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Armond Perretta

wrote:

Actually the USCG rules refer to

(1) A power vessel under way, defined as: The term 'power-driven
vessel' means any vessel propelled by machinery;

(2) A sailing vessel under way

and finally

(e) A vessel proceeding under sail when also being propelled by
machinery shall exhibit forward where it can best be seen a conical
shape, apex downwards. A vessel of less than 12 meters in length is
not required to exhibit this shape, but may do so. [Inld]

So it appears that the USCG does in fact differentiate between sail
boats under sail and sailboats under power by the phrase " proceeding
under sail when also being propelled by machinery" which would appear
to preclude the necessity of using a "steaming light" when simply
running engines to charge batteries, as long as the engines are not
connected to the propellers.

This gets into semantics all too quickly, of course, especially since the
COLREGs term "underway" does not mean actually moving, whether under wind
power, fossil fuel power, or in the case of a few larger vessels, nuclear
power.

As Lew has indicated, the reason that running machinery, even out of
gear, is considered "under power" is that there is no reliable way for an
observer to determine the crossing rules that apply. This is by far the
real mission of the COLREGs: to make crossing and passing situations
unequivocal and hence avoid collisions.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare