Incident with rowers

Judders

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Daka's (apparent) wind up thread has got me going - Actually, I had a moment not disimiliar with a rower on sunday. We were motoring a 40' yatch in the middle of the channel and I have to say, I saw them late, we were having instrument trouble and I probably looked too long at the instruments. When I did see them, they were 100 yards infront of me. The channel at this point was about 30 yards wide (although there was a much wider are in which their four inch draft would have been fine). When I first saw them they were, like us, in mid channel but they were heading towards my starboard side. I believe that they hadn't seen us. Because of their direction of travel, I decided that being rowers, they would stand on and head towards what was technically the wrong bank. I therefore turned to port. Four or five seconds later, they turned very deliberately to starboard, cutting away from their original course, which was now clear, and cutting me off completely from turning back.

Now we got the usual mouthful of abuse that you get from rowers, interspersed with their rant about how we should be on the other side of the channel, but there seemed little to be gained by getting into a debate about colregs. They were right, I had gone down the wrong side, but only because they were heading to the wrong side and I took a punt on the idea that as they were not looking where they were going, the liklihood was that they would stand on.

Thoughts?
 

DAKA

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I'm an expert on rowers too /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I shared a 10 mile stretch of canal for 10 years ,I was instrumental in getting one banned from the canal, but I dont want to gain the reputation of a wind up merchant /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

My home waters
e647e8d4ea1662169cc90f60a61b5887.jpg
 

Judders

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[ QUOTE ]
Keep to the right side of the channel, slow down and yell.

[/ QUOTE ]

But to do that would be to continue to be in their path.
 

dom

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I would never navigate a vessel on that canal. I stick to inland waterways with red algae on one side and green on the other.
 

chuckaduck

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Rowers AHHHH Bless

Their main trouble is

1 attitude
2 lack of colreg knowledge
3 lack of common sense
4 bad manners and swearing

in any situation all that is needed is common sense ok we have colregs but in the end boils down to common sense unfortunatly not often seen when it comes to robos
 

dom

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Being serious for the moment getting onto the left hand side of the channel is risky as the moment they see you they will swerve to the right. By keeping right slowing and yelling at them they will probably see you and avoid you. What you did was not wrong though it is a judgement you made on the spot to avoid a collision which is fine.

And as to the outcome these chaps are often all hyped up and would have abused you anyhow so I would not worry about that.
 

shmoo

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Narrow channel and deep draft yacht, motoring = black cylinder.

I would have one myself but I don't know where to buy a yacht sized one.
 

Birdseye

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40 ft yacht motoring - maybe 7 knots? Tell them to get their backs into it - I've been overtaken by a canoist at that speed. They shouldnt have enough breath left to shout obscenities!
 

pheran

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I once wrote to the secretary of Reading Rowing Club and asked whether rowing attracted naturally arrogant young men or they were taught arrogance after they had joined the club. I didn't get a reply!
 
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