'A yacht running ashore or foul of a vessel or other obstruction may
use her own anchors, boats, warps, &c., to get off,' but must take
them on board again, and must receive no assistance except from the
crew of a vessel fouled (Rule 23).
A yacht which touches a mark or competitor, or which wrongfully causes
another yacht to do so, forfeits all claim to the prize (Rule 24).
A yacht must be propelled by her sails alone after first gun (except
as stated in Rule 23). She may anchor, but not slip. She must not make
fast to buoys, &c. She must not send an anchor out in a boat (except
as stated in Rule 23). Any sounding must be done with lead and line
alone (Rules 25, 26, and 27).
Yachts racing at night must carry lights by Board of Trade rules (Rule
28).
When accidents occur, competing yachts must help to save life (Rule
29).
A skipper should also remember that, 'should a flagrant breach of the
racing rules be proved' against him, 'he may be disqualified by the
Council,' for any stated period, 'from sailing in any race held under
the Y.R.A. rules' (Rule 32).
_Duties of the Official Measurer_
An official measurer should be prepared to measure a yacht promptly at
short notice. Consequently no person should accept the post whose time
is much engaged in other business or pursuits.
The measurement of a racing-yacht's _sails_ is left very much in the
hands of the sailmakers. The only check usually applied is the
measurement of the spars on which the sails are set. The secretary of
the Y.R.A. is then able to check the accuracy of the sailmaker's
measurements as recorded on a 'sailmaker's certificate,' which is
guarded afterwards by the secretary, Y.R.A.
For instance, to check a cutter's mainsail, the boom and gaff are
measured.
It would occupy too much space to describe the whole of the sail
measurements, which are detailed on six or seven pages of the Y.R.A.
book of rules--under Rule 3. Let it suffice to say that the actual
area of each sail abaft a mast is found, and that the head-sail tax is
obtained by the measurement of the fore-triangle; which will be done
in 1894 as follows:--
'The perpendicular will be taken from the deck at the foreside of the
mast to where the line of the luff of the foremost head-sail when
extended cuts such perpendicular, and the base will be taken from
foreside of mast to where the line of luff of foremost head-sail cuts
the bowsprit, other spar, or hull' (General Meeting, Y.R.A., December
6, 1892).
The instructions to the measurer issued by direction of the Council on
May 8, 1889, are, briefly, as follows:--
He must not measure a yacht in which he is interested as owner,
designer, builder, or otherwise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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