David L. Martel wrote:
Jeff,

You provide a link to a video and state that the sailboat won a lawsuit
over something. Can you provide more info on the lawsuit? A URL?

Sorry, all I know of it (other then some vague memories) is in the
comments under the video. One person who claims knowlege of the orignal
events and lawsuit has made a number of posts explaining what actually
(in his mind) transpired.

Jeff,

I went back to the video page and read the comments. Both skippers were
found to be at fault. The sailboat skipper later sued to prevent public
display of the movie that is shown. He won that suit in court. Of course,
that did not stop someone from posting it. This info is based on the
comments on the youtube page and may be totally wrong.

Dave M.

Cept the 'sail boat' had no sails up. . . .

-al-


On Fri, 02 May 2008 17:48:30 -0400, jeff wrote:


Here's a video taken about 20 miles away. As it turned out, the
sailboat won the law suit, I assume because the ferry refused to back
down and give it time to turn around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZPWA_3YfIM

The boat is still a "sailboat" even if the sails are down. I own a
"sailboat" even though the mast is down, the sails are stashed away, and
its high and dry in the yard.

Of course, for the purpose of the rules, it is only a "sailing vessel"
(i.e. vessel that is sailing) if it is under sailing and propulsion
machinery is not being used. The term "sailboat" never actually occurs
in the the rules.

As it turns out I was incorrect about the lawsuit - here's the comment
by a local observer:
"This case was brought to court and both parties were found to be at
fault. In the end it came down to the fact that neither the skipper of
the sail boat nor the steam ship authority captain wanted to yield to
the other party and this is how it ended."
The lawsuit that was won was to suppress the video - that didn't work
for too long!

Al Thomason wrote:
Cept the 'sail boat' had no sails up. . . .

-al-


On Fri, 02 May 2008 17:48:30 -0400, jeff wrote:

Here's a video taken about 20 miles away. As it turned out, the
sailboat won the law suit, I assume because the ferry refused to back
down and give it time to turn around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZPWA_3YfIM