Skiff helm should have gybed into clear water before the encounter. You held your course as expected then avoided a collision as per rule 14. It's hard to say from the video how long the Skiff had been established on that tack for, but there was plenty of room in the harbour as you say. When I race I have to give way to other boats / dinghies / yachts who are not racing - it's the rules of the road, racing gives you no priority.
C'mon dude, it is easy to see that they were racing; give those boats some space. Also, you cant just steer the bow up when sailing downwind with genaker in a 18ft skiff.
As someone who races on the harbour frequently, there's no sign up on a boat to say "I am a racing boat" and it doesn't give you any rights either. They were going to pass ahead of me but (if you look at their video) they would have passed ahead of me but bore away on a gust and were going to duck but changed their minds. Really difficult to keep clear in that instance whereas they had ample opportunity to do so. They did "just steer the bow up" when they decided to go ahead.
Paul W Sorry mate but I race 18s and if the wind changes by a knot or 2 your angle changes massively whether the skipper steers that way or not. pays to give them heaps of room early they're a difficult enough boat to sail at the best of times.
First time I've seen this video. Whilst I'm not disputing the fact you clearly had right of way, on the rare occasion I've found myself in a fleet of pro sailors, I get out of the way. They may have caught a glimpse during those few seconds where you are seen on the other vid, but I suspect they were more focusing on boat handling and the race, than small, nimble joy riders. Also, when they did steer up to avoid you, they almost dropped the rig on top of you. Could have easily been 50k of damage to both boats right there. Been there, done that, both ends of the equation. Neither one feels good.
Yeahright! As you can see from the video at 18footerstv, all three crew could see me when they had a clear view of me at 1.25.50 and again at 1.26.30 - and they were lining up to go astern but at 1.26.35 they changed their mind and tried to go in front.
Paul W Oh, OK, all I had to go on was the vision of you and the skipper with L plates staring at the tell tales for 45 seconds. Maybe next lesson could be 'situational awareness' :)
j b The first lesson might be always get the complete story before making a judgement (the link to their video was in the comments). The next lesson is how to tell the time: I looked to windward at 6 seconds and again at 35 seconds and I avoided a collision when they decided not to duck and to pass to windward instead. Here are the collision regs www.nswboating.com.au/Rules-of-the-road-at-sea.html
So, say it is a rainy night at an unlit crossing with cars approaching, would you just charge out and cross? Sure, you've got the rights but what good is that if you're going to be snotted by a car? I totally agree you had right of way, but a good lesson to teach your n00b skipper would have been 'hey, see those skiffs hammering downwind, technically we have right of way but as they're racing we might give them some room. Let's practice a tack'.
Skiff helm should have gybed into clear water before the encounter. You held your course as expected then avoided a collision as per rule 14. It's hard to say from the video how long the Skiff had been established on that tack for, but there was plenty of room in the harbour as you say. When I race I have to give way to other boats / dinghies / yachts who are not racing - it's the rules of the road, racing gives you no priority.
C'mon dude, it is easy to see that they were racing; give those boats some space. Also, you cant just steer the bow up when sailing downwind with genaker in a 18ft skiff.
As someone who races on the harbour frequently, there's no sign up on a boat to say "I am a racing boat" and it doesn't give you any rights either. They were going to pass ahead of me but (if you look at their video) they would have passed ahead of me but bore away on a gust and were going to duck but changed their minds. Really difficult to keep clear in that instance whereas they had ample opportunity to do so. They did "just steer the bow up" when they decided to go ahead.
Paul W Sorry mate but I race 18s and if the wind changes by a knot or 2 your angle changes massively whether the skipper steers that way or not. pays to give them heaps of room early they're a difficult enough boat to sail at the best of times.
Timothy Snedden I would also point out that the other boat managed to gybe away.
First time I've seen this video. Whilst I'm not disputing the fact you clearly had right of way, on the rare occasion I've found myself in a fleet of pro sailors, I get out of the way. They may have caught a glimpse during those few seconds where you are seen on the other vid, but I suspect they were more focusing on boat handling and the race, than small, nimble joy riders.
Also, when they did steer up to avoid you, they almost dropped the rig on top of you. Could have easily been 50k of damage to both boats right there.
Been there, done that, both ends of the equation. Neither one feels good.
They probably didn't even see you until it was almost too late. Not much vision to leeward on an 18 with the kite up.
Yeahright! As you can see from the video at 18footerstv, all three crew could see me when they had a clear view of me at 1.25.50 and again at 1.26.30 - and they were lining up to go astern but at 1.26.35 they changed their mind and tried to go in front.
Paul W Oh, OK, all I had to go on was the vision of you and the skipper with L plates staring at the tell tales for 45 seconds. Maybe next lesson could be 'situational awareness' :)
j b The first lesson might be always get the complete story before making a judgement (the link to their video was in the comments). The next lesson is how to tell the time: I looked to windward at 6 seconds and again at 35 seconds and I avoided a collision when they decided not to duck and to pass to windward instead. Here are the collision regs www.nswboating.com.au/Rules-of-the-road-at-sea.html
So, say it is a rainy night at an unlit crossing with cars approaching, would you just charge out and cross? Sure, you've got the rights but what good is that if you're going to be snotted by a car? I totally agree you had right of way, but a good lesson to teach your n00b skipper would have been 'hey, see those skiffs hammering downwind, technically we have right of way but as they're racing we might give them some room. Let's practice a tack'.
j b
OK so let's suppose I wasn't sailing a Weta I was sailing a 60ft Yacht. Now who has right of way?