However, many
of the mariners then did have square rigged experience - My
father-in-law, who was in the Merchant Marine in WWII served under a
captain who had round Cape Horn a number of times in square rigged ships.