3 Boat Lengths in the 2009-12 Rulebook

August 8th, 2008

One of the bigger changes in the new rule book are the changes to the mark room zone rules.

The previously blury 2 boat lengths is now a more solid 3 boat lengths. Here’s the new definition of a zone:

Zone: The area around a mark within a distance of three hull lengths of the boat nearer to it. A boat is in the zone when any part of her hull is in the zone.

I had someone ask me the other week how I thought 3 boat lengths would change the tactics in Team Racing. The short and long answer is that it won’t. The new Appendix D changes the definition back to 2 boat lengths…

D1.1(a) In the definition Zone the distance is changed to two hull lengths.

There will be a small change in the rules effect on Team Racing. One of the reasons behind changing 2 boats lengths to 3 was to seek to clear up a lot of the confusion with the hazy distance that was two boat lengths in the 2005-08 rules.

Rule 18.1 previously stated that Rule 18 applied when the boats began to round or pass the obstruction. This meant that in heavy winds and/or with spinnakers, the distance could be 3 or 4 boat lengths. At times it was a judgement call on the behalf of the competitor, judge or umpire.

No more! In the new rules the zone is fixed by the definition, so the zone in Team Racing is now always 2 boat lengths, not when the boats are “about to round or pass”. This should seek to clear up the confusion around when mark room begins to apply and make it easier on competitors and umpires alike.

Jos at Look to Windward also discussed the changes over on his blog

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