Who had right of way here ?

[simonfraser]

Me, power boat, going out of river on starboard side of the channel at 4Kts, this shore has a large hard for launching.
Sports boat leaves the shore to my starboard side, aims straight for my side.
I moved out of the way eventually as he seemed to be taking no action.

 

[Angele]

Me, power boat, going out of river on starboard side of the channel at 4Kts, this shore has a large hard for launching.
Sports boat leaves the shore to my starboard side, aims straight for my side.
I moved out of the way eventually as he seemed to be taking no action.

From the way you have described it, you were the give way vessel. (Rule 15).

If you were restricted to following the channel, then he had an obligation not to impede you. But, presumably, you could have slowed down or sped up to avoid the collision without leaving it.

 

[lpdsn]

Depends when he moved off and how obvious that would be to an experienced seaman. Presumably there was no risk of a collision if he'd remained at the hard, but if they'd launched and had sails up it may well have been difficult to stay there and it should've been obvious that he'd have to leave. So if it was seamanlike for him to leave the hard he would be stand on and you'd be give way. Otherwise if he reasonably had a choice about it then it was unseamanlike to leave and create a risk of collision, but rule 17 still applied (as you followed).

 

[rafiki_]

From the way you have described it, you were the give way vessel. (Rule 15).

If you were restricted to following the channel, then he had an obligation not to impede you. But, presumably, you could have slowed down or sped up to avoid the collision without leaving it.

Agreed. I had a situation a few year ago when an idiot with his small son, pulled out in front of me in a 2.3m tender, he came at me from the starboard bow. In Colregs I was the give way vessel, and of course did so. However, it was mighty brave of the idiot to do what he did in a tiny tender.

 

[simonfraser]

Tnx that's what i thought too.
But it being a power sports boat i would have waited a short while b4 causing some one else to move out of the way.

 

[Bouba]

High season is a time for extra caution, even experienced boaters can have that panic moment when they first hit the water after a winters hiatus, until old skills resurface. Then of course there's the newbies and the drunks and the show offs and the reckless. What I find is that people make huge effort to get to the water for their holidays, with the stress of driving, kids etc. and when the boat finally gets wet they have a mindset that nothing is going to stop them now.
The colregs state that you must avoid collisions regardless if the other bloke is a fool. That is the best advice and probably the duty of experienced boaters to calm all situations

 

[Sneds]

Apologies for being pedantic but there's no such thing as right of way at sea, stand on and give way vessel yes, but no right of way
The regs are are designed so we all know what we expect the other boat to do

��

 

[volvopaul]

In many skippers heads rule 15 gives priority over common sense, the fact being that the rule is the first thing that comes into there heads., rather than looking at the situation, planning a course first whereby both vessels would be able to navigate quite safely , the Hamble is a classic place for this.

I remember doing my day skipper practical 30 plus years ago , our instructor stating the rule but making the point that if you were the stand on vessel be prepared to give way if a collision situation arose, over the years I've seen it happen many times at sea when it clearly didn't need to happen, you only have to ask yourself would you drive your car in the same manner, no you wouldn't.

 

[RIN]

In many skippers heads rule 15 gives priority over common sense, the fact being that the rule is the first thing that comes into there heads., rather than looking at the situation, planning a course first whereby both vessels would be able to navigate quite safely , the Hamble is a classic place for this.

I remember doing my day skipper practical 30 plus years ago , our instructor stating the rule but making the point that if you were the stand on vessel be prepared to give way if a collision situation arose, over the years I've seen it happen many times at sea when it clearly didn't need to happen, you only have to ask yourself would you drive your car in the same manner, no you wouldn't.

+1

I had the Hamble experience on Thursday, pottering back up to my berth at 4 knots keeping well to starboard. Just as I approached some pontoons to starboard jutting out into the river, a boat which had been following for some time decided to overtake to starboard. I then had to quickly turn to port so he didn't collide with the pontoon or me. Channel very wide at this point and no other traffic so no idea why he didn't overtake to port.

Its worse on Saturdays and Sundays though!