Good story, but I don't think it qualifies as "throwing out the
rules." As you know, the rules assume and even provide some guidance
for situations where vessels arrange their own "alternate" solutions,
and this was just one of them.

And, you could certainly say this falls with Rule 2 as a "special
circumstance."

cruisin wrote:

On Oct 31, 12:35 pm, Charlie Morgan wrote:
On 31 Oct 2006 08:26:02 -0600, Dave wrote:

On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:41:50 -0500, Charlie Morgan said:
What a great thread! Though it seems to be almost done and gone, I
have to share a quick, fairly apropo, story. Many years ago I was
sailing a Ranger 33 into Newport Harbor, CA, on a very busy Sunday
afternoon, something I never would have attempted had not the Atomic 4
been dead. I was delivering the boat there for the upcoming Ensenada
Race because the owner couldn't spare the time. As we approached the
courtesy dock in front of Newport Harbor Yacht Club, we found ourselves
in the middle of a very intense junior regatta, maybe 50 sabots, all in
our way, and most "stand on" since we were on port IIRC. A perfect
time to throw out the rules and yell to the kids that we had no engine
and one shot to sail onto the dock, which we did, and they were cool,
got out of the way, and we made a decent landing under the watchful
eyes of Dennis Connor (who just happened to be there) and the owner of
the Ranger. An unforgettable pucker-factor situation, but everyone
agreed there was no other viable option. Sometimes ya just gotta say
screw the rules and get 'er done, hopefully without mishap.
Whoever once said "rules are meant to be broken sometimes" was right.
Best,
Mike
50 ton master power and sail, with towing endorsement,
don't claim to know s**t, and will defend it to the end.