A scary night on the water last night...

GFC I want to thank you for sharing your situation. I try to look at these scenarios as a way to get a good deal on learning from someone else. Based on your map did he cross outside of your forward 180 degrees? One of the things that we've made a habit is keeping up with anything in our forward 180 and anything inbound on our rear 180. My co-captain and I have started to verbalize what we see whenever we are operating which has helped a lot for us. The holidays have the crazies out en mass on the Potomac. That's always been my biggest issue with boating rules is it operates under a major flaw of assuming everyone is following the rules.
 
Woody said:
I do think given the COLREGS have a specific purpose that it would be good if you did memorize some of them. Stand On and Give Way are some pretty basic concepts, you shouldn't have to look in the book to see what might apply.....again, plenty of things here to discuss besides 'fault'.
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Woody, I have already said that I should have kept that sailboat in sight until we had passed each other. Had I done that this situation would never have developed.

That being said, the sailboat did do a few things incorrectly....

"Rule 14 - Head-on Situation Return to the top of the page

(a) [ Unless otherwise agreed ] when two power-driven vessels are meeting on reciprocal or nearly reciprocal courses so as to involve risk of collision each shall alter her course to starboard so that each shall pass on the port side of the other. When I first spotted him at a distance of about 1/2 mile or so ahead, he was crossing from my stbd to port. He changed course as he got near the river bank and proceeded on a reciprocal course (opposite to mine) but he was about 1/4 mile to my port side, not close enough that we were on a collision course and no action would have been needed for us to safely pass.

(b) Such a situation shall be deemed to exist when a vessel sees the other ahead or nearly ahead and by night she could see the masthead lights of the other in a line or nearly in a line and/or both sidelights and by day she observes the corresponding aspect of the other vessel.Initially I could see his red nav light and white masthead light. Same lights were visible as he changed course to run along the shore. Only as he approached from my port side did I see his green nav light. At no time were both of his nav lights visible.

(c) When a vessel is in any doubt as to whether such a situation exists she shall assume that it does exist and act accordingly."

"Rule 17- Action by Stand-on Vessel Return to the top of the page
(a) (i) Where one of two vessels is to keep out of the way, the other shall keep her course and speed."I'm not sure this even applies because we were not in a collision situation until he changed his course to cross our bow. Had he maintained his course parallel to the shore we would have passed without incident.

I would admit that my knowledge of the COLREGS is limited compared to many of you. I have always maintained that if I were in any kind of a collision situation I would yield to the other vessel regardless of which was the stand on and which was the give way. Like many of you, where we boat there is a lot of boat traffic at times. I've never been one who insisted on keeping my course if there appeared to be a chance (however slim) of a collision.

estoltz said:
My co-captain and I have started to verbalize what we see whenever we are operating which has helped a lot for us.
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We have done that for years. Not only with other vessel traffic, but if we're in an area unfamiliar to us we call out buoys to each other.
 
A few thoughts for what it is worth. Of note I sailed for many years before owning a power boat (got tired of no wind in July and August).

1. While he was a sailboat, his lighting was set up as a sailboat under power (all around white light, if it was just a sailboat his forward lights would just be red or green and no white light), doesn't matter if sails are up or down.

2. Not sure of the condition that night or how narrow the river is but my guess it is a small body to navigate. I think this is critical to remember because sailboats under sail are dependent upon the wind, a fineky friend who can guest or shift direction especially on land where objects can bend the winds path. If I was him in a narrow body at night I would have my auxiliary motor on because there isn't really the time or distance to make corrections. Being able to put the motor in gear and save your a$$ when the wind shifts and starts blowing you into rocks / shallow water is important.

3. My guess this guy didn't see you due to his view being blocked by sail or his fineky friend I mentioned above shifted causing a correction move. IF I had to guess once he cut you off and saw you.... his paints may have become a bit wet?

4. If not and he cut you off on purpose, my guess is that he is working on his Darwin award (not sure if they still give it out but cutting off a larger vessel in a narrow channel is just stupid and a good way to get yourself dead regardless of the rules). Might I suggest then you should have backed off a little more and then opened up the motor a bit. I wouldn't suggest sinking him or doing true damage with your wake, but maybe a wake up call?

Dave
 
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this thread is not going to stop until we see somebody's head on a stake!!!!.......

Z
 
CliffA said:
this thread is not going to stop until we see somebody's head on a stake!!!!.......

Z
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Is there any reason good why we are willing to settle for just one head on a stake?
 
A few days ago I mentioned this incident to a fellow power boater on my dock. When I described the boat to him he said he knew the guy and added that the guy probably cut across my bow to prove a point. (Whatever that point might have been). He went on to say that when he and his girlfriend were floating on the river it would be like this sailboater to sail past them about 3' away and scare the hell out of them because they couldn't hear him coming. Apparently he had done this a number of times. The guy felt he was such a good skipper that he could do that.

I had planned on talking to the skipper of the sailboat but after hearing this I decided that if that was his attitude there likely would have been nothing gained by such conversation.

"2. Not sure of the condition that night or how narrow the river is but my guess it is a small body to navigate. I think this is critical to remember because sailboats under sail are dependent upon the wind, a fineky friend who can guest or shift direction especially on land where objects can bend the winds path. If I was him in a narrow body at night I would have my auxiliary motor on because there isn't really the time or distance to make corrections. Being able to put the motor in gear and save your a$$ when the wind shifts and starts blowing you into rocks / shallow water is important. "

Dave, conditions were clear, fairly breezy, stars out, etc. There really is no defined channel at that point. The river is about 1/2 mile wide and of sufficient depth that the whole thing is navigable except for a small shoal on the south side of the river, just upstream from the island. Given the wind out of the SSW that night (our usual wind pattern) he could only have to point the bow a bit more upwind to stay off the shore.

With 20/20 hindsight and viewing this from 30,000', I'd say that both parties made mistakes, both could/should have done things differently and in the future both probably will. I know I will.
 
Gofirstclass said:
A few days ago I mentioned this incident to a fellow power boater on my dock. When I described the boat to him he said he knew the guy and added that the guy probably cut across my bow to prove a point. (Whatever that point might have been). He went on to say that when he and his girlfriend were floating on the river it would be like this sailboater to sail past them about 3' away and scare the hell out of them because they couldn't hear him coming. Apparently he had done this a number of times. The guy felt he was such a good skipper that he could do that.
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Well there's your confirmation, the sailboater did wrong. Should have asked the power boater sooner, it would have saved you some typing at CSR.:smt043
 
Coincidentally, we just had dinner with another couple from the marina. I mentioned what happened and they knew instantly who it was and what his boat was. I didn't even have to describe it.

Woody, I'm a decent typist and love posts on here. Mine or anyone else's.
 
Since we are dealing with Darwin award winners, my favorite:
You all know about the Darwin Awards – it's the annual honor given to the person who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way. Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out of it.
And this year's nominee is:
The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded into the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. the wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. The lab finally figured out what it was and what had happened.
It seems that a guy had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off – actually a solid fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra 'push' for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. Then he attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO!
The facts, as best could be determined, are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. This was established by the prominent scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within five seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 MPH, continuing at full power for an additional 20–25 seconds. The driver, soon to be pilot, most likely would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, basically causing him to become insignificant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15–20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet, leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock.
Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable; however, small fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted from the crater, and fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.

​
 
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