john_morris_uk
Well-known member
I recount the following probably more to get it off my chest than in the hope of any recourse - although I was pretty cross at the time of the incident.
When meeting ships and other craft in open waters, I usually expect/hope that they will comply with the IRPCS. I am under no illusions about large ships and the way that they often ignore yachts, but by and large, ships either comply or just ignore you - and that I live with and therefore comply with the overall rule of preventing collision (and also stay alive).
When we set off across the channel a few weeks ago (Plymouth to L'Aberach) there was little or no wind and we motorsailed. Mainsail up, cone up, engine on and 7.5 knots towards what we hoped would be sunnier climes.
We met little shipping, but at one point as we came to to the westbound lanes, there was a medium sized merchant vessel holding a steady bearing, approaching us from our port side. We were no-where near any traffic separation schemes so I held my course and carried on taking bearings and watching him on the radar. Eventually it got so I could just read the vessels name on binoculars so I tried to call him (something I very very rarely do as I often think VHF adds to the confusion). No reply. No sign of anyone on the bridge and he gets closer and closer and eventually I turn sharp to starboard to allow him to run by me on our Port side. (You never know whether he is going to turn to Port at the last minute and if I had turned to port as well to pass behind him, it could have made things worse as we would have been closing each other very fast in those circumstances.)
All the above is nothing unusual, and I was just putting it down as another ship that had the lookouts making cocoa/in the loo/asleep whatever.
What made me mad was that as he steamed past, the watchkeeper (I assume) came out onto the bridge wing and made obcene and violent gestures at us)
I understood him to be indicating that I was something that sounded like "a trucking tanker".
Embarrassment at being woken up by the Radar alarm? Ignorance or just bloody minded?
The vessel was registered in Panama and the incident was reported, so I won't give the name etc. Visibility was more than 5 miles at the time. Blue sky and less than 5 knots of wind. We carry a (large) radar reflector at all times on the front of the mast.
Well I've got it off my chest, but I'm still cross when I think about it.
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When meeting ships and other craft in open waters, I usually expect/hope that they will comply with the IRPCS. I am under no illusions about large ships and the way that they often ignore yachts, but by and large, ships either comply or just ignore you - and that I live with and therefore comply with the overall rule of preventing collision (and also stay alive).
When we set off across the channel a few weeks ago (Plymouth to L'Aberach) there was little or no wind and we motorsailed. Mainsail up, cone up, engine on and 7.5 knots towards what we hoped would be sunnier climes.
We met little shipping, but at one point as we came to to the westbound lanes, there was a medium sized merchant vessel holding a steady bearing, approaching us from our port side. We were no-where near any traffic separation schemes so I held my course and carried on taking bearings and watching him on the radar. Eventually it got so I could just read the vessels name on binoculars so I tried to call him (something I very very rarely do as I often think VHF adds to the confusion). No reply. No sign of anyone on the bridge and he gets closer and closer and eventually I turn sharp to starboard to allow him to run by me on our Port side. (You never know whether he is going to turn to Port at the last minute and if I had turned to port as well to pass behind him, it could have made things worse as we would have been closing each other very fast in those circumstances.)
All the above is nothing unusual, and I was just putting it down as another ship that had the lookouts making cocoa/in the loo/asleep whatever.
What made me mad was that as he steamed past, the watchkeeper (I assume) came out onto the bridge wing and made obcene and violent gestures at us)
I understood him to be indicating that I was something that sounded like "a trucking tanker".
Embarrassment at being woken up by the Radar alarm? Ignorance or just bloody minded?
The vessel was registered in Panama and the incident was reported, so I won't give the name etc. Visibility was more than 5 miles at the time. Blue sky and less than 5 knots of wind. We carry a (large) radar reflector at all times on the front of the mast.
Well I've got it off my chest, but I'm still cross when I think about it.
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