I would beg to differ with you on this one. There is nothing in the
rules that require that a ship be totally unable to maneuver, only
that it may be unable to maneuver as require required by the rules in
some situation. Otherwise, you'd have to say the every NUC near land
should immediately drop an anchor as a last ditch effort to prevent
disaster.

My instructor went to pains to come up with examples such as rudder
control lost where there is only limited control to turn one way.
Loss of one engine of two could cause the same. Loss of reverse (or
better yet, forward!) might be cause for NUC. The courts have been
rather strict in this, so that the disability must be severe, but it
does not have to be total.

For a vessel to be a RAM, there may be a wide spectrum of lack of
maneuverability, but it includes situations such as a dredging barge
which may be totally incapable of maneuvering without a *lot* of notice.

So how to you say that a severely crippled NUC has rights over an
essentially immobile RAM? There is no obvious solution, and the rules
have rightfully said that neither has "rights" over the other. In
practice, guidance must be found in Rule 2 to resolve this.

I will admit that in in my experience, NUC's are pretty rare. I've
only seen one formally declared, and it was a total breakdown that was
adrift until brought under control by tugs. But I've seen a large
number of RAM's that essentially had no ability to react. The one
difference, and you might see this as significant, is that the RAM can
generally plan in advance how it might handle various situations,
while a NUC probably has little advance notice of its problems.



otnmbrd wrote:

Incorrect..... NUC is unable to maneuver...."PERIOD"
RAM is ABLE to maneuver but in a highly restricted fashion
(generally).
For this reason you will see most pecking orders keep NUC above RAM.
For example: A ship, broken down with no possible way to use it's
engine.....this vessel is NUC. Approaching it is an aircraft carrier,
launching aircraft....this vessel is RAM.

Now, by your account, these two vessels are equal..... not so.
The broken down ship has no options, while the carrier does. The carrier
may be able to slow/speed-up or alter course slightly to avoid....it may
have to cease operations until clear of the NUC (remember, the carrier
CAN maneuver).

The remainder of what you say is more of your uninformed nonsense not
worth commenting on other than to restate your lack of understanding of
Rule 2 and the various possibilities of conditions and circumstances not
specifically written within the rules.


otn