Gerald wrote:
"DSK" wrote in message
.. .
The power boat culture is not like the sailboat society. They can rock
your
sailboat with a big wake and wave their hands at you with a smile


Bill Kearney wrote:
Or just blindly tack directly in front of another vessel and then whine
about "right of way" having not taken at least the slightest look around
first.

Why attribute "tacking in front of another vessel" to blindness? Could it
be a windshift, shoaling water, engaged in racing?

Neither windshift or racing afford a sailboat any special privleges under
the rules.

If you had a clue, you wouldn't think that sailboats "tack blindly" or at
random, much less think they were under any obligation to keep clear of
motor vessels.

Many sailors think they always have "right-of-way" over powerboats. The
rules DO discuss a few situations where sailboats are the Stand On Vessel.
While these few cases are probably the most common situations most people
deal with on a day-to-basis - mostly crossing --- the situations in the
rules where a sailboat may be the Give Way vessel are more numerous. Many
sailors seem to operate onder the "Sail over Power" concept that does not (I
don't think ever did) exist. Sailboats are frequently under obligation to
stay clear of motor vessels.

Boo Hoo!

If you ever sailed, you would understand why it seems, wrongly, that
sailors essentially ignore powerboats.

It ain't so, but it boils down to the same thing.

As well, remember that nothing in the rules prevents, as a general
rule, any vessel from going to where they are going, which may not be a
point of interest for some one in a high speed power conveyance.

Tough. It's a fact of life that sailors have many encumberances to
their freedom to navigate, unlike power driven vessels who can easily
avoid sailors, who need never fear that a sailor will ever persue them
to harrass them or collide with them or "wake" them or splash them or
manouver to take their picture advantageously.

Sailors must do some of the things you seem to take as malicious
mischief.

That is why the rules seem to create, and actually do create, an
environment where power boats are expected to steer around sailboats.
We are helpless against your power and especially against your
ignorance.

It's tough, but you can do it. You will do it. It's the law, and
rightly so, and for good reasons proved over many years of litigation
in admiralty court and agreed by all or most of the national
governments of the world who border on water. You are not expected to
understand, but you must comply.

We sailors cannot ensure it, but even so most of us do our best not to
embarrass power boaters who aren't looking or thinking, though we are
having enough trouble keeping clear of shallows, rocks, swimmers,
deadheads and other sailboats, with all of our dependance on wind
shifts you don't even notice, depth requirements you don't think about,
and slavishness to 3 knot currents that mean nothing to you.

Our passion is to enjoy nature on the water, not to plow through it at
speed. Consider us as hazards on a golf course. Be a sport.

Don't hog all the dock outlets, either.

Terry K