› Racing Rules Discussions › Finishing Mark 9/6/22 traffic jam at pin › Reply To: Finishing Mark 9/6/22 traffic jam at pin
Consider this…
Giving mark room means allowing the boat requesting mark room to pass the mark on the correct side.
With a downwind finish, there is no proper course that requires the boat to sail close to the mark. (Maybe this needs clarification if one end is favored, but this is what some judges have written on the RRS forum.)
In this case, the port jibe boats could pass astern of the starboard ROW boat and therefore avoid the ROW starboard boat. The port jibe boats still would pass on the correct side of the mark, so mark room was provided. Thus, the port jibe give-way boats do not have any “right” to pass between the ROW starboard jibe boat and the finish pin if that interferes with the ROW starboard jibe boat.