News://alt.sailing.asa has become a haven for the functionally
illiterate. The group harbors the likes of Jeff Morris, Shen44,
who demonstrate they have no reading comprehension. The
COLREGS are a body of work that was put into place to
attempt to control the dangers posed by motorboats. This
is clear and this is fact yet they attempt to deny it. They
attempt to make sailboats comply with a bunch of rules put
into place to control motor boats. They attempt to make
sailboats do things only motorboats can do like stop dead in
the water. They attempt to deny the fact that a cruising sailboat
like mine is always traveling slowly and at a safe speed.
They attempt to say all vessels are equal in a fog when this
is clearly not the case.
They show on this group their ignorance which continues
to cause collisions on the water. They are arrogant, they
are callous, they are ignorant and they are dangerous.
Look at accident statistics and you will see that in
99% of the cases where there is severe injury and loss
of life it is a motor vessel that is at fault. This disparity
is what the COLREGS were written to address. The
COLREGS recognize the traditional privileged status for
sailboats and it kills the motorheads to admit this fact.