La Vagabonde : the collision regs

bluerm166

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In the latest episode : gybing out of the straits of Gibraltar ,surely they are taking the absolute p*ss out of the regs ? See 11:04 .
 
Edits don't help to draw a conclusion although they appear not to be compliant with crossing the marked TSS on their own chartplotter IRCPS RULE 10. Don't do that in the English channel otherwise the fines are significant , unless of course the Patreons will pay
 
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In the latest episode : gybing out of the straits of Gibraltar ,surely they are taking the absolute p*ss out of the regs ? See 11:04 .

I saw it and thought the they mustn’t know the rule to cross directly. I’m surprised the ships didn’t have a word on the VHF.
 
If you crossed directly you would never get out of the straights...... anyway they weren't trying to cross it, they wanted to follow it.

The rules as I understand them require you to proceed in the general direction of the traffic flow for the lane you are using, and if required to cross one to do so as near as practicable to right angles to the lane. They were proceeding in the general direction of the lane, crossing it was incidental to that, and it certainly wouldn't have been practicable to have sailed at right angles to it.

They were probably stretching the rules a bit but what would have been their alternative, try and sail directly down wind which would have been extremely slow and led to all the various ships dodging around them, short gybe down the narrow channel outside the lane, or drop the sails and motor? They seemed pretty switched on to what was going on and the impact on the others around them so I'd be a bit surprised if it warranted any grief.
 
I saw it and thought the they mustn’t know the rule to cross directly. I’m surprised the ships didn’t have a word on the VHF.

I spent 15 or so years sailing in the Straits. Nobody will grizzle if you take the short cut on a yacht. They are used to Moroccan fishing vessels. And smugglers.

Do not unduly worry

:encouragement:
 
I don’t watch the vagabonds and have not seen the videos.

While Gibratar is one on the buisyiest TSS on this planet. I don’t think anyone will get to upset by the actions of sailing vessels full of bikinis provided they do not impede.
Most mariners will understand sailing vessels are directionaly challenged and will use common sense. They zig they zag. just don’t do it to cross in front.

On the other hand if you do impede and get into close quarters with a ship. Headings will be questionable.

Actually if there is enough bikinis. They might not even object to being impeded.
A couple of old forum farts in spedo’s might get a different reaction. Depending how long the ships been at sea:)
 
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Edits don't help to draw a conclusion although they appear not to be compliant with crossing the marked TSS on their own chartplotter IRCPS RULE 10. Don't do that in the English channel otherwise the fines are significant , unless of course the Patreons will pay

Do I detect a hint of a sour grape :-)
 
They have sailed more miles and crossed more oceans than most of us so I'm sure they know what they're doing. That new vagabond has all nav aids and it's no slouch they will be able to get out of and danger quickly.
 
They have sailed more miles and crossed more oceans than most of us so I'm sure they know what they're doing. That new vagabond has all nav aids and it's no slouch they will be able to get out of and danger quickly.

And they were in vhf contact with at least one large ship explaining exactly what they planned to do.
 
We have found, without exception, that if you can speak to the large ship in question they are incredibly polite and very understanding. As long as what you intend to do does not impact them they are more than obliging - i.e. you intend to get out of their way, even though this might not be obvious immediately.
 
Don't do that in the English channel otherwise the fines are significant , .......

Has anyone any knowledge or experience of this actually happening? I'm not trying to rubbish the regulations or the need for them, I'm just curious as to how they might be enforced. I've got visions of this little speed boat racing after me with a flashing blue light and some jumped up official trying to issue me a fixed penalty notice and put points on my skippers licence....... :) I appreciate if you have an AIS transponder (I don't) or listen out on the VHF (I don't) let alone actually answer a call for the "Yacht transgressing the TSS to identify themselves" it would be easy for them to identify and potentially trace you through the SSR or similar, but actually I would have thought they take a more grown up approach to these things and let a natural course of events deal with those that elect not to follow the rules.
 

OK, I guess if you ask a poorly worded question you can't be surprised if you don't get the answer you were seeking. All three of those examples were vessels travelling in completely the wrong direction, i.e.: against, the TSS traffic flow, two were commercial motor vessels, and they all seem to have interfered with commercial shipping.

The La Vagabonde situation was a sailing vessel setting courses that were generally in the direction of the traffic flow within the lane although clearly crossing to and fro in the process and the suggestion was that if that tried that in the Dover Straights they would be fined. Given I sail regularly in the Thames Estuary and the Dover area I was curious to find out if there were any examples to back that suggestion up, and although your links certainly suggest a proactive approach by the Coastguard they don't really relate to a sailing vessel attempting to make sensible progress. They did however answer part of my question, in two of the examples they were identified by transponder details, in the third as a result of VHF transmissions, and I'm particularly impressed with them dispatching the Coastguard aircraft! Thanks.
 
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