"Frank Boettcher" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 14 Sep 2006 18:35:33 -0400, Jeff
wrote:

Frank Boettcher wrote:
...

I personnally have tacked up Gulfport small craft
channel (at one
point about 40' across), with a dead engine in a boat
drawing 5' and
had teenagers on sunfish screaming starboard at me.
They might need
to go back to the sailing school and learn the meaning
of "least
manueverable".

Frank

OK, I have to ask. What is the rule of "Least
Maneuverable"? Is this
some special local rule down in the Gulf? I scanned the
Colregs and
it doesn't show up there.

You invoked that before but didn't quite explain. Did
you mean that
the sport fisherman has right of way because its less
maneuverable?


Truth be known, I don't think I have ever read it. It was
explained
to me in a piloting course I took many years ago in the
context that
sailing vessels don't automatically have right of way over
power
boats.

And it may always be determined after the fact, i.e. in
the courts if
there is an incident.

Concept is simple. In the example above, my channel bound
boat
tacking to windward in a narrow channel always has the
right of way
over a sunfish that is not channel bound, regardless of
what tack I'm
on. Because I am " least manueverable" given the narrow
amount of
room I have to manuever.


By channel bound, are you saying it's a RAM?



If you are sailing and on intersection with a supertanker
that
requires miles to stop or change course, even if not
channel bound,
least manueverable is the rule.

If you are sailing and approaching a barge train of two or
three coal
barges heading for the power plant, they will always be
considered
"least manueverable" and have right of way.



We call that 'the rule of tonnage', though it's not really
an official rule.





If the sport fisherman is channel bound, and you are not,
it is your
obligation to avoid, if on a collusion course that would
occur in the
channel.


A lot of big sportfish type boats like to ride in the
channels of the Chesapeake Bay, even though there's plenty
of depth for them outside. Some get belligerent about moving
out of the channels.


--
Scott Vernon
Plowville Pa _/)__/)_/)_