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