"Jeff Morris" jeffmo@NoSpam-sv-lokiDOTcom wrote in message news
I'm not sure if you have some special spin on the phrase "legally made to", but if your
refusal to start the engine when it was clearly appropriate caused an accident, you could
be wholy liable.

Not so. Since an engine is NOT a requirement a working engine is also
not a requirement. All one need claim is the engine would not start and
one would be in the clear. There is no legal requirement to have a working
engine on a sailboat.

Fact 4) An auxiliary sailboat does not need to have installed
the lights for a motor vessel unless and until it
turns on the motor.

True. It also doesn't need lights during the day in good visibility. Running lights are
not "required equipment," but their appropriate use is. What's the point?

The point is your statement about Bobsprit's boat needing lower
running lights in addition to any masthead tricolor he might install
is totally wrong.


Fact 5) Anybody who claims an auxiliary sailboat must have
the lights of a motor vessel in addition to the masthead
tricolor is clearly wrong considering the above facts.


"Must"? Clearly not. So what's the point? You're not required to have any lights. But
failure to have them limits your options.

You are required to some sort of legal lights to
operate legally at night. Bobsprit does not need
to have lower running lights in addition to the
masthead tricolor as you stated in order for him
to operate at night. He can sail at night his whole
life with tricolor only and be legal.


It just so happens that this sound signal is also that of a NUC, RAM,
etc. This means that any motor vessel hearing the required signal
knows that according to the Rules it shall take action early and
adequately to avoid a close quarters situation.

Rule 19 doesn't differentiate between signals - ALL vessels must respond to ALL signals!
Did you ever even read the rules?

Yes, and the way a motor vessel responds to the signal
of a saiboat, NUC, RAM etc. in restricted visibility
is to take action early and adequately to avoid a close
quarters situation.

The proper response of a sailboat upon hearing the fog signal
of a motor vessel is to maintain course and heading and slow
down or change course only if a danger of collision exists
because the motor vessel fails to take the appropriate action
stated above. In other words the sailboat stands on until
it becomes clear that continuing to do so will result in
a collision because the motor vessel did not follow the
Rules that apply to motor vessels.

If a close quarters
situation eventuates it is solely the motor vessel's fault for not
fulfilling its obligations under the Rules. The sailboat has not
violated any Rule to cause the close quarters situation. The motor
vessel has.

If your point is that with the sail down the aux does not have to get out of the way of
the powerboat, this is correct. However, if the situations were reversed, i.e. in the
fog: a powerboat stopped, and a sailboat at full speed, it now becomes the sailboat's
responsibility to avoid the powerboat.

This is totally incorrect. A motor vessel underway but not making way
is still obligated to stay clear of a sailboat and not cause a close quarters
situation. It has a motor and it must use that motor to keep clear. The
only exception is if the motor vessel is higher in the pecking order than
the sailboat, i.e. NUC, RAM, etc. According to your silly statement any
motor vessel could stop in the path of a sailboat on purpose and it would
be the sailboat's responsibility to keep clear. Wrong. The sailboat is
the stand-on vessel and must maintain course and speed. The motor vessel
must take action early and adequately to avoid a close quarters situation.

What pecking order? There's no pecking order in Restricted Visibility. Anyone who
actually passed the test would know this.

You have tried to claim
there is no pecking order in restricted vis. but there clearly is a
pecking order because the motor vessel knows when it hears the
sound signal of a sailboat, NUC, RAM etc. that a vessel is in the
area with which the motor vessel must avoid a close quarters situation.

The concept of "pecking order" implies a priority that the rules explicitly say does not
exist. "ALL VESSELS ... MUST REDUCE SPEED" It is true that sounding the "other" signal

You seem to ignore Rule 6 which talks about safe speed.

RULE 6

Safe Speed

Every vessel shall at all times proceed at a safe speed so that she

can take proper and effective action to avoid collision and be stopped

within a distance appropriate to the prevailing circumstances and

conditions.


Reducing speed to zero for a sailboat is not operating at
a safe speed.

All vessels must reduce speed applies only to those vessels
having speed to reduce. A sailboat going along at two or three
knots in a fog does not fit the definition. It it reduces speed any
more than it will not be operating at a safe speed as required
by Rule 6

A Coast Guard vessel tied up to and repairing an aid to navigation
is in the category of "all vessels" and you are trying to say it must
reduce speed? It can't reduce speed because it has no speed to reduce.
The same goes for a sailboat. There is no way a sailboat can
reduce speed to zero. Even if it lets the sails shake, rattle and
roll it still will be making some way either forwards, backwards
or sideways, furthermore it will not be operating at a safe speed
as required.

Again you attempt to make a sailboat adhere to rules that are
meant only for motor vessels that can use their powerful
engines and thrusters to stop dead in the water.

conveys additional information that indicates extra caution is needed; it does NOT give a
vessel standon status.

I'm sorry if you are too stubborn to understand it but
when a motor vessel is required by the Rules to take
action early and adequately to avoid a close quarters
situation with any vessel signaling it is a sailboat, NUC,
RAM in restricted visibility then that means by definition
that the motor vessel is the give-way vessel. Taking action
to avoid a close quarters situation is giving way. It doesn't
get any simpler than that.

There clearly IS a pecking order and hence there IS, by definition,
a stand-on vessel and a give-way vessel in restricted vis.

The fact that one vessel should exercise special caution doesn't make the other vessel
"standon."

I'm not talking about special caution. I am talking about
a motor vessels obligation to avoid a close quarters
situation with a sailboat, NUC, RAM, etc. in a fog

Yes, it does make a pecking order. Taking action early
and adequately to avoid a close quarters situation is giving way.
Giving way means the vessel giving way is the give way vessel.

I achieved a higher score than you did because I understand the
Rules. I know the expected answers but the expected answers
don't cover the above situations with a sailboat in a fog.

You should be ashamed for being so closed-minded that
you refuse to believe what is so evident.

I think you need a good flogging at the mast!