Doing a penalty turn at the start or finish after hit mark

[rs vernon]

I have seen Mr. "Take advantage of his perception of the rules " do a nifty 360 and be on his way after hitting a starting line buoy.

The rules say you must do a turn before recrossing the starting line or finish line, and Dave Perry says you can do the turn anywhere.

I am hoping that the requirement really is that the 360 turn must be in addition to turning around the buoy and recrossing the line.

What Mr. Speedy did was to just do his "required" turn around the buoy and restarted. That would be okay if he did not hit the buoy, but I am hoping his quick 360 around the buoy was not sufficient in his case. ?????

I guess you could do your turn and dip, or dip and do your turn for a proper finish, but maybe you need to go around the end for a proper start in EC-12 racing. ?????

Thank you

Scott

[Capt. Flak]

Scott, there are two issues at the start when it comes to touching the mark. Did you simply touch the start mark or were you also over the line early? If you were OCS and touched the mark, your penalty is to do your turn (a gybe and tack in the same direction) and then restart properly. If you can do your penalty turn around the mark (without touching it this time) and then start, good for you. You have fulfilled to penalty by doing your turn and restarting. The rules do not say you have to do your turn over here and then come back and restart. You do have to keep clear of other boats while doing your turn as well as when returning to the start. So that needs to be taken into consideration when doing your turn.

Now, if you touched the start mark after the bell sounded and were not OCS, then you have simply broken rule 31 and must sail clear of the fleet and do your turn. You do not have to restart.

The rules only state that if you are doing a turn at or near the FINISHING line that you must sail completely to the course side before finishing after doing your turn. I have seen skippers hit the finishing mark as they crossed the line. They did their turn by circling the finishing mark and then finishing. So long as they complete the penalty turn (tack and gybe in the same direction) before any part of their boat crossed the finishing line, they have complied with the rules.