1/13/2020 8:25:19 AM by Andrew Alberti

July/August 2019 - An Overview of the Right-Of-Way Rules II

Last issue, we started an overview of the right-of-way rules. That issue focused on Section A of Part 2. At the end of that article, I said would next focus on the definitions. Early in the Rules book, there is a separate section helpfully titled “Definitions”. Many of the words in the book sail under the colours of the standard definitions provided by a good dictionary, and that is what we use if a word is not defined in the rulebook. Some words, though, need a very specific definition and we find those here. If a word is in italics in a rule, then it is defined in the rulebook’s definitions; its meaning and its role in the rules that use it is specifically tied to the definition listed there. Note, for instance, the way the conventional concepts of “Clear Astern” and “Clear Ahead” are modified for racing by the boats’ respective tacks.