Subject: Shen44 is no Master!
From: "Jeff Morris" jeffmo@NoSpam-sv-lokiDOTcom
Date: 07/30/2003 04:33 Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

I'd be curious about the precedent, just for the sake of completeness.

Have never seen the "legal" precedent, but have read this in some "Rules of the
Road and what they mean" books ....most recently, one put out by Ocean
Navigator/Professional Mariner.


However, I'm not sure it makes any difference in the real world.

Yes and no .... It affirms their inability to maneuver, period.

First off all, the only real difference is the "pecking order." If a
sailboat were to
become a NUC, it would jump ahead of Fishing Vessels and CBDs. But does
this change
anything? If a sailboat is fully becalmed, its doesn't actually gain
anything by being
a NUC - the fishing boat has the same obligation to go around.


??? sailing vessel normally stays clear of a fishing vessel, or am I missing
something ....wait....read it again....yes, it will still have to go around
(because the boat is becalmed), but, it confirms to the fishing boat that the
sail has no auxillary and is incapable of maneuvering.

The only issue would be in the courts, to access liability, and for this we
can only
speculate. It has been held the boats that falsely claimed to be a NUC where
still
obligated to perform the action they sought to avoid. But that's not an
issue with a
becalmed sailboat. On the other hand, the fishing vessel, upon seeing the
NUC signals,
has been informed of the issue and would have to respond promptly.

So if displaying the NUC signal doesn't alter the desired proper resolution,
and doesn't
increase the sailboat's liability, it would seem that e sailboat is
"entitled" to do it.


I would say that logic is on the side of displaying, for many reasons.

Shen