Navigational Buoys Used as Racing Marks

[SoSound]

I also have sympathy for @jviss, but not because of any sailing racing experience on my part. I would like to learn a little more here, and I'm posting this because I am still uncertain as to the observance and execution of the different sets of rules and responsibilities in this situation. I have so many questions that it's hard to limit what I want to post. Mostly higher level, racing (as an organized event) vs. general recreational traffic... just because you are permitted to use a channel buoy as a mark, when does it become a bad idea to do so? Were these trimarans little boats like 420s or something larger? Is this a regularly scheduled race or a special event?

The very first reply to the OP mentions Rule 9 and Narrow Channels, but that's hardly been acknowledged since then.

Where was the rest of the race course? Was it entirely within the harbor, or outside? Isn't it a bad idea to set a course which completely crosses a harbor entrance at 90 degrees to normal traffic flow (twice)? From the chart screenshots, it looks like they crossed near or between green buoy number 2 and red number 3 ("1" is a light, on shore, so probably a bad choice). @jviss was entering the harbor and following the channel as defined. Where is the COLREGS predictability in the en masse perpendicular crossing of a channel at its defined entrance?

At what point does it become the individual responsibility of the race participants to not interfere with traffic entering the channel?

We had a race near here last year, involving the VTS lanes and marker buoys (probably used as a course mark) where a group of racing sailboats interfered with a cargo ship. Seventeen of the racers were disqualified. The report that I saw said that they could have been fined up to $5000 each. Even this summer, there are periodic announcements by USCG Seattle on channel 16 giving brief reminders of the navigation rules related to sailing vessels, fishing vessels, shipping traffic and ferries. I learned to boat and sail in this area about 15 years ago, and this summer is the first time that I ever remember hearing announcements like that on channel 16.

 

[Stu Jackson]

The very first reply to the OP mentions Rule 9 and Narrow Channels, but that's hardly been acknowledged since then.

Dave, once he posted the chart we realized it did not apply to the alleged "issue." That's why.

At what point does it become the individual responsibility of the race participants to not interfere with traffic entering the channel?

We had a race near here last year, involving the VTS lanes and marker buoys (probably used as a course mark) where a group of racing sailboats interfered with a cargo ship. Seventeen of the racers were disqualified.

All the time. Always. Never not. In many places there is commercial traffic, sometimes light, often heavy. ALL yacht & club racing associations sailing instructions make note of the rules to not impede commercial traffic and maintain the integrity of VTS systems. This includes mention of fines for racers who ignore or defy the sailing instructions and harbor r&rs.

Often there are idiots out on the water, racers included. If you "cut off" commercial traffic to "get ahead" in a race, not only do you get disqualified, you get fined. Still, a$$hats persist. Testosterone? Hardly. Stupidity? Mightily.

While your question did not apply to @jviss situation, it was a good reminder to and for all, racers or cruisers, all boaters. Separately, to a couple of posters, I have no sympathy for jviss, none at all, and have explained just why in my contributions to this thread.

 

[BigEasy]

ALL yacht & club racing associations sailing instructions make note of the rules to not impede commercial traffic and maintain the integrity of VTS systems. This includes mention of fines for racers who ignore or defy the sailing instructions and harbor

Seems that the smart thing to do is for the port & harbor authority to not allow yacht clubs to set up race courses that traverse VTS & Harbor entrances, especially those that have high commercial traffic. That situation is an accident waiting for a place to happen. Hopefully, brighter minds will prevail to prevent a serious accident. Should have been a wake up call after the freighter incident.

 

[Rick486]

I had a scary situation yesterday, and more than one potential collision (close ones). I was entering Newport harbor under power when a fleet of smaller trimarans approached from my left, crossing, and essentially blocking the entrance as they raced across my path, using the red harbor entrance buoy as thier racing mark - so I got them coming, left to right, and going, right to left. It was everything I could do to avoid hitting a couple of them, requiring me to slow and maneuver abruptly. I was so pissed!

It is my understanding that its a violation of the colregs to use a navaid as a racing buoy. Is that so?

I called the harbormaster but I confess that, while he was very polite and understanding, didn't seem as if he was going to do anything about it, despite saying he'd send someone out to have a look.

Thoughts?

I spent some time thinking about whether I should contribute to this discussion and finally decided to add some thoughts. I sailed out of Newport Harbor for about 10 years, most of them racing my Ensign evenings and daytime in and around Newport Harbor, so there is not much I haven't seen. Newport used to be a special place for racing sailors back during the modern America's Cup years dominated by the US. The overwhelming numbers of boats sailing out of Newport was, and maybe still is, sailboats. Races were arranged and run by the Ida Lewis, Newport, and Jamestown Yacht Clubs and the races were usually held around the buoys just outside the harbor. The races were primarily sailboat racing classes. The racing sailboats were kept on mooring inside the harbor so on race evenings, or racing weekends these was always sailboat traffic going in and out of the harbor. Most of these boats are one design with no engines, such as my Ensign, and limited maneuverability. The non-racing sailboats coming and going were very accustomed to seeing the smaller one design boats in and around the channel and I won't say there were no issues, but I will say few issues. Not so with the powerboats though, many of whom did not understand the sailboat limited maneuverability. But at the end of the day we all got along. The most incredible example of this "get along" concerned the New York Yacht Club cruise visit to Newport one year. The yacht club arranged a one design race of New York 40's, yes 40's around the inner harbor, yes inner harbor in the channel the surrounds the harbor. So here we had 8 New York 40's getting a gun over by Ida Lewis and racing laps. The NYYC had the thought to call the Coast Guard so Coasties showed up and kept order. The skippers and crews of these NY 40's were of course as good as they get. Well they ran 6 laps around the harbor and there wasn't a scratch of damage on anything. And both sail and power underway stayed out of the way of the racing 40's, who looked pretty scary showing #1 jibs in a breeze. We were sitting on the NYC veranda sipping bears.
My point is, the culture and the sailors in the harbor, and Coastie, accepted this behavior. Newport is a special place for sailors and traffic disruptions are tolerated by all. I suspect this trimaran (really) racing was probably organized by one of the YC's or the sailing center on Fort Adams. And it may be that they were forced to use that nun as a turning mark due to the size of the boats or length of the course. The traffic in Outer Newport Harbor in the large between Newport and Jamestown is a very heavily traffic area with ships, high speed power boats, and heavy sailboat traffic. It may be that these boats using that mark were sailed by younger crew and the outer harbor was deemed to be unsafe.
But in any case when visiting Newport sailors in particular should be alert for traffic disruptions by sailboats whether racing, daysailing, or just transiting. It really is part of the charm of the harbor.

 

[FastOlson]

Regarding the official designation of a VTS zone. Those "lanes" are seriously off limits in the NW. A few years ago a friend of mine was crossing the VTS in the Straits of Juan DeFuca at night and he evidently did not choose a fast enough crossing angle. He was VHF contacted by the Seattle folks monitoring him and all traffic on radar. He was asked his course intention and also to exit the lane immediately. They were polite, he said, but very firm. Next step would have been to send a USCG vessel out to intercept. I have crossed it a lot and while sometimes there is not a ship in sight for a little while, usually there are big vessels proceeding both directions, like a ponderous sort of a freeway.
(Got honked at once, even tho clear of his path, as I was outside the channel and close to the shore with little room left over. He just wanted to be sure that he had my full attention. He did.)

 

[dlochner]

Good discussion.

There has been no confirmation that using navigation buoys or other aids to navigation for marks in a race course is improper or illegal. A race committee does have a duty to the competitors to set a fair and safe course. So there is no foul on the race course or competitors. (Of course there can always be a debate about what is fair and safe, go to any YC bar on race night and there will undoubtedly be a discussion on how fair the course was.)

The 2 most important concepts in COLREGS are avoiding a collision no matter who is the stand on vessel and maintaining a good watch. From the statements of a contributor or two, Newport Harbor is full of potential distractions, and those can interfere with safe navigation, paying attention and maintaining an adequate watch. How many times have comments been made on this forum about getting your head out of the boat and off the instruments? Only the liars among us will claim to have always paid close attention while sailing and have never been distracted.

As I read back over @jviss's statements, I find little to be pissed at. The race was being conducted using government marks, just as they are all over the continent. They were doing nothing wrong. Nor was @jviss doing anything explicitly wrong. It was simply a number of boats converging on a location trying to avoid proving that 2 objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. There is nothing to be mad about here. That's not to say it was fun and games, it is simply we don't have any evidence that anybody was doing anything blatantly wrong which would cause a dangerous situation.

The key question, which no one has asked and will probably never be answered sufficiently is were proper watches being conducted on all the boats involved. It is perfectly plausible that at the time the racers approached, the OP was attending to some other aspect of boat operation which took his eyes off the course. An ill-timed half minute of attention directed to the chart plotter and not the water might easily have allowed the racers to get close before he noticed. If this or something similar is the case, there is no one to mad at except oneself.

The big take away is not who to get mad at, but to remember to pay attention and stay alert, especially in crowded waters. And we are all guilty of letting our attention wander when out there sailing, I know I am. Yesterday the captain of a large ferry hailed me to make sure I was paying attention.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

All that said, COLREGS is about predictability, not politeness. Make any changes early and obvious.

This is the crux of the issue. There is too much confusing discussion surrounding this issue. The simple answer is that ATONs are used just about everywhere as racing marks. Right or wrong, get over it. It's not going to change. @jviss seemed to be under the mistaken notion that he had some special rights within the channel (which he didn't) and that there are rules to prevent a racing organization from using an ATON as a mark(which there aren't).

It's not clear to me if he was motoring or sailing (maybe I missed it). The simple matter is that if he was motoring, he simply had no stand on privileges and he only made matters worse by weaving around supposedly avoiding sailboats under sail. He should have simply throttled down and let the sailboats fly by. They obviously have the skill to avoid him so he should have simply sat still. By weaving around in an unpredictable manner, he only caused more problems.

Now, if he was under sail and on starboard tack, he only needed to watch out for leeward sailboats on starboard tack. All the rest of them would surely avoid him (duck him if necessary), as they should. If Jviss was on port tack, well, then he would need to actively "give way". Since he was being "swarmed", he probably would be best off simply luffing his sails and becoming an obstacle.

Whether or not racers would be angry if he interfered in a race is really immaterial. Jviss doesn't have any obligation to ingratiate himself to racers he doesn't know. He only has one obligation as far as I'm concerned. That obligation is to employ the navigation protocols to the best of his ability. It simply goes back to what @thinwater said above.

In my reading of this event, it seems that Jviss acted unpredictably by apparently making attempts to avoid collisions. When I'm in the vicinity of a race going on, it never enters my mind that I would have to take evasive maneuvers that are unconventional and unpredictable.

 

[jviss]

I was motoring, keeping a watch, and my son was watching as well. I did come off the throttle immediately, but it was so close, they were so suddenly upon me, that that was not enough, I had to perform evasive maneuvers. In retrospect I probably should have just made a U-turn, but in the heat of the moment it didn't occur to me.

Anyway, I'm in Block Island New Harbor now, no racing here, only Ado's bakery, pumpout boats, and an occasional yacht coming or going. Ha, ha!

 

[Scott T-Bird]

I had to perform evasive maneuvers. In retrospect I probably should have just made a U-turn, but in the heat of the moment it didn't occur to me.

Anyway, I'm in Block Island New Harbor now, no racing here, only Ado's bakery, pumpout boats, and an occasional yacht coming or going. Ha, ha!

Why did you need to perform evasive maneuvers? Did you really think any one of them didn't see you and/or wouldn't avoid you? Throttling down before they got there is suitable. Even if they were multihulls travelling at up to 20 knots (which is still not all that fast relative to boats in general) you had to have seen them approaching. You can't possibly say they just suddenly appeared in your midst as if they were previously invisible. A U-turn would have been fine if you did it while they were approaching - you must have had at least 30 seconds to realize they were intercepting you. But a U turn in the midst of the fleet would be a bad idea. You wouldn't have been acting predictably.

 

[jviss]

Why did you need to perform evasive maneuvers? Did you really think any one of them didn't see you and/or wouldn't avoid you? Throttling down before they got there is suitable. Even if they were multihulls travelling at up to 20 knots (which is still not all that fast relative to boats in general) you had to have seen them approaching. You can't possibly say they just suddenly appeared in your midst as if they were previously invisible. A U-turn would have been fine if you did it while they were approaching - you must have had at least 30 seconds to realize they were intercepting you. But a U turn in the midst of the fleet would be a bad idea. You wouldn't have been acting predictably.

Scott, it's kind of hard to explain. I've done the best I can at trying to explain the situation.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Scott, it's kind of hard to explain. I've done the best I can at trying to explain the situation.

Well, you haven't really explained. Did you think one or more boats was going to hit you and, if so, why did you think that?

Also, did you see them coming before they got there, and, if not, why not?

 

[jviss]

It's not clear to me if he was motoring or sailing (maybe I missed it).

Post 1:

I was entering Newport harbor under power

Did you think one or more boats was going to hit you and, if so, why did you think that?

Constant bearing, decreasing range.

Also, did you see them coming before they got there,

Got where? As I said, they were 'suddenly upon my,' meaning I didn't notice them until it was a dangerous situation, in my estimation, and I think because of their speed.

if not, why not?

I don't know.

 

[jviss]

Well, you haven't really explained. Did you think one or more boats was going to hit you and, if so, why did you think that?

Also, did you see them coming before they got there, and, if not, why not?

O.K., I'm getting off the witness stand now.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Constant bearing, decreasing range.

This sounds technically plausible. But, I'm very sure that you are experienced enough to know that a fleet of racing sailboats in Newport Harbor aren't actually going to run you over without your taking evasive action. I'm very sure that you know that they will pass very close to you without actually scratching your boat! I very much doubt your story that you actually had to evade multiple collisions. It sounds a little over-dramatic to me.

I suspect that they came close enough to you that you may have simply been annoyed and are making more out of it ... possibly just to get a reaction within this forum!

 

[jviss]

possibly just to get a reaction within this forum!

Never.