Was I right to shout and wave my fist at a fellow Motorboater

It is fascinating that posters still have very diverse views of what this actually looked like!
I have to say that some of this looks like careless reading of the OP. Of course it may be ME who has misread it, but I would ask those who think the Brooms were on the OPs starboard bow, and those who think he had time to make sound signals and wait for them to be acted upon, to reread the OP itself.
 
Jurgen said:
Went to Cowes on Friday afternoon with SWMBO and my nephew.

Approached the Starboard marker buoy keeping it around 15 feet to starboard, as we got to about 20 feet from the buoy I noticed 2 Brooms leaving the town quay berths.

These 2 boats were cutting across the channel while sorting out fenders and heading straight for us. We were closing with the other boats and I felt it was unsafe to turn to Port to avoid them, stopping was not an option either so decided the safest option was to increase speed to avoid them.

We passed within 10 feet of the lead boat to see the crew gesticulating and telling us to slow down!

Had this incident happened while we were 50 plus feet away from the channel marker I could have done things differently but this was not the case.

I believe I made the safest decision in the circumstances but am happy to be corrected.

Wont tell you the words that SWMBO said to the occupants of the Broom but now see that her very expensive private education was wasted lol
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I am trying to visualise the situation, can you confirm if you were entering or leaving Cowes? I am guessing you were heading out of the river back towards Southampton.
 
l'escargot said:
Well, CHC do publish this: "...Racing yachts are required to comply in full with the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. However, it is good seamanship that vessels that are not racing keep clear so far as practicable from starting and finishing areas and avoid impeding racing yachts."

Ok, no status as in bye laws or General Directions but you can see where expectations may be created.

The boats being complained about in the OP were motorboats though, weren't they? In which case you can't really blame racers or young sailors can you...
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Misrepresentation is when the whole quote is not used, therefore creating a false impression of what was written, what I typed was,

"Nothing new there then, the habit hasn't changed in eons, they just plough out into the fairway, most times with scant regard to what may or may not be coming, it's life on the water, although Cowes has a worse reputation for this type of behaviour, due in part to racing and cowes week, the former because they think everything should get out of their way, the later because it's just mayhem, too many pubs fuel too many young sailors.

As always, just MHO

And in answer to the OP's question, No your were not, there are prats everywhere.

I didn't say it was racers or young sailors at fault in the OP's post,it was my personal opinion of what Cowes is like, drawn from my own personal experience, I'm not interested in the "them and us" my take was there are prats everywhere implying all forms of water user, but I stand by my post, Cowes is probably the worst in the solent, hotly followed by Hamble users, for letting go and steaming straight into the fairway, with not enough care taken, both motor and sail vessels.
 
Easier to make decisions round here on the East coast...Things are much simpler to work out...
bigguns.jpg
 
jfm said:
Dunno! I didn't think OP was turning to stbd because he was too close on that side. I thought he went slightly port-ish and zoomed across the other boat's bow, leaving the other boat on his stbd side. But I'm not sure!
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The other boat was on my port side and continued heading toward me
 
superheat6k said:
Sounds like the vessels leaving the marina / quay were not aware of the special rules, but also you say they then turned to port in front of you / towards you, worsening the situation, when by their (presumed) interpretation they were stand on vessel, so should not have so manoeuvred.

The rules do require you as stand on vessel to make whatever manoeuvre is necessary to avoid a collision if the give way vessel alone cannot avoid it, or is acting like an idiot and is more concerned with his lines and fenders than the wider world around him, and in this situation thinks he might be stand on vessel, who is allowed to turn to port at the same time. I think d1ckhead is the word.

You seem to have complied properly with 8a & b & 17a (ii) & b.

However, we do not know what your speed was nor traffic density, so whether or not you have disobeyed rule 6 your opening post does not describe. Safe Speed is not just the harbour limit, just as driving past a school at 30MPH may not always be safe.

However, you made a decision which avoided the collision, and nothing I can read prevents you opening up both barrels to get yourself safe, and sounds like it was the only option available in the circumstances. Having powerful engines and sometimes having to use them is in my view perfectly correct. I assume that once the danger was past you immediately slowed down to observe the harbour limit. The fact that the other boat got annoyed shows his lack of understanding of these rules and his flagrant ignorance of the local rules - " ... just look at that idiot blasting past ..."
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Was doing 6 knts , SWMBO insists that I slow down well before the speed limit begins. Very little traffic entering or leaving
 
epervier said:
Misrepresentation is when the whole quote is not used, therefore creating a false impression of what was written...
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No. Nothing to do with misrepresentation, anyone can draw their own conclusions on all or part of any post and what was written by you is still there in it's entirety.

I wasn't commenting on your whole post, I was only commenting on part of it - as you represented it - hence I only quoted that part. Just as in the quote from the CHC, I didn't highlight all of it - just the bit that I was commenting demonstrated the attitudes that some display.
 
jfm said:
M, I get the 5 rapid hoots but are you saying 5 hoots, then a pause, then 1 hoot? What is the 1 hoot for and how does it fit with Colregs?
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To be clear I was not turning to port and would definately be passing red to red. Maybe not that clear as you asked. But "I am unclear of your intentions" is 5 or more hoots and no harm done. Anyway it's what my instinct would have done, not get the Cowes rulebook out as it doesn't matter what that says if they've clobbered you. (Well except in court but I try and avoid that!)
 
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I always find it challenging entering Cowes. It's bad enough having the Red Jet to contend with but the tides around the entrance buoy for Cowes can be very strong so when you're trying to keep close to it & those coming out don't seem to try to keep close to the Red buoy, are 2 or 3 abreast and some of them putting up their sails, it's a bit of nightmare.
 
Firefly625 said:
wise words, amazing how many see a 6 knot limit as an instruction that you must travel at 6 knots and not a fraction less..
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true but it would not apply to the OP. Some people have to keep their boats at tickover and say "it won't go any slower". That wouldn't apply to the OP either. And whitlighter, true, but he wasn't taking simple avoiding action, he needed psychic ability.

I still would only turn to port as a very last resort though - I wouldn't have done that bit. A bit of tooting I'm sure would have fixed it by getting the other boat's attention.
 
I'm still struggling to understand why stopping wasn't an option...if stopping would have left you in the path of the offending Brooms, then surely keeping going would have put you past the point of convergence.

As has been said earlier in the thread, at 6 knots nothing should happen so suddenly as to cause a problem.
 
BTW (and apologies for the slight thread drift but ..) - the 'give way to traffic from the right' still applies on the roads in France where there are no 'stop' or 'give way' markings at the junction of the main (your) road and the side road! Often still found in industrial and retail shopping zones!
Guy
 
Elessar said:
true but it would not apply to the OP. Some people have to keep their boats at tickover and say "it won't go any slower". That wouldn't apply to the OP either. And whitlighter, true, but he wasn't taking simple avoiding action, he needed psychic ability.

I still would only turn to port as a very last resort though - I wouldn't have done that bit. A bit of tooting I'm sure would have fixed it by getting the other boat's attention.
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indeed, I was talking not of the OPs situation, just speed limits in harbours / rivers generally.

I still think your advice the best, which was not to have posted the question on here in the first place:)
 
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