On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 02:43:42 GMT, in message
ydzzg.289377$iF6.117034@pd7tw2no
Gary wrote:

I think we can sum this up by saying that:

Roger was probably in the right as far as Colregs and right of way was
concerned.

Single handing demands some effort to think ahead and does not grant you
any special status.

Likewise long distance double handing.

The discussion that has evolved is the requirement to have/use VHF.
That is a good topic.

I don't think that VHF radios are required on small pleasure craft but I
wonder why everybody wouldn't have one as a basic safety onboard safety
item?

Furthermore, if one is onboard why wouldn't you make best use of it as
required by the Colregs?

It is generally accepted among small boat sailors on Lake Ontario that
if you observe yourself to be converging with a freighter you should
simply tack away rather than try to negotiate a closer pass by radio,
no matter how much room and opportunity the larger vessel has to alter
course.

(I interpret the rules to say that if you have one you must use it.
Just like radar etc. "all available means")

Both Canadian and US Rules specify "all available means *appropriate*
in the prevailing circumstances and conditions". In day light with
good visibility it might be inappropriate to devote crew attention to
some means (e.g. radio, radar, etc.) if it meant reduced attention to
safe vessel operations and a visual watch. Maybe even at night...

During last month's Lake Ontario 300 we were racing double handed
towards Main Duck Island (a mark of the course that also separates the
up and downbound traffic lanes) at the east end of Lake Ontario in
full darkness. Radio conversation with the freighters was complicated
by identifying which one you were talking to. (Two upbound in
relatively quick succession, one with enough deck lighting to almost
hide its nav lights and certainly to hide the one behind.) Had we not
been racing I would have practiced our usual technique of simple
avoidance, but we radioed in hopes of being able to stay on the
favoured tack. The result was a delay in tacking out of the path of
the first freighter that we erroneously thought was altering course to
starboard as reported by the second. All available means appropriate
might have been simply acting on our visual watch and *listening* to
our radio.

Ryk