Normal Position (Or, another reason I don't race a Laser)

Q …does a capsized boat correctly finish if she crosses the finishing line when:

(a) all of the crew members are (somehow) on board even though the boat is capsized,

(b) some of the crew members are not on board but are very close to the boat and trying to straighten it out, or

(c) some of the crew members are not on board because they have become disconnected from the boat and its equipment, but are swimming to reach the capsized boat

?

A: Yes. It is normal for dinghies to capsize and therefore a capsized dinghy and its crew in the water are in a normal position. It follows that a boat finishes correctly in all the conditions stated in the question....

(Adapted from ISAF Q&A 2008-002)


Now why would people want to race a boat that is normally capsized? It's bad enough when these Laser sailors cause all sorts of confusion sailing by the lee with downwind windward banana overlaps or whatever (you'll have to look it up in volume 57 of the Laser Class Rules Encyclopedia or some such); what sorts of rules confusions are going to result when they sail by the turtled hull?

And how do you determine which boat has right of way when we have turtled-hull Lasers racing, even if they aren't sailing by the lee with downwind windward banana overlaps?

Let me race a boat that's normally right-side-up, thank you very much.