Who Has "right Of Way"

[MauriceMynah]

I have a question for (or should it be “to”) all you sailies.

Over the past 3 weeks I’ve been bimbling round the waters, sometimes with my friend Bernie. Now, Bernie is a sailie but there were times when the destination took precedence over the boating. On these occasions, we strapped his yacht (Megs) to Nyx and I towed him to wherever we were going.

 

He informed me that a vessel towing had right of way over sailing boats (and motor boats not towing) though he also pointed out that towing a tender didn’t count. Fair enough I thought (Ok, actually I thought “Yipeee, revenge is sweet” but I’ll not dwell on that) as long as the sailing fraternity understands that, we won’t have a problem.

 

Now, this is the situation we experienced.  We timed the Breydon for heading north perfectly so we had a good following tide heading through Yarmouth. Just beyond the now defunct moorings (I forget their name) we caught up with four or five quite large broads wooden sailing craft. They were tacking. This tells you that although the tide was with them, the wind was against them.

 

The other thing they were doing which always annoys me was that they were all very close to each other, all at differing stages of each of their tacks presenting me with an almost impossible barrier to pass.

 

“No problem” My friend tells me, “We have the right of way”. 

 

Even though I am hugging the right hand bank as I approach the first and second of these yachts, the first one cuts right across my bows forcing me to go hard astern, loosing steerage and nearly hitting one of the right hand navigation posts.

 

“Oi!” shouts my mate, “We have right of way” he calls to the first yachtsman. “I know that” replies the sailor as he goes about, to start his next tack.

 

I manage to go astern of him and to regain full control I give the engine a bit of thrutch. This seems to be construed by the other sailies to be me ‘coming through come hell or high water’ “Everything forward and trust in the Lord” I think to myself and pass the bloody lot of them.

 

I have mulled over this situation in my mind  many times since that event and keep wondering about the rights and wrongs of it.

 

These are the salient facts as I see them.

 

1. The group of yachts were sailing so close to each other they… a. didn’t give themselves sufficient room to manoeuvre, and b. posed a far greater obstacle to pass.

 

2. I was in effect ‘overtaking’ them thus it was my duty as the overtaking vessel to stand clear of them.

 

 

3. They were proceeding so slowly I could not maintain proper control of my vessel and its tow at that speed.

 

We stopped at the Stokesby  Ferry Inn for a beer and in the fullness of time the flotilla of yachts also stopped there. My friend Berenie went to have a chat to them, I believe to apologise for shouting and the entire event held no animosity on either side, but I still wonder… Had there been an incident and the matter investigated, Who DID have right of way? What should the various parties have done?

[Viking23]

I guess the question is, if a boat is lashed to the side of yours, then technically is this a towing situation, as compared to another vessel being towed some distance from the stern?

[quo vadis]

Where your movements restricted by the vessel you were towing/ assisting?

[MauriceMynah]

7 minutes ago, quo vadis said:

Where your movements restricted by the vessel you were towing/ assisting?

Yes, I was surprised at first how much having a tow (strapped beside me) messed with the handling. not to mention my beam being almost doubled so I take up more river.

[quo vadis]

Then you have right of way, simples

[quo vadis]

Oh just realised what I have said because there will be arguments where you  displaying the correct day or night signals?

[Gracie]

Under any circumstances, weather conditions, tides or even a ruddy tsunami, just remember a sailie thingy ALWAYS has the right of way  (they do in my book anyway lol)

Grace

[Hockham Admiral]

Sorry, Grace, but I have to quote the regs:
 

Sailboats under sail generally have right of way over most recreational powerboats, because sailboats are assumed to have more restricted maneuverability than powerboats (for example, a sailboat cannot turn and sail straight into the wind to avoid a collision). But by the same principle, sailboats must give way to any boat with less maneuverability.

 

Following is the order of increasing maneuverability. Any boat lower on the list must give way to boats higher on the list:

A disabled boat
A boat that is difficult to maneuver, like a dredge or barge in tow
A boat whose maneuverability is restricted by size or draft, like a freighter
A boat engaged in commercial fishing, like a trawler
A boat being rowed
A sailboat
A recreational powerboat

[Gracie]

You always get a smarty pants  

Grace

[Vaughan]

I hope this immediately points up why towing is forbidden by hire boats!

There is a difference in the International Rules for the Prevention of Collision At Sea, between open waters and inland waters.

In confined waters the actual manoeuvrability of a vessel becomes the over-riding factor, especially if you consider 800 ton coasters on their way up the Yare. Even sailies keep out of the way of them!

Towing usually infers one boat pulling another, often by a long line, in which case you genuinely cannot manoeuvre  and must have right of way. As there are no locks on the Broads, towing is done alongside, where there is a fair amount of control, so long as you are used to it. Maurice M has just discovered (luckily at no cost) how difficult it can be. There is definitely a skill to it.

There will be times, during river races, where you simply cannot overtake tacking yachts and will have to wait behind. If you have an alongside tow and cannot control it at slow speed I would hope that a call to the yachts to explain, would result in them giving way.

[Polly]

A final point from colregs is that all boats regardless have the responsibility to avoid a collision in the final reckoning, so nobody can assert their rights to the last degree.

[Hockham Admiral]

18 minutes ago, Polly said:

A final point from colregs is that all boats regardless have the responsibility to avoid a collision in the final reckoning, so nobody can assert their rights to the last degree.

Tell that to the racing fraternity!

I used to crew for the British Champion International 470 helm. He was ruthless and would deliberately hit a competitor when we were in the right, causing them to perform a 720 penalty.   

[JennyMorgan]

These are the rules that apply to the Broads, I'm sure that the answer is here somewhere:

http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/399230/Navigation_Byelaws_1995-1.pdf

[Polly]

Oh well racing.........

[Liberty]

Nothing to do with give-way or stand-on, but I was taught to mind how the boats are positioned - the stern of the boat providing the power and steering should be further back than the vessel being 'towed' in order to retain maximum steering control.  Also, the weight of the vessel alongside can be used to advantage when turning by judicious use of reverse and momentum.  

 

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, Liberty said:

 

Nothing to do with give-way or stand-on, but I was taught to mind how the boats are positioned - the stern of the boat providing the power and steering should be further back than the vessel being 'towed' in order to retain maximum steering control.  Also, the weight of the vessel alongside can be used to advantage when turning by judicious use of reverse and momentum.  

 

 

This is very true. Turning a tow is much more effective when going astern, so always start your turn "away" from the towed boat.

When mooring alongside, always moor with the towed boat on the bank side. This means working the engine in ahead and astern will always move the towed boat towards the bank. This may mean mooring with the current in a river, so long as you have a good crew, to get the stern line on quick. If not, choose the other side of the river.

Remember that with an alongside tow, even at speed, you are going sideways, so always look up the river in front of you, and not at the bow of your own boat, otherwise you will soon end up with the towed boat up the reeds!

[Poppy]

23 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

These are the rules that apply to the Broads, I'm sure that the answer is here somewhere:

http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/399230/Navigation_Byelaws_1995-1.pdf

Wherein, one will find the following passage on a very early page..

"The Collision Regulations as hereinafter defined shall not apply

in any waters to which these Byelaws apply."

 

There always seems to be somebody who quotes ColRegs when Broads Navigation issues arise......

[TheQ]

On 13/08/2016 at 10:21 AM, Hockham Admiral said:

Tell that to the racing fraternity!

I used to crew for the British Champion International 470 helm. He was ruthless and would deliberately hit a competitor when we were in the right, causing them to perform a 720 penalty.   

That in itself is now a disqualification offence, i.e. failure to avoid a collision, the correct  procedure today is to tack to avoid the collision , and call protest and raise a red flag.

[TheQ]

Part 2 of my answer, if the port tack does his 720 turn then the protest is cancelled, if port tack boat does not then both boats would be disqualified.

[kfurbank]

As Polly pointed out, the Colregs do not apply to the Broads, ONLY the BA byelaws. The simple answer to Maurice is that you did not have right of way even though you were towing.

Byelaw 23 gives the order of priorities between classes of vessel. Towing is not specifically mentioned, but a sailing vessel should give way to a vessel restricted in its ability to manoeuvre, however in byelaw 6 which gives the interpretations, a vessel restricted in its ability to manoeuvre is given to mean a vessel by the nature of it's work. As Maurice has a pleasure boat, and not a commercial tow or recovery boat, then he cannot be a vessel restricted by its ability to manoeuvre as far as the byelaws are concerned. He may argue he was restricted  but not as far as the byelaws goes.

Byelaw 24 says that sailing boats should not impede commercial or passenger vessels, whilst going on to say that nothing in byelaw 24 relives a master of their responsibilities under byelaw 23, which almost seems contradictory, however I believe the intention is that whilst the master of a passenger vessel should still give way to a sail boat, the saily should at the earliest opportunity let the passenger vessel pass, rather than insisting on tacking back and forth with the current and impeding the passenger vessel. So an immediate give way by the passenger vessel for a short, but not long delay. Byelaw 24 further goes on to exclude pleasure vessels less than 49ft in length from the class of vessels that a saily must not impede.

Byelaw 27 goes on to explain legal ways to tow a vessel, but does not give right of way over any other vessel.

Finally byelaw 38 goes on to describe the marks and lights that need to be exhibited if a vessel claims to be restricted in its ability to manoeuvre. As mentioned previously byelaw 6 interpretations relates to works vessels, not pleasure vessels, but if one was still claiming to be a vessel restricted in their ability to manoeuvre, were the right lights and shapes being exhibited by Maurice?

So coming full circle, there is nothing in the byelaws that give a pleasure motor boat towing right of way of a saily, other than common courtesy and perhaps common sense.

 

 

[LondonRascal]

This was a long side tow, from the lower Bure to Thurne Mouth where the owner of the sports boat managed to get his engine going, but soon died again so back under tow to his berth in Horning.

Interestingly Broad Ambition did not seem much perturbed by the extra weight and drag with just a little more rudder required and forethought to maneuvers.  It certainly made for some interesting looks as we proceeded along the river though!