On the subject of going aground un Brightlingsea,

Bru's correct, I believe, about the COLREGS. If you're the stand on vessel - you are required to maintain your course - ie stand on - even if it's inconvenient - for example if you were about to make a turn or tack. That - as he says - is not a right of way but an obligation on you.
It's courteous to keep clear of a race, especially a mark, if you can - but more than one racer has explained to me that if I do anything other than obey the COLREGS I might inadvertantly affect the outcome of a race by disadvantaging someone racing who reasonably expected me to abide by COLREGS and had shaped their course in that expectation. Apparently if I obey the rules I'm simply part of the course. It makes sense, however, to treat training / cadet fleets as a special case within reason.

My favourite question, to cadets learning COLREGS is... "what are the 6 circumstances when sail should give way to power, rather than the other way around?"
 
johnalison said:
One of the more enjoyable twenty minutes of my life was spent in our cockpit while moored in the Helford river. On a quiet evening a crowd of Oppies came down the river, making quite a lot of noise and accompanied by a couple of ribs. The children or wild beasts or whatever they were were no doing anything serious but attempting to wet each other as much as possible. After a short while the rules changed and it became a matter of trying to cause as many collisions as possible. It struck me that if they hadn't learned the fine art of sailing after a bit of this mayhem it wouldn't have been for lack of trying.
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Hi Johnalison,

I remember the first exercise from when I was at school in the 1960's - not only was it fun - it taught the importance of getting up to weather of your opponent - once you have the weather position you can adjust the separation to a [position where they are within your range but not able to hit you against the wind. When racing, the weather edge matters for other reasons, but achieving it is the same.

I have to say the second exercise seems of dubious value to me. - the wooden school cadets and fireflies were maintained by those who sailed them - us - so we took good care of them and avoided collisions at all costs because the inevitable repairs would take the boat(s) out of commission and mean work for us. The only exception to the maintenance rule I recall is when the weather chainplate on one of the fireflies pulled its screws out so the alloy mast (keel stepped on a Firefly) failed at deck level, bending through 100 degrees or more. A professional was engaged to do a weld repair on the mast, but we still had to replace the rotten chock which the screws had pulled out of and repair the side deck where the whole chainplate had pulled through it as it would not pass through the small diameter hole for the shroud.

Peter.
 
PeterWright said:
I have to say the second exercise seems of dubious value to me. - the wooden school cadets and fireflies were maintained by those who sailed them - us - so we took good care of them and avoided collisions at all costs because the inevitable repairs would take the boat(s) out of commission and mean work for us.
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The difference between wood and fibre glass, with kayaks it got even worse with the move from fibreglass to polythene
 
I am not suggesting that you should try this with your vintage 505 but these were little Optimists on a quiet evening. I had a Firefly and the school had Cadets which we maintained. My speciality was filling holes that others had drilled in the wrong place. Both great boats in their own way.
 
Marmalade said:
My favourite question, to cadets learning COLREGS is... "what are the 6 circumstances when sail should give way to power, rather than the other way around?"
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The one everyone forgets is when a sailing boat is overtaking a power driven vessel.

I guess the other five are fishing, RAM, Not under command, constrained by draft ....... one more .... towing? Crossing a narrow channel? Got me there!
 
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