Racing in a narrow fairway channel ?

[affinite]

Last Sunday I was with my brother in law sailing his Salder 32 up towards Emsworth when we encountered a club race of about 40-50 Laser-type dinghies. The course was set on a fairly wide area of water but almost entirely within/across the narrow fairway channel (we which had to keep to bacause of draft) up to the town and marina. The tide was on the ebb and anyone who knows Emsworth will know that the sailing window is pretty tight because of water over the marina sill so we were on a fairly tight time schedule to get back in.

Well the inevitable happended and the race was started just as we were about 100m upwind/upstream of them. We sailed a steady course and speed and most zoomed past and missed us by inches but one guy cut it too fine and clipped the transom of our boat and overturned. He didnt say anything but the look on his face as he recovered suggested that it was our fault and that we shouldnt have been in the way of the race; indeed the safety boat driver suggested as much but what were we supposed to do ?


I think the club were in the wrong for setting the race course across a fairway and setting it off when the tide was ebbing but I'd be interested to hear if the panel thinks we should have done anything different.
Racers and cruiser comments welcome

 

[Boomshanka]

What tack were you on? Port gives way to s'board tack, racing has no priority in Colregs. Simples

 

[Seajet]

I'm very familiar with the Emsworth Channel; I would say it's not that narrow, especially at near high water as described.

The clubs I know try to arrange starts for dinghy racing around an hour before HW.

I was a crew on a 'money no object' International 14 dinghy years ago, and found the owner was red hot on racing marks and tactics, but didn't have a clue about seamanship or nav' marks; as we flashed past a buoy blinded by spray I knew it meant trouble, I just had time to say " ERR ! " before we piled onto the rock hard Winner shoal...

Some clubs can be very arrogant, and you shouldn't expect the rescue boat crew to be very experienced or knowledgable, they're often any member who can be press-ganged while the serious lot sail !

Having said that, I've sailed up and down there for 40 odd years and never felt like colliding with anyone; a bit of dinghy experience and saying to oneself ' this berk is getting a bit close on that course ! ' and courtesy giving way to sailing racers - even if they are being silly - generally seems to work.

If avoiding action might put you aground, - unlikely and it's soft mud anyway - you have every right to keep your course - but maybe vary your speed by sheets or throttle - as a 'vessel constrained by draught', in a perfect world showing a cylinder shape in the foretriangle but I've never seen a yacht do that even in Chichester !

There was a Peyton cartoon of a dinghy right under a sailing yachts' bows yelling " Starboard ! "

To which the reply was " THREE TONS ! "

 

[Rob_A39]

As you were a vessel constrained by its draft you had right of way, plain and simple.

What happened is sadly not a surprise though. It's about time that people realized that they don't have a god given right of way just because they are racing. Yes we all try to make allowances for those engaging in there chosen sport but there is a limit.

 

[Simondjuk]

You say the fleet zoomed past and that the guy who hit you clipped your transom. Both of these imply that the fleet was overtaking you. If they were, and doing so from more than 22.5 abaft your beam, ie. from within your stern light sector, you were the stand on vessel and the onus was on them to keep clear.

It's not always possible to extend the courtesy of keeping clear of racing boats, especially swarms of dinghies, and when it's not they simply have to accept that the Colregs prevail.

I'd have made it very clear to the guy in the safety boat that he was at best mistaken, at worst entirely ignorant.

 

[savageseadog]

Do you mean "sailing" or do you mean motoring? and what tack were you on? and were you to windward on the same tack and so on. A dirty look means nothing people flash dirty looks when they're in the wrong, try it on the roads.

 

[Simondjuk]

If, as it appears from the description provided, the dinghies were overtaking, it matters not if the Sadler was under engine, which tack it was on, or where the wind was coming from. The overtaking vessel keeps clear, period.

 

[Searush]

TBH, I have little sympathy with the laser sailor. I have one myself & they are very manouverable. If he hit your transom, then he was trying to pass astern & misjudged it or got caught by a gust with no margin for error. I doubt that you could have seen it coming & put in a burst of throttle & that in itself may have caused you to hit some one ahead.

As to setting the course, even a Laser needs 3-4' when beating with the board down, there may not have been a lot of alternatives.

 

[Seajet]

Do you mean "sailing" or do you mean motoring? and what tack were you on? and were you to windward on the same tack and so on. A dirty look means nothing people flash dirty looks when they're in the wrong, try it on the roads.

All good points; there is another 'hazard' now, Moth dinghies on hydrofoils doing incredible speeds and virtually silent, they'd have the effect of an Exocet if they hit a more pedestrian boat like mine !

Fortunately such a boat requires a skilled helmsman and are a joy to see; if they ever become available to jetski drivers I'm giving up sailing and going to live in a desert !

 

[BarryH]

As with most sectors in most walks of life you get pratts. I moor down that neck of the woods. Took the boat there a couple of weeks ago. The weather wasn't brilliant and there were races going on, several classes all at once. Most racing helms were ok and realised that I had big bits of metal hanging off the bottom and I couldn't go everywhere.
There was one particular guy that thought it obligatory to pass as close as possible whilst out on a trapeeze. He nearly lost his hat on my backstay. As I said you get idiots in all walks.

It does seem odd that they set the courses just inside the entrance. I know that the sailing club is in that locale, but even so. I find the worst culprits are the idiots in the safety ribs. They're the ones who look to have no idea whatsoever. When I did safety boat you had to have passed a course. Part of the syllabus was to recognise the parts of the course where you'd be most needed. These lot just seemed to charge all over the place at warp speed. I'd have stayed where there was most chance of capsized dinghies. It isn't rocket science after all!

 

[affinite]

We were sailing on stbd tack and yes the race overtook us. There were too many of them for us to attempt to give way which is why we tried to keep our course steady and true so as to give the dinks a clear track past us.

 

[Easticks28]

Narrow fairway? Try cruising , or better still racing under sail on the rivers of the Norfolk Broads when the clueless ones are let out of the yards in their 35' hire cruisers. THAT'S a 'narrow fairway', especially when you're doing it in a 28 ' gaff rigged boat with a 5' bowsprit out the front! I've often head screams of
' MOTHER,WHERE'S ME BICYCLE CLIPS? '

 

[BarryH]

"There were too many of them for us to attempt to give way"......... I think this is the main problem with most racing. The fleets are too many in number and are on you so fast, it makes trying to give way a nightmare.

 

[Fantasie 19]

"There were too many of them for us to attempt to give way"......... I think this is the main problem with most racing. The fleets are too many in number and are on you so fast, it makes trying to give way a nightmare.

I feel for you as I also had to face the fleet when I was out.. the course seemed to be set across the fairway, just north of Marker and the fleet seemed to be about 30 strong.... I reckon the channel is only about 40 or 50 yards across at that point, and the marks seemed to be set just inside the boundaries of the channel on either side..... not surprising as the wind was almost dead northerly you had no choice, wherever you went you were on the course, and you were also trying to beat up channel... can't see what you did wrong from your explanation...

I got lucky and managed to sneak through at what I think was the end of a race.. by the time I got back they'd finished.... but not before an entire fleet had set spinnakers and asymetrics and charged down that harbour at me in line abreast!

Amazing sight to see.. and don't even get me started on the Moths - just gob smacking.... loads more of them this year as well... superb sight..

 

[yesod]

as a 'vessel constrained by draught', in a perfect world showing a cylinder shape in the foretriangle but I've never seen a yacht do that even in Chichester !

probably because

The term “vessel constrained by her draught” means a power-driven vessel which, because of her draught in relation to the available depth and width of navigable water, is severely restricted in her ability to deviate from the course she is following.

if you're sailing (as said in the original post), you can't be constrained by draught!

 

[Nico]

It is probably significant that the boat that clipped you was not at the front of the fleet.

 

[benjenbav]

Rule 13: "overtaking - keep clear" seems to sum it up as mentioned by others.

Not sure what the chances are of a dinghy racer knowing Colregs - I confess I didn't when I used to race dinghies. But, ignorance is no defence etc.

Blimmin annoying, tho'.

I suppose the two crumbs of comfort to be taken from the situation are first and foremost that no-one was injured and second, at least the Laser sailor/swimmer didn't shout: "Racing"

 

[dylanwinter]

some guidance

Rule 13: "overtaking - keep clear" seems to sum it up as mentioned by others.

Not sure what the chances are of a dinghy racer knowing Colregs - I confess I didn't when I used to race dinghies. But, ignorance is no defence etc.

Blimmin annoying, tho'.

I suppose the two crumbs of comfort to be taken from the situation are first and foremost that no-one was injured and second, at least the Laser sailor/swimmer didn't shout: "Racing"

 

[Kukri]

I am on both sides of this question; we have a cruising boat and a racing dinghy and both can be found in the same narrow channel. Dinghy clubs usually start races one or two hours before HW, the idea being that the race should finish around HW, meaning that it's easy to get the boats ashore up the ramp and the rescue boat does not have to tow fifty boats in against the ebb on a light day.

Putting on my dinghy helmsman's hat for a moment, a bigger boat motoring up or down the channel is just another more or less stationary object that one uses tactically, subject to the colregs of course.

 

[benjenbav]

Quite a bit of wash there when the model mobo overtakes the model sailboat at the end of the clip.