Ellen MacArthur wrote:
You are sailing your Sunfish. There's a lot of current where your
sailing and the
wind is pretty strong and blowing the same direction the currents going.
You tack and get in irons. The wind pushes you backwards and the
current pushes
you backwards. Your sail flutters and your rudder doesn't work.
Suddenly another Sunfish runs into the side of your boat.
Who's at fault for the collision and why?


Sorry, my rudder never "doesn't work." But I know it
occasionally happens to others... an Sunfish are pretty easy
to get in irons anyway, especially with the old rudder
design (round tip profile).


Jeff wrote:
The current is irrelevant. All you have is boat A blew a tack and while
it was in irons, boat B hit it. If A tacked too close, it could be A's
fault. Otherwise, B gets most of the blame.


Agreed, if they're not racing, then ColRegs says A is not
under command and B should give way. If they are racing then
it's A's fault under the IYRU rules which say that a boat
which is tacking shall keep clear of a boat on a tack.



However, I don't see why the rudder wouldn't work - with even the
smallest amount of sternway it should be possible to get out of irons
immediately. Both skippers are likely incompetent and their testimony
is therefore unreliable.

What "Ellen" was trying to say is that the boat could be
making sternway at approx the same rate as the current,
leaving the boat effectively dead in the water and the
rudder would have no 'bite.' That's aside from getting stuck
in irons which some boats do from sheer pig-headedness... in
fact Hobie 16s and Sunfish are probably the worst I know of
for this.

If the skipper knows how to back the sail, or scull with the
rudder, or roll-tack, this doesn't happen (or at least, it
happens far less frequently).

Fresh Breezes- Doug King