NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Navigation Rules
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2002 Jan 13, 11:57 AM
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2002 Jan 13, 11:57 AM
Trevor Kenchington wrote: >Herbert Prinz wrote: > > > How, I beg, is radar navigation on a sailboat different from that on a > > power boat. If I am sailing in dense fog and see a plot on my radar, > not only > > must I guess power or sail, but even what tack this plot is on! This is > plain > > silly. > >At least where the international rules are applicable, the priority of >sail over typical power boats (and of vessels not under command, >restricted in their ability to manoeuvre, constrained by their draft, >fishing etc. over both) is in the rules for vessels within sight of one >another. So are the priorities of starboard over port and leeward over >windward. They do not apply to vessels in fog so dense that one cannot >be seen from the other. Respectfully, my copy of the (US) Navigation Rules does not mention anything about their "not applying to vessels in fog so dense that one cannot be seen from the other." Rule 6 (both International and US Inland) clearly requires vessels to "at all times proceed at a safe speed so that she can take proper and effective action to avoid collision..." To me this says that if the fog is so thick two vessels can't see each other, they are both obligated to slow down or stop! BTW, I find myself joining others in wondering exactly how this is going to work with the new 40-knot Portland-to-Yarmouth ferry. Lu Abel