NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Relative plotting vs Geographical plotting
From: Herbert Prinz
Date: 2002 Jan 12, 3:07 PM
From: Herbert Prinz
Date: 2002 Jan 12, 3:07 PM
Brian asks: >> Now who's right? << That's easy. Capt. Kliment is 100% right under inland rules, and you are wrong under COLREGS! An overtaking vessel (i.e. coming up from more than 22.5 deg abaft the beam) has to keep clear of the vessel being overtaken (no matter what kinds of boats are involved) Under COLREGS, if the cooperation of the vessel being overtaken is required (such as in a narrow water way), agreement must be reached first via the exchange of special "overtaking" signals (NOT "turning" signals, as you say!). If the vessel being overtaken decides to change course, it must sound the respective maneuvering signals _in addition_ to the former. It is interesting to note that this is the one single case where the COLREGS deviate from the concept of "signal of execution" and adopt the "signal of intent" from the inland rules. The notion of "windward" never comes into play in an overtaking maneuver. Unfortunately, the error to assume that it does, is common. There were some disappointed sailors in the Long Island Sound who thought they could force me into the wind by mis-applying Rule 12.a.(ii), when all they got from me was 5 blasts of my horn. Private yacht club racing rules have no application on public water ways. Speaking of Rule 12... It is beyond my comprehension why we still have this rule. It made good sense at the time of square riggs, but it is totally anachronistic nowadays. Wouldn't life be so much simpler for everybody if Rule15 applied to sailboats too? This discussion here originated from a radar plotting exercise. 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. As to whether "one might assume that a person attending a traditional navigation list might [...] be operating a sailing vessel", let me say this: "Navis" means "ship". No connotation of sail, whatsoever. "Traditional" is a weakly defined concept. But, most important, almost all the sailing vessels that I see on the Long Island Sound are, by COLREG standards, actually power vessels at least twice a day, and particularly so when engaged in an overtaking maneuver. Best regards Herbert Prinz (from 1368950/-4603950/4182550 ECEF)
