of sailing. The boat in red is on port tack and is the give way vessel. The green boat

is on starboard and is the stand on vessel. The red boat must avoid the green boat by

either steering behind the starboard boat, or, tacking onto starboard tack to match the

green boat and sail alongside it.

The same rule applies if you are sailing with the wind behind you. Once again the boat in

red is on port so should avoid the boat in green which is sailing on starboard. The red

boat has the choice of turning behind the green boat, or gybing onto starboard to sail

alongside the green boat.

Let’s now look at when a close hauled boat meets a boat sailing away from the wind. The

red boat is close hauled but sailing on port, so should avoid the green boat that is on

a dead run on starboard. As before the red boat must keep out of the way by either tacking

out of the way like this, or turning to steer behind the green boat.

Let’s look at this in reverse. Here it’s the boat that’s sailing away from the wind

that is on port tack (marked in red) and the other boat sailing close hauled is on starboard.

Once again the red boat must avoid the green boat by either steering behind it, or turning

onto the opposite gybe to sail clear.

Here we see two boats sailing on port. In this situation it’s the boat that has the

wind behind it sailing down the screen that’s the give way vessel so must take avoiding

action. And steers behind the close hauled boat to keep clear.

Now let’s look at what happens when overtaking. Here the overtaking boat must keep clear at

all times, by either sailing well to the windward side, or by turning underneath and sailing

well to the leeward side. Let’s look at boats on converging courses.

In this situation it’s the boat that’s on the windward side that is the give way

vessel, and must adjust its course to avoid a collision. Or steer behind the other vessel.

The rules we’ve just illustrated are the most common and most basic. Please be aware

that other situations do exist, and if in doubt keep clear of other vessels to avoid

collisions well

in advance.