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The Ocean Race overall win down to jury decision after huge collision

• Helen Fretter
• June 19, 2023

A huge crash between 11th Hour Racing and Guyot-environnement leaves just three IMOCAs racing to The Ocean Race final finish in Genoa, and the result of the 27,000-mile race likely hanging on a request for redress

The overall winner of The Ocean Race is likely to be decided in the protest room after a huge collision between 11th Hour Racing and Guyot-environnement – Team Europe  shortly after the final leg start on Thursday, 15 June.

The crash occurred just 17 minutes into the start of Leg 7 of The Ocean Race, from The Hague to Genoa in Italy, in a port-starboard incident between the  11th Hour and Guyot-environnement IMOCA 60s . 11th Hour Racing had tacked onto starboard to approach the fourth mark of the course, and were racing in 2nd place.

The Ocean Race 2022-23 – 16 June 2023. Screen Capture of the moment when GUYOT environnement – Team Europe crashed with 11th Hour Racing Team 15 mins after the start of Leg 7.

Guyot-environnement , on port, did not see 11th Hour Racing  and did not alter course in time to avoid them. The result was a full-bore ’T-bone’, with Guyot’s bowsprit spearing into the side of 11th Hour’s cockpit, missing skipper Charlie Enright by inches, while Guyot’s bow smashed into the port aft quarter of the 11th Hour IMOCA  Malama , leaving a substantial hole.

Incredibly, no crew members were hurt, though all were deeply shocked by the incident.

Guyot’s skipper Benjamin Dutreux, clearly distraught, immediately offered his apologies to Enright. “I was helming, and I just saw their boat appear suddenly, and it was too late. The contact was unavoidable [at that point]. I take full responsibility. It is our fault.”

The French team also pledged to support the Americans in any way they could to get them back on the racecourse. In a painful twist of fate, Guyot had only returned to the race in Aarhus after a mid-Atlantic dismasting thanks to 11th Hour Racing offering up their spare mast.

A distraught Benjamin Dutreux, skipper of Guyot-environnement, speaks to 11th Hour Racing team manager Mark Towill after the collision at the start of Leg 7 of The Ocean Race

Ocean Race crash

11th Hour Racing navigator Simon Fisher explained said afterwards, “I’m lost for words. We tacked on our lay line, sailing on starboard for 20 or 30 seconds. Charlie was screaming ‘starboard’ at Guyot , and they did not respond.

“The net result is that they have put their boat firmly in the side of ours. The bowsprit went right through our boat and came out on the inside. We are really lucky that no one got hurt; Charlie was sitting so close to the hatch. Thankfully everyone is ok.

“Personally, I refuse to admit this [race] is over. We would rather try to win it on the water, but we need to find out what our options are, if this can be repaired, and what our redress implications are as a team now, and hopefully move forward.

“I have seen plenty of stuff in my time over six Ocean Races, this is not one of the better ones, but we have a fantastic team, and going into today, we were in a fantastic position, and that is thanks to the team we have. If I wanted to be with any group of people in adversity, it’s them.”

Skipper Charlie Enright echoed the sentiment, saying: “This race has a way of testing people in different ways – physically and mentally, and this is a test for our team. There is no team I would rather be on, that I would rather have with me. If anyone can figure this out, it is us.”

11th Hour Racing crew member Jack Boutell breaks down after a violent collision with Guyot-environment shortly after the start of Leg 7 in The Ocean race. Photo: Sailing Energy/11th Hour Racing

11th Hour set off for Genoa

11th Hour Racing  officially retired from the leg the following day, and lodged a request for redress. The request will be heard by the World Sailing International Jury, which under the Racing Rules of Sailing may compensate a boat when “a boat’s score or place in a race or series has been or may be, through no fault of her own, made significantly worse.”

Clearly 11th Hour Racing will be hoping to be awarded an average of their previous leg points in order to hold onto their lead.

The team also spent 72 hours working around the clock to effect a repair that would get the IMOCA back on the water.

This evening, Sunday 18 June, the race crew left The Hague in the hopes of delivering the boat some 2,500 miles to Genoa in time for the final in-port racing, which will take place on July 1.

Going into the start of Leg 7, 11th Hour Racing  was sitting at the top of the overall leaderboard, following a hat-trick of winning three legs in a row. Enright’s team had 33 points, with Holcim-PRB in 2nd on 31 points, and Team Malizia in 3rd with 27 points.

The Ocean Race 2022-23 – Leg 7, June 16, 2023. The 11th Hour Racing Team continues repairs to Malama after a collision during the start of Leg 7.

With both Guyot-environnement and 11th Hour Racing having retired from Leg 7, there are now just three IMOCAs racing to the race’s finale.

Meanwhile the current Leg 7 leader, Holcim-PRB , is sailing under a new skipper after Kevin Escoffier stood down in Aarhus following an incident at the previous stopover in Newport.

Escoffier confirmed that he would not longer be skipper for the remainder of The Ocean Race following what he described in a post as an ‘alleged incident’ (the line was later deleted). Details of the circumstances that led to Escoffier standing down have not been confirmed by either the team or The Ocean Race organisers.

It was later reported in both the German and French sailing media that allegations of harassment were made by a young woman at the US stopover. The incident is understood to be being handled by the French Sailing Federation (FFV), the French national sailing authority.

Benjamin Schwartz has been appointed Holcim-PRB skipper for the duration of the race. Schwartz was part of the technical support team for previous race winners Dongfeng , and is navigator on Spindrift/Sails for Change giant trimaran.

Millpond conditions mid-Channel for The Ocean Race fleet on Day 2 of Leg 7 with leg leaders Team Holcim – PRB trying to keep moving.

Race decided by redress?

For the race and its fans, this has been a devastating sequence of events. While Holcim-PRB was the stand-out team for the opening stages , and Malizia impressive in the gripping Southern Ocean leg , 11th Hour Racing  were delivering a zero-to-hero comeback story.

Having overcome several potentially race-ending breakages on the long Southern Ocean Leg 3 , to win back to back wins over Legs 4, 5 and 6 – including into their home port of Newport – was shaping up to be a fairy tale finish for the US team, And with just two points separating 11th Hour and Holcim-PRB over the unpredictable leg from northern Europe, across Biscay and deep into the Mediterranean, there was potential for a nail-biting finale.

Now the outcome of the 27,000-mile race is likely to be settled in the jury room.

Underwater collision robs U.S. SailGP Team of Italy Sail Grand Prix win

• Italy Sail Grand Prix
• United States

Team forced to retire after hitting submerged object within sight of finish

TARANTO, ITALY – June 6, 2021 – The United States SailGP Team’s bid to win the Italy Sail Grand Prix in Taranto ended today in dramatic fashion when on the penultimate leg of the final race the team’s F50 catamaran struck an unidentified, submerged object.

The team was comfortably leading the Italy Sail Grand Prix final podium race, in sight of the finish line, at the time of the incident.

“Extremely tough way to end it,” said U.S. SailGP Team Driver Jimmy Spithill. “We were really sailing a perfect race and all we had to do was round the mark and head to the finish. Now I know how a Formula 1 driver feels when you have two corners to go and you have an engine fail.”

The object was not identified but hit with enough impact to break the top of the F50’s carbon fiber wing-tipped rudder as the team raced towards the final bottom mark of the course.

Video review of the incident revealed that the rudder shaft, though already broken, held together until the team went around the mark where it separated causing the race boat to abruptly leap into the air before slowing to a crawl, forcing the Americans to retire from racing.

SailGP’s on-water Marine Mammal Observation team went back to the area and after an extensive search found no evidence that marine mammals were involved in the incident.

“Some things are just out of your control,” said Spithill “You can’t control having a significant impact under the water. These things will happen.”

The unfortunate result left fans in shock after a standout event from the U.S. SailGP Team, who won two races and guaranteed their place in the final podium race before the end of qualifying.

Prior to the incident, the team had won the start of the three-team final race and extended its lead around the racecourse, averaging approximately 10kp/h faster than rivals Japan and Spain who also qualified for the Finals.

Spithill added: “The team needs to keep their heads up because, obviously, it was great to respond and bounce back after what happened in Bermuda and we had put ourselves in a position to win.”

The team now looks ahead to the next race on the SailGP Season 2 calendar, the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Plymouth, UK, July 17-18.

Exclusive highlights of the Italy Sail Grand Prix will air on CBS, June 13 at 2:00pm ET.

More from SailGP

Ocean Race leader 11th Hour Racing Team in dire straits after collision

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Juve drop points again in 0-0 draw with Genoa as Vlahovic sees red

Juventus lost further ground in the Serie A title race when they were held to a 0-0 home draw by Genoa on Sunday, with striker Dusan Vlahovic sent off in added time, leaving the Turin side with one win in eight games.

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Collision in around-the-world Ocean Race punctures 1st-place 11th Hour Racing; protest filed

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Two boats collided just 17 minutes into the final, 10-day leg of the around-the-world Ocean Race on Thursday, sending first-place 11th Hour Racing back to port in The Hague, the Netherlands, with a gaping hole in its carbon fiber hull .

The Newport, Rhode Island-based boat filed a protest against Guyot environnement – Team Europe, which punctured the port side of the 11th Hour hull with its bowsprit. No injuries were reported, the Ocean Race said.

“We did our best to avoid it, and I don’t want to speculate on what was going on on their side of the fence,” 11th Hour skipper Charlie Enright said. “This race has a way of testing people in different ways — physically and mentally, and this is a test for our team. There is no team I would rather be on, that I would rather have with me. If anyone can figure this out, it is us.”

Guyot skipper Benjamin Dutreux said he did not see the other boat, which appeared to have the right of way, until it was too late.

“It was impossible then to avoid contact. I take all responsibility. It’s our fault for sure,” said Dutreux, whose last-place boat retired from the leg. “I’m very sorry about this. I really hope they will get back and win this race. ... We will try to help them all we can.”

The 11th Hour team had won three straight legs of the six-month, 32,000-nautical mile (37,000-mile, 59,000-km) race that is scheduled to end with a grand finale in-port race in Genoa, Italy, on July 1. It was not immediately clear how the protest will affect the race standings.

“Personally, I refuse to admit this (race) is over,” said 11th Hour crew member Simon Fisher, who is competing in the event for the sixth time. “We would rather try to win it on the water, but we need to find out what our options are, if this can be repaired, and what our redress implications are as a team now, and hopefully move forward.”

Fisher said Enright screamed at the approaching boat, but there was no response. Video of the crash appeared to show both boats turning to avoid the collision, but too late.

“The net result is that they have put their boat firmly in the side of ours,” Fisher said. “The bowsprit went right through our boat and came out on the inside. We are really lucky that no one got hurt; Charlie was sitting so close to the hatch.”

The 60-foot IMOCA Class 11th Hour boat was atop the leaderboard with 33 points accumulated over the first six legs and the corresponding in-port races. Team Holcim — PRB was second, with 31 points, followed by Team Malizia (27), Biotherm Racing (19) and GUYOT environnement (2).

A Rhode Island native and Brown University alum who is in his third around-the-world race, Enright finished fifth in both previous attempts — sustaining two major setbacks in the previous edition in 2018. His sloop collided with a Chinese fishing boat in the dark while approaching Hong Kong at the end of Leg 4 in 2018, killing one person aboard the fishing boat, which sank. The race boat also was damaged and had to be shipped to New Zealand.

The sloop also dismasted off the Falkland Islands on Leg 7 while the team was in second place. The crew motored to the Falklands, before a delivery crew motored the 1,200 nautical miles to the next port.

In this year’s race, 11th Hour noticed cracks on its foils near the end of the first leg, which departed from Alicante, Spain, on Jan. 15.

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Collision Avoidance System for Sailboats

• By David Schmidt
• Updated: January 19, 2021

The first lesson that I learned about ­ Pacific Northwest sailing ­after moving here from New ­England in 2009 was that Puget Sound doesn’t get much breeze in the summer. The second was that it’s crucial to keep a constant vigil for logs and large branches. Worse still are deadheads. Having ­attended more than my share of Grateful Dead concerts, I thought I had a good pulse on the latter, but my third lesson was that—in Pacific Northwest vernacular—deadheads refer to logs or entire trees (and root balls) that have taken on so much water that they float vertically, often revealing only a few precious inches of freeboard. Unlike the tie-dyed variety, these deadheads can wreak havoc on hulls. ­Eleven years in, I’ve had ­numerous close calls, and I try not to think about the near misses that went unnoticed.

Fortunately, cutting-edge technology now exists that mitigates the danger of ­hitting myriad obstacles that are ­increasingly found at sea.

While mariners have ­fretted about collisions since ­humankind first took to the ­water, ­recent years have seen a ­massive uptick both in global shipping of containers, which can sometimes wash overboard, and all sorts of ­other debris. At the same time, a growing number of sailors are exploring the high latitudes, where they encounter icebergs and bergy bits. Then, there’s the jaw-dropping speeds that are being achieved by modern racing and foiling yachts, including IMOCA 60s and the massive 100-plus-foot ­Ultim trimarans, which regularly exceed 30 knots and 45 knots, respectively. Even “average” cruising boats sail faster ­today than years ago thanks to their ­progressively ­longer waterlines, ­modern sail plans, and improved weather-­routing ­capabilities. This ­bolstered performance—from record-­setters to family cruisers—is a good thing, but it reduces reaction time if a crewmember spots something in the water.

Tackling the problem head-on, BSB Marine has developed its Oscar collision-avoidance system , which uses daylight and thermal-imaging cameras, ­artificial intelligence, deep learning, and machine vision to make sailors aware of navigational hazards and give them enough time to make course corrections. Cooler still, some Oscar systems can autonomously control the boat’s autopilot to change course (see below).

In terms of hardware, all Oscar systems consist of a ­vision unit that has three masthead-mounted ­cameras, a belowdecks-mounted ­central processing unit, and a ­dedicated app to monitor and control the gear.

The vision unit weighs less than 2 pounds and houses two FLIR-built Boson thermal-­imaging camera cores, as well as one color (red, green, blue or RGB) daylight camera. The thermal-imaging cameras deliver a horizontal field of view of 50 to 123 degrees, and a ­vertical field of view of 32 to 71 degrees, depending on the model; higher-end systems use higher-resolution thermal imagers and can operate at ­longer ranges. The RGB camera offers a 120-degree horizontal view and a 96-degree vertical coverage. With these cameras, developers say Oscar can detect and identify objects in its video stream that are just 4-by-4 pixels.

Aboard a sailboat, the vision unit is mounted on an articulating bracket and can adjust for mast rotation. The unit also has an inertial measurement unit that electronically stabilizes the cameras’ real-time imagery, which is shared with the CPU via an Ethernet cable that is run inside the mast.

The CPU is a black-box computer that employs ­machine-vision algorithms and embedded AI to analyze and inspect the incoming video stream in search of dangerous objects. Oscar determines the target’s location and proximity to the vessel based on the camera’s known position and orientation in space, and—when available—it also uses the ­horizon as a reference point.

“Oscar takes pictures and synchronizes them with the [stabilizer] and CPU, and ­determines what’s ­water and what’s not,” explains ­Raphael Biancale, BSB Marine’s co-founder. “Oscar tries to identify objects based on their picture, and it locates objects around the boat over ­several frames to determine their speed and direction. Then it calculates the probability of collision.”

In addition to its hardware, Oscar includes an Android-, iOS- and Windows-friendly app, which can reside on a PC, smartphone, tablet or—thanks to the system’s NMEA-2000 compatibility—chart ­plotter. The app provides a visual ­reference depicting where a target or multiple targets are on a radar-range-like graphical screen, and it delivers AIS-like information, including the target’s speed, bearing and closest-point-of-approach data. Additionally, the app can ­trigger onboard alarms, ­warning of detected targets.

Each Oscar set leaves the factory with an AI ­system trained at using an image ­database of 50,000,000 (and counting) images. These ­images range from common ­objects such as ships, yachts and aids to navigation, to ­myriad ­marine species, to ­specific nonwater targets such as ­sargassum seaweed. The ­database also includes ­images of the ­water in all sea states, weather conditions and lighting (daytime and moonlight) ­scenarios. Oscar uses its onboard AI to compare ­detected targets with this database to determine what each object is and the threat level that it poses. ­Additionally, BSB ­Marine has partnered with ­several high-­profile ocean-­racing teams that record all of their Oscar-captured ­video ­imagery, which they share with the company once they’re back ashore. Once received, BSB Marine carefully labels, ­annotates, and compiles this information and updates all Oscar users’ image databases.

Then, each Oscar system’s ability to identify targets improves as it spends time at sea thanks to its AI and embedded deep-learning capability. ­Oscar, for instance, knows what ferries look like, and it “learns” to recognize them from ­different angles and distances, and in various sea states, ­temperatures and lighting conditions. ­Newfound “knowledge”—much like the data that’s gathered by racing teams—is shared with other Oscar users to help improve the systems’ abilities to recognize objects and minimize false alarms. ­According to Biancale, racing crews might see one false alarm per 24 hours, while cruisers might trigger an alarm every few days.

“Identification is valuable,” Biancale says, noting that sleeping whales behave differently than semisubmerged shipping containers or buoys and other aids to navigation. “You need to predict where the whale will go,” he says.

Once Oscar identifies a ­target in its video stream, its AI starts working. “It looks for any disturbance in the water,” Biancale says. “Oscar detects anything that’s different than the water background, which is known. It tries to detect things that aren’t in the database.” Regardless of ­whether a spotted target is in its ­database, Oscar is designed to ­either alert its crew to its presence so that they can ­manually confirm a course ­correction or, if interfaced with an ­autopilot, evade the object.

BSB Marine is ­marketing four versions of Oscar to ­sailors, starting with its top-of-the-line system that’s ­currently in use aboard high-­performance ocean-racing yachts, including IMOCA 60s and Ultims. Oscar Custom Sailing is a fully ­loaded system that employs dual high-resolution FLIR-built thermal-­imaging cameras with a ­target-detection range of up to 3,040 feet. Given the speeds that IMOCA 60s and Ultims regularly tick off and the fact that 3,040 feet buys only 40 to 60 seconds of warning ­before a collision, this high-end ­system autonomously controls the boat’s autopilot system. Once Oscar detects a target, the system performs its identification and filtration work in one second, and it takes an ­additional 2 seconds to ­adjust the autopilot’s heading to a safer course.

Biancale notes that grand-prix-level autopilots are always planning an escape route, say if the boat gets hit with an ­unexpected wind shift or off-kilter wave, and this same functionality helps the boat avoid a crash gybe if Oscar ­detects a target while the boat is broad reaching or running close to dead downwind.

The Oscar Advanced 640 also employs dual ­high-­resolution FLIR-built thermal-­imaging cameras, but they have a somewhat smaller field of view. They still deliver a target-detection range of up to 3,040 feet.

The Oscar Advanced 320 delivers the same autonomous autopilot controls and daylight camera as BSM Marine’s other Oscar systems, but it uses lower-resolution FLIR cameras. The result is a system that delivers a range of up to 1,970 feet, making it suitable for sailboats in the 50- to 80-foot range. At 10 knots, a boat will take 1 minute, 56 seconds to sail this distance.

The cruiser-friendly Oscar One 320 system is also available, and Biancale says it uses the same daylight RGB camera as the other Oscar systems and the FLIR thermal-­imaging cameras that are found on the Oscar Advanced 320, with a maximum range of 1,970 feet. The difference, however, involves what happens once the system detects a target. Instead of autonomously changing the autopilot’s course, this system will instead sound alarms and require the ­skipper or crew to confirm a target via the app before ordering the autopilot to change course. While this might sound like a smaller margin of error, it’s important to remember the speeds involved: At 7 knots, a sailboat takes 2 minutes, 46 seconds to travel 1,970 feet, which should be ample time for a crew that’s maintaining a proper watch to respond to the app’s alarm and course-­correction request on their phone, computer or plotter.

While Oscar’s advantages are easy to spot for anyone who has dodged Pacific Northwest deadheads or debris en route to Bermuda, its ­disadvantages are harder to spy. There’s cost, of course—systems start at about $15,000—but this becomes quite reasonable when compared with the price of a serious fiberglass repair job or an “opportunity” to test out the life raft (or worse). One could also argue that the masthead cameras and Ethernet cable in the spar add weight aloft, though not much: The ­cameras and bracket weigh less than 2 pounds, and the cable weighs roughly 1.1 pounds per 30 feet. If weight is indeed critical, lighter halyards could be ­purchased to compensate.

That said, it’s important to remember that Oscar is ­designed for offshore use, not for carrying a full press of ­canvas into San Francisco Bay or the Port of New York and New Jersey. “There’s no limit to the number of targets that Oscar can detect, but there’s a ­limit to the number that it can evade,” Biancale says, adding that the system can simultaneously dodge “several” targets.

One consideration, ­however, is that Oscar is an optical-based system, and its cameras are beholden to the laws of physics. For example, Oscar’s daylight RGB camera suffers from a blind spot created by direct sunlight. While this isn’t an issue for the system’s thermal-imaging ­cameras, these cameras don’t work well in thick fog or rain.

That said, if you’re outfitting a bluewater vessel for a transoceanic cruise, Oscar makes a lot of sense, especially when shorthanded watches, ­limited sleep and habitually tired eyes are involved. As for spotting deadheads, BSB Marine’s ­database includes this imagery, freeing sailors to instead use their binoculars to enjoy the panorama around them.

David Schmidt is CW ’s electronics editor.

Collateral Losses

Given the sheer scale of international shipping and commerce, it should come as no surprise that some goods get lost in transit. The problem, of course, is that when ships lose cargo, they aren’t accidentally dropping a single shoebox of, say, Nike sneakers. Rather, they’re losing entire shipping containers of goods. While some lucky beachcombers occasionally find washed-up plunder, these wayward containers have the potential—if encountered at the wrong time and angle—to quickly sink boats. And while the world’s oceans contain a heck of a lot of real estate, experts estimate that between 1,400 and 15,000 shipping containers are lost annually. But, notes BSB Marine on a frequently asked questions page: “Containers are either floating or sinking but do not remain in shallow depth because the two stable positions are either floating, when the container mass-to-volume is less than 1 kilogram per liter, or sinking if it is above 1 kilogram per liter. You can experience it by putting objects in a glass of water; trying to have anything just below the surface is next to impossible.”

While this doesn’t ­absolve these navigational dangers—or their environmental impacts—it does mean that if there’s a container bow on, Oscar can detect it.

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Rule 14 and Rule 15 – Avoiding Contact and Acquiring Right of Way: Racing Rules of Sailing 2021-2024

Now that we’ve mastered the right of way rules, we need to learn the limitations on right of way boats. Rule 14 and Rule 15 are the first two rules in Part 2, Section B. Rule 14 is Avoiding Contact and Rule 15 is Acquiring Right of Way.

In 2018, the Inland Lake Yachting Association (ILYA) and SailZing, LLC partnered on a Fair Sailing initiative. As part of this initiative, SailZing worked with the ILYA and UK Sailmakers to develop a series of articles on the rules. With the rules changes in 2021, SailZing is updating these articles and adding video summaries.

Our thanks to UK Sailmakers for generating the animated scenarios.

Part 2, Section B – General Limitations

Congratulations! If you’ve been following along, you’ve now mastered the rules of Part 2, Section A – Right of Way. Remember, the rules in Section A (Rules 10-13) determine right of way when two or more boats meet.

Having right of way doesn’t give you a blank check to affect other boats. The rules of Part 2, Section B – General Limitations – don’t change right of way, but they do limit the actions of right-of-way boats. We’ll cover Rule 14 and Rule 15 in this article.

Rule 14 – Avoiding Contact

“A boat shall avoid contact with another boat if reasonably possible. However, a right-of-way boat or one sailing within the room or mark-room to which she is entitled need not act to avoid contact until it is clear that the other boat is not keeping clear or giving room or mark-room .”

Definitions

Room. The space a boat needs in the existing conditions, including space to comply with her obligations under the rules of Part 2 and rule 31, while maneuvering promptly in a seamanlike way.

Mark-room. Room for a boat to leave a mark on the required side. Also, (a) room to sail to the mark when her proper course is to sail close to it, and (b) room to round or pass the mark as necessary to sail the course without touching the mark . However, mark-room for a boat does not include room to tack unless she is overlapped inside and to windward of the boat required to give mark-room and she would be fetching the mark after her tack.

Previously-defined term (click to refresh your memory): Keep clear

Rule 14 Key Points

• This rule recognizes that preventing damage or injury is more important than preserving right of way.
• If you are a right-of-way boat and need to act to avoid contact, you assert your rights by protesting the other boat, not by letting contact occur.
• However, if there is any damage or injury at all, no matter how slight, the right-of-way boat or the one sailing within the rom or mark-room to which she is entitled will be penalized if it is found that it was reasonably possible to have avoided contact.

Rule 14 Change

Rule 14 was revised in the 2021-2024 racing rules. See the markup below.

• One change clarified that a boat entitled to mark-room must stay within the mark room to which she is entitled.
• Another change moved the discussion of exoneration to a new rule (43).

Rule 14 Insights

Various cases in the World Sailing Casebook add insights to this rule. Click the links to read more.

• Case 26: Not watching for other boats is not an excuse for avoiding contact
• Case 50: In port-starboard situations, the port tack boat (under Rules 10 and 14) and the starboard tack boat (under Rule 14) are only required to act if there is a “genuine and reasonable apprehension” of collision.
• Case 99: The right-of-way boat is not required to take extreme measures (such as a crash gybe that might cause damage in itself) to avoid a collision.
• Mark Townsend has prepared a Rule 14 decision tree to help sort through scenarios.

Rule 15 – Acquiring Right of Way

“When a boat acquires right of way, she shall initially give the other boat room to keep clear , unless she acquires right of way because of the other boat’s actions.”

There were no changes to Rule 15 for 2021-2024.

Rule 15 Scenarios

#1 – “small hole on the starting line”.

Description: Green approaches the starting line and sails between Blue and Yellow. Green expects Yellow to keep clear as the windward boat. There is no contact.

Which boat(s) should promptly take a penalty? Answer

#2 – “Tacking too Close”

Description: Yellow and Blue are sailing upwind. Yellow hails “tacking” and immediately tacks, causing contact. Yellow alleges she gave Blue plenty of warning by hailing.

#3 – “What does ‘Initially’ Mean?”

Description: Yellow and Blue are sailing downwind. Blue acquires an overlap at position 2 and Yellow protests immediately.

World Sailing Racing Rules of Sailing

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Rule 13 – While Tacking: Racing Rules of Sailing 2021-2024

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Cole Brauer becomes first American woman to sail solo, nonstop around world

A joyful Cole Brauer returned in her boat Thursday to A Coruña, 130 days after sailing away from the Spanish port city.

Completing the epic voyage made the 29-year-old the first American woman to sail around the world nonstop, with no one else aboard. Brauer’s solo feat, which unfolded over approximately 30,000 miles, was also good for a second-place finish in rigorous Global Solo Challenge.

“Amazing finish!!!! So stoked!” Brauer wrote on Instagram. “Thank you to everyone that came together and made this process possible.”

Brauer provided regular updates on her voyage, which began Oct. 29, as her Instagram following burgeoned from less than 100,000 to almost half a million. Along the way, the East Hampton, N.Y., native shared battles with high winds, monstrous waves and maintenance issues on her Class 40 monohull, named “First Light.”

The 5-2, 100-pound sailor, who learned to sail at the University of Hawaii, posted clips of herself getting bruised ribs when suddenly flung across the interior of her boat and self-administering fluids intravenously to ward off dehydration. Her journey took her around the three great capes — Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, Australia’s Cape Leeuwin and South America’s treacherous Cape Horn — and through Point Nemo, an area in the Pacific Ocean so far from any land that the nearest humans are often orbiting overhead in the International Space Station.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by COLE BRAUER OCEAN RACING (@colebraueroceanracing)

According to race organizer Marco Nannini, over half of the 16 entrants in this installment of the event have had to retire before completing it. One passed a kidney stone at sea, per Nannini, before making landfall in New Zealand for medical assistance, and another was semi-submerged and out of contact for “24 very long hours prior to rescue” after a collision in the remote Pacific.

Brauer joins a group of fewer than 200 people known to have sailed solo around the world without stopping. The first, according to a list maintained by the International Association of Cape Horners , was England’s Robin Knox-Johnston in 1969.

The first woman to accomplish the feat, per Nannini, was Australia’s Kay Cottee in 1988. Brauer is the 18th.

“It was a long and emotional day,” Nannini wrote Thursday, “which started well before sunrise after a sleepless night monitoring Cole’s progress, meeting her at sea, watching her sail at First Light into A Coruna and celebrating her outstanding achievement. Well done Cole!”

Brauer was the youngest competitor in the Global Solo Challenge field — and the only woman. Of making her mark in a “fully male-dominated world,” as she put it in a recent interview with NBC , Brauer said, “I think that it takes a lot of strength to actually push and to strive into this industry, and I really want women to understand that it’s possible.”

“It would be amazing if there was just one other girl that saw me and said, ‘Oh, I can do that, too,’” she said .

She had lived a life of adventure. Then came the ultimate sailing race.

Last year, Brauer won the opening leg of the One-Two Yacht Race , which involved sailing solo from Rhode Island to Bermuda. All competitors picked up a second sailor for the return trip, and Brauer finished first again with teammate Catherine Chimney as they became the first all-female duo to win the race overall.

Each leg of that competition took approximately three days, barely a toe in the water compared to the duration of Brauer’s just-completed circumnavigation, but the first three days of the Global Solo Challenge were some of the hardest for her. She endured a “ pretty rough, rough, rough start ” making her way around the Spanish coast after departing A Coruña, an experience she described on Instagram as a “trial by fire.”

The second day of the event began with Brauer vomiting — “I’ve never had seasickness before in my life,” she told her followers, adding that she may have suffered from food poisoning — and shortly thereafter she gave herself the IV on the advice of her medical team.

Brauer shared plenty of posts in her usually upbeat demeanor, but a Dec. 8 video found her “ angry that things keep going wrong” with her boat. “Right now, I have been feeling just broken,” Brauer said with emotion. But she was smiling at the camera the next day while engaging in some “ self care ” as some technical issues got ironed out.

By Christmas Eve , Brauer was past Cape Leeuwin, close to the halfway point of the journey as she began the long, challenging stretch across the Pacific. After dodging some strong weather systems and enduring others, she passed Cape Horn and was finally back in the Atlantic in late January. Of course, there were still some “ horrendous conditions ” to deal with, but Brauer also shared excitement about the media coverage her exploits were attracting.

“So excited to move sailing into the mainstream!” Brauer wrote on Instagram late last month. “For far too long sailing and racing has been in the shadows maybe partially due to its attempts to keep its ‘traditions’ but those ‘traditions’ have also pushed really amazing sailors out of the industry due to burn out rates and unnecessary exclusivity. This hasn’t been easy one bit but it makes it all worth it to see that we are taking this industry from the dark and bringing it into the light.”

After making her long-awaited return to dry land, she told NBC , “It was really emotional, because I see my parents, I see my friends, my family — I see everyone — and this dream has become a reality.”

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Published on August 1st, 2021 | by Assoc Editor

Racing Rules vs. Rules of the Road

Published on August 1st, 2021 by Assoc Editor -->

When two vessels encounter each other on the water, rules exist to minimize the risk of collision. But which rules apply to who and when? Tim Hohmann examines these questions.

All vessels are required to abide by the “Rules of the Road.” These rules were developed by the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea in 1972 and became effective on July 15, 1977 (with amendments in 1983 and 1989) They are commonly referred to as “72 COLREGS” or “IRPCAS”. These rules apply to “all vessels on the high seas and in all waters connected therewith navigable by seagoing vessels”.

In 1980, the U.S. adopted these rules (with some differences) as the U.S. Inland Navigational Rules, applicable to “all vessels upon the inland waters of the United States, and to vessels of the United States on the Canadian waters of the Great Lakes to the extent that there is no conflict with Canadian law.” COLREGS demarcation lines are printed on nautical charts to show mariners in the U.S. whether they’re under the International or Inland Rules.

Boats that are racing (even if they aren’t racing against each other) are also bound by the Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) that are published by World Sailing (the international governing body for the sport of sailing), with some additions by U.S. Sailing (our national governing body). These rules are updated every four years, aligned to Olympic quadrennials, so the current version became effective on January 1, 2021 and is effective until December 31, 2024.

According to the RRS rule 4 (Acceptance of the Rules) boats that are participating or intend to participate in a racing event agree to accept the RRS. Courts have considered this acceptance a “private contract” between racing boats to replace COLREGS while participating in a racing event. There are subtle but important differences in how racing sailboats under sail are required to interact with each other.

While the sole focus of COLREGS is to reduce risk of collision and ensure safety of navigation, the RRS have three purposes: 1) reduce risk of collision and ensure safety; 2) ensure fair competition; and, 3) provide a tactical tool for competitors to use to their advantage. So obviously, vessels that are not racing should observe the COLREGS and boats that are racing should abide by RRS when encountering other racing boats. But what happens when a boat that is racing meets a boat that is not? The preamble to RRS Part 2 (When Boats Meet) addresses this by saying that when a boat racing meets a boat that is not, the racing boat shall comply with COLREGS (or other government right-of-way rules, such as the U.S. Inland rules or local ordinances).

For a power-driven vessel (which is obviously not participating in a sailboat race), this means that she must keep out of the way of a sailing vessel under sail (COLREGS 18(a)(iii)), except if the sailing vessel is overtaking the power-driven vessel (COLREGS 13). It doesn’t matter whether the sailing vessel is racing or not, the responsibilities of the powerboat are the same.

Between two sailing vessels under sail, COLREGS rule 12 and RRS Part 2 rules are similar. Port tack gives way to starboard tack, and if on the same tack windward gives way to leeward. There’s an important difference in an overtaking situation. Under COLREGS an overtaking boat must keep out of the way of the boat being overtaken and the boat being overtaken is expected to maintain course & speed until the overtaking boat is well clear.

Under RRS an overtaking boat must keep clear when astern and also if she establishes an overap to windward. The boat being overtaken may maneuver to prevent the other boat from establishing an overlap, and if the other boat is passing to windward the boat being overtaken can alter course to luff the overtaking boat.

But the overtaking boat obtains right-of-way if she establishes an overlap to leeward and then the boat being overtaken must keep out of the overtaking boat’s way. The racing rules ignore the “overtaking” aspect and simply go by who’s windward and who’s leeward.

For a racing sailboat encountering a powerboat or a non-racing sailboat, there is a critical difference in how the racing boat should maneuver. Under RRS a boat with “right of way” is generally allowed to maneuver as she pleases as long as she gives the other boat room to keep clear, and a boat required to “keep clear” is allowed to pass in very close quarters to a right of way boat as long as she doesn’t cause the right of way boat to have to alter her course.

So as we noted before, under RRS a leeward boat can generally luff up as far as head-to-wind and the windward boat is required to alter course to keep clear. Often the windward boat will keep clear by only a few feet, or even a few inches – it’s expected that in a race boats will be in very close quarters.

Under COLREGS, the “stand-on” vessel is required to maintain her course and speed (unless it becomes apparent that the other vessel isn’t giving way), and a “give-way“ vessel is required to take “early and substantial action to keep well clear” of the other boat. So whether racing or not, nobody ever has “right of way” under COLREGS – neither vessel has rights and both have responsibilities to avoid collision.

If a racing boat is the stand-on vessel under COLREGS she’s obligated to maintain her course and speed so that the non-racing vessel (either sailing or power-driven) can keep well clear, even if tactical considerations or a wind shift would otherwise lead the racing boat to change course. And a racing boat which is “give-way” to a non-racing boat has to maneuver early and substantially to avoid risk of collision with a non-racing boat, where she might alter course only slightly to very narrowly avoid contact with another racing boat.

If you’re curious to learn more, you can find a copy of the RRS at https://www.sailing.org/documents/racing-rules.php (or, if you’re a member of U.S. Sailing, there’s a very excellent free iOS or Android app available for download).

A PDF of the COLREGS can be downloaded from https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/navrules/navrules.pdf (did you know – if your boat is longer than 39.4 feet (12 meters) you are required to have a copy onboard while operating your vessel? A PDF on your phone or tablet meets this requirement).

Tags: growing the sport , Racing Rules of Sailing , Tim Hohmann

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