Scotty wrote:
"Jeff" wrote in message
. ..
Ellen MacArthur wrote:
...
NUC = unable to maneuver/unable to keep out of the
way
RAM = restricted to maneuver/unable to keep out of
the way
FISH = restricted to maneuver/able to keep out of
the way
totally wrong. It quite possible that a fishing boat is
unable to
keep out of the way.


How so?

Its quite possible that a fishing boat has nets or other gear out that
make it virtually impossible to maneuver. Each situation must be
considered on its own merit. However, if a collision were caused by a
fishing vessel's inability to stay clear of a RAM, it would have to
defend its position. If a cable layer had informed it that it was
coming through soon, it would be hard to defend, but if a ferry
suddenly lost steering control and hit a fishing boat, it might be
different.

My point here was that Ellen was trying to infer what the "pecking
order" should be from the definitions of the classes. Then she
over-simplifies the definitions.

There are three categories of vessels that are "restricted" and the
rules have little to say about which is more restricted. There is an
apparent implication that fishing vessels are less restricted because
they must stay clear of NUC's and RAM's, but I claim that is not
necessarily true. I tend to think of it more that fishing vessels
have more options about how, when, and where they deploy gear, RAM's
less options, and NUC's have few or no options. But again, this is
not supported in the rules either, its just a framework in my mind.