"Jeff" wrote

| Sorry, NUC is reserved for "exceptional circumstance." There are far
| more appropriate reasons in the regs to avoid the collision. "Special
| circumstances" or "limitations of vessels" would apply. And
| certainly, any vessel with the ability to avoid the collision is
| required to do so.

Being in irons and not being able to get out of irons is an *exceptional*
circumstance. I don't think *special* circumstance applies to N.U.C. boats.
Exceptional circumstance includes a boat unable to maneuver to keep out
of the way of other vessels. You can't maneuver when your in irons going
backwards in a current.

| If the rudder or mast had broken, or if the skipper was injured, you
| might be able to claim NUC status applied, but simple incompetence is
| not enough. Also, on this boat with a breeze there is no reason to be
| in irons for more than a few seconds.

Sorry but it's not always incompetence when you get in irons. Sometimes
it just happens. It could be a badly designed boat. Sunfish get in irons
all the time...

| However, there is nothing in the rules that explicitly covers the
| situation of in irons, it is not port/starboard or windward/leeward
| and the various powerboat rules don't apply. In these cases, "special
| circumstances" apply.

Nyut ah! Special circumstances is more about more than two boats involved.
It doesn't apply to two boats unless there isn't a rule and in this case there's
a rule. N.U.C.

| Thus the answer is not that boat B be should avoid the collision
| because boat A was NUC, its that boat B should avoid the collision
| because it can.

*AND* because a sailboat mustn't get near enough to N.U.C. boats to hit them.

| BTW, NUC is a condition that implies other should avoid hitting you.
| It does not absolve you of responsibility. Consider this
| situation: a 25 foot sloop crosses a major shipping lane at night and
| becomes becalmed in front of an oncoming tanker. They try to start
| the outboard and break the throttle. The tanker runs aground to avoid
| collision. Who is at fault?

A shipping lane doesn't give a ship any extra rights. (or did you mean a
narrow channel?) The tanker needs to alter course so it won't hit the sailboat
and since it's also N.U.C. it goes double. If the tanker ran aground, it's his
own fault.


Cheers,
Ellen