Three boats are racing. Two overlapped boats close hauled on port tack, green and blue converge with yellow, a boat close hauled on starboard tack. Green’s sail number is 17, blue’s is 58 and yellow is 43. At position 1 Blue hailed “Five eight needs room to tack”.

Was blue entitled to make the hail? Is yellow an obstruction to blue? Did blue “soon need to make a substantial course change”? Did the wording of blue’s hail conform to the Rules?

See Rules 19 and 20, Appendix E1.3 and E2.1

What are green’s options after the hail? Do green’s course options change if blue was not entitled to make the hail?

See rules 19 and 20

Having made the hail, was blue obligated to tack?

When blue ducked yellow, was blue obligated to leave room between it and yellow for green to pass? See Rule 19.2(b)

Was green entitled to duck yellow? Did blue’s hail require green to tack instead of ducking?