Ellen MacArthur wrote:
You are sailing your Sunfish. There's a lot of current where your sailing and the
wind is pretty strong and blowing the same direction the currents going.
You tack and get in irons. The wind pushes you backwards and the current pushes
you backwards. Your sail flutters and your rudder doesn't work. Suddenly another
Sunfish runs into the side of your boat.
Who's at fault for the collision and why?


Cheers,
Ellen


The current is irrelevant. All you have is boat A blew a tack and
while it was in irons, boat B hit it. If A tacked too close, it could
be A's fault. Otherwise, B gets most of the blame.

However, I don't see why the rudder wouldn't work - with even the
smallest amount of sternway it should be possible to get out of irons
immediately. Both skippers are likely incompetent and their testimony
is therefore unreliable.