Jeremy wrote:
I was in a 40' mainship in upper Clear Lake in Houston where the channel
is very narrow, 30' and around a bend came some idiot in a J class with
his largest sheets up and a fair breeze. He cut it so close that people
on our upper deck had to duck and all the while he was screaming that we
had to give way to sail, but we had nowhere to go and no rules stat that
I have to bury the keel in mud to avoid an idiot.

Doesn't sound like a very smart place to be sailing through. At the very
least he should first check for traffic bound the other way on radio.

The sail vs power issue doesn't look relevant here, would it have been
better to meet another big motorboat coming the other way? Maybe one
pulling a big wake

You could have hailed back to this guy "I'd be glad to give way,
skipper, but my boat doesn't have wheels."

Regards
Doug King