It happen,s all over the world!!

[diesel falcon]

[Hockham Admiral]

Coming out of Gozo?

Probably bladdered!

[goodall_m1]

Yes if the yacht skipper had seen that the ferry was already moving he might have decided not to move off but he is already moving so lets look at the incident in terms of the International ColRegs?

Both vessels are power-driven, both are leaving the harbour and both are moving so which rules actually apply?

Officially the ferry is the overtaking vessel and should keep clear (so she is actually the give-way vessel) but doesn't have enough room to leave the yacht to port, so would be expected to slow down and leave behind the yacht or leave her to starboard.

The regulations don't actually give commercial vessels precedence, although it is usually prudent to work on the principle of "fibre-glass gives way to steel"...

Ok so what could the yacht do in this situation, she could alter to port and go down the wrong side of the channel out of the harbour against other incoming craft or stop and let the ferry go by...

And what happens then if the ferry had already decided to alter to port to pass down her port side!

So perhaps it might not be as obvious a situation as it first appears....

[diesel falcon]

The thing that got me was the Yatch skipper actually slowed right in the entrance, and why put your boat directly infront of an heavy ferry in a tight(for the ferry) port, these ferries run every 15minutes so why get involved??

[pks1702]

I think you will find one of the following may apply surely:

"A vessel restricted in her ability to manoeuvre†means a vessel which from the nature of her work is restricted in her ability to manoeuvre as required by these Rules and is therefore unable to keep out of the way of another vessel.

"A vessel constrained by her draught†means a power-driven vessel which, because of her draught in relation to the available depth and width of navigable water, is severely restricted in her ability to deviate from the course she is following.

Or Rods rule "Might is right"

[senator]

Looking at the angles, which may be deceptive in the photos, I would say that the ferry had sufficient angle not to be overtaking but actually the stand on vessel approaching the yacht from the yachts starboard side. It is not until the yacht reaches the exit channel and turns to port that the angle could be defined as overtaking.

Hence the yacht should have waited for the ferry to pass, but should the skipper have felt there was a risk of collision through this, turned to port an carried on turning to port until the arc brought him behind the ferry.

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[Hockham Admiral]

I won't say "B***** the Col Regs" but anyone who isn't either drunk or stupid wouldn't argue with a steel Ship!

[Julz]

As per a previous post last June, we were onboard a cruiseship coming out of the port of Mold in Norway, when an idiot of a yachtsman, complete with his young family onboard, did likewise to these pictures.

Infact, when I first glanced at these, I thought it may have been the same inceident, the fore deck of our ship being the same colour, and the yacht being the same size and proximity, the only thing was the lack of screaming and very frightened children onboard the yacht as they sailed under the forepeak of an 11 deck high, 94ft beam cruiseship, whos horns were booming loudly, and crew were franticaly waving and shouting at the skipper from the side gantry of the bridge deck.

Luckily we managed to avoid a serious collision with only a few feet to spare, the yacht at one point completely disapeared from the view of the vantage point of Crows nest bar above the bridge he came that close, but this yachtsman certainly took it to the word that 'power should give way to sail', even if it was the equvilent of a Mouse trying to take on a Lion of the boating world, a very scarey few mins indeed, for passengers and ships crew alike

Julz

[pks1702]

Reminds me of this one...

[quo vadis]

Colregs! I think common sense and courtesy should prevail here, but thats something our rag and stick brigade don't seem to have any regard for!