Roger.. Wrong harbor ..


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"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
"Capt. JG" wrote

The sailboat clearly was in the wrong. The only quibble is that perhaps
the tow/barge could have acted sooner.


I am surprised that neither David Taylor, you, nor Bob spotted the
elephant in the room. The "sailboat" was proceeding against the tide.
The New London buoy was evidently out of commission at the time but the
mid sound buoy shows:

YYYY MM DD hh mm WD WSPD GST WVHT DPD APD MWD BAR ATMP WTMP
DEWP VIS TIDE

2007 09 09 13 15 280 4.1 5.7 0.40 4.00 99.00 999 1018.3 22.6 21.5
20.2 99.0 99.00

Possibly, a high performance boat could have made it through the bridge
against that current on a broad reach but winds were probably lighter down
in the wind shadow and he certainly would have had a problem when he hit
the wind shadow of the bridge just upstream. If this goes to court, I
think the operator will have to fight a strong presumption that he was
actually a powerboat at the time.

The article certainly should have clarified this out and done something to
help dispel the widely held misconception that guys who operate boats with
big sticks on them always have the right of way.

Rule 9 (a) is surprisingly limited in regard to the common sense idea that
traffic moving with the current has right of way in a narrow channel.
It's always true on the Great Lake and Western Rivers but otherwise only
on waters specified by the Secretary. Whether that bit of water is
"specified by the secretary" I don't know. Why 9 (a) doesn't apply to all
waters, and what is different about Eastern Rivers is a mystery.

--
Roger Long