A ferry always has right of way

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paulj

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Mar 16, 2007
1,361
Catalina 310 Anacortes,Wa
We were part of a training film being shot from the ferry boat showing this is what you should do when a ferry is in the area...give way.

This boat has a different idea....
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=hQf5FTINyTs&NR=1

We were not on the news that night.

A picture is worth a thousand words......but only sometimes.

paulj :troll:
 
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paulj

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Mar 16, 2007
1,361
Catalina 310 Anacortes,Wa
Franklin........it's

stand-on


Good night Franklin :zzz:


paulj :troll:
 
Franklin

Franklin

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Jul 20, 2005
2,422
Whitby 55 Kemah, Tx
paulj said:
Franklin........it's

stand-on


Good night Franklin :zzz:


paulj :troll:
Click to expand
I guess my point got missed in the technical naming comment I made.

My point is, that sailboat that you showed a video of mostlikely had stand-on and it was the Ferry captain that didn't know the rules of the water. Because the sailboat was under sail and not power (unlike the other video) only thing that would have given the ferry stand-on would be if he was restricted by draft that the sailboat wasn't (hard to believe) or if he was in a narrow traffic flow which they normally aren't.

There isn't anything special about a ferry. It's a powerboat. It's not dragging a long cable. It's not dragging a fishing net. It doesn't draw 50' of water.

That being said, I still give them plenty of room because it's their living and I'm just a pleasure craft, which of course, has nothing to do with the col-regs.
 
Franklin

Franklin

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Jul 20, 2005
2,422
Whitby 55 Kemah, Tx
In fact, I want to point out, that sailboat captain did exactly what he should have done. Why? Because stand-on does not mean right of way. They call it stand-on for a reason.

If you have stand-on and you decide to turn at the last minute and somebody who was adjusting their course to avoid you then runs into you, it's your fault because you didn't stand on your course.

It's also written in the col-regs that every boat has a duty to avoid a collision and that's what the sailboat captain did. He stayed his course until he couldn't anymore without collision and then adjusted his speed and course.

This must be one of the most mis-understood rules there is. Don't take anything I write or take anything anybody tells you. Read the actual col-regs. So many go by hear-say and it's wrong.
 
sailaway78

sailaway78

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May 11, 2005
3,431
Seidelman S37 Slidell, La.
I hear no one saying

anything about how to tell if your on a collision course. Unless of course they are discussing radar, and bearing lines and all that. The ferry in the first video, from what I could from the viedeo, would pass safely in front of the sailboat. All you have to do is watch the angle of the other boat to yourself. If the angle stays the same, you are on a collision course. If it increases or decreases, your not. All you need for this to work is to be able to see the other boat.
 
Paul J. Rusyniak

Paul J. Rusyniak

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Jan 24, 2008
293
Alerion Express 28 Oneida Lake, NY
paulj

The video in your post #1 was shot from a sailboat, but was the sailboat under sail or was it motoring?
Paul
 
Brian D

Brian D

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Feb 17, 2006
5,274
Lancer 27PS MCB Camp Pendleton KF6BL
In my book, anything bigger than me has stand on privileges. But key is eye-to-eye contact with the other skipper. Case in point...

Last year I was sailing on San Diego Bay. I was on starboard tack with a large motor cruiser (40+') on my starboard quarter and a ferry boat to my port beam. I was in a situation that if I attempted to adjust I would have put my vessel in peril. We were so close that I could see both skippers. End result? Both the motor cruiser and ferry shifted to starboard a few degrees thus giving me breathing room. But the key to this was maintaining, as mention by Nice, to watch the diminishing angles, and most important, eye contact with the other skipper.
 
BobM

BobM

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Jun 10, 2004
3,269
S2 9.2A Winthrop, MA
I got buzzed by the Provincetown high speed cat last year. No maintaining eye contact with something that big...all I could see is black tinted windows on a bridge at half the height of my mast. He swerved far out of the shipping lane (I was inside the Winthrop side of Deer Island Light for crying out loud) around a number of other sailboats like they were highway cones and buzzed by me at about 60 feet. I had to emergency tack to put her bow into the wake or we would have been in big trouble. Tough to avoid something doing 40+mph and, even though it was a realtively small cat ferry (say 100 feet) its wake was huge. I called the ferry company and complained.
 
BobM

BobM

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Jun 10, 2004
3,269
S2 9.2A Winthrop, MA
Ferry photo

How would you like to be buzzed by this? Don't get me wrong...I know they are working and I am screwing around, but did they have to risk killing me, my friend and his 8 year old son to get 30 people to Provincetown on time?
 

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Mike B

Mike B

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Apr 15, 2007
1,013
Beneteau 43 Baltimore, MD
Re: Ferry photo

Perhaps you should have called the Coasties instead.
 
Napa Ed

Napa Ed

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Jun 4, 2004
273
Oday 25 Alameda
monitor the vhf traffic channel

I don't know how it works on your side of the island, but in SF Bay, forget about leaving the vhf on 16, put it on channel 14 and listen to vessel traffic. All the dredges, ferries, barges, towboats, tankers and freighters are monitored. You'll know when they are coming, going, and what path they are on. No excuses for being caught in the traffic lanes. The cat ferry is commercial, you're recreational. Sail somewhere else or expect a wake or two.

Change your quote below to: I know they are working and I am screwing around, but did I have to risk killing myself, my friend and his 8 year old son...

BobM said:
How would you like to be buzzed by this? Don't get me wrong...I know they are working and I am screwing around, but did they have to risk killing me, my friend and his 8 year old son to get 30 people to Provincetown on time?
Click to expand
 
BobM

BobM

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Jun 10, 2004
3,269
S2 9.2A Winthrop, MA
Clarification and Rebuttal

Napa Ed said:
I don't know how it works on your side of the island, but in SF Bay, forget about leaving the vhf on 16, put it on channel 14 and listen to vessel traffic. All the dredges, ferries, barges, towboats, tankers and freighters are monitored. You'll know when they are coming, going, and what path they are on. No excuses for being caught in the traffic lanes. The cat ferry is commercial, you're recreational. Sail somewhere else or expect a wake or two.

Change your quote below to: I know they are working and I am screwing around, but did I have to risk killing myself, my friend and his 8 year old son...
Click to expand
Napa Ed said:
No excuses for being caught in the traffic lanes. The cat ferry is commercial, you're recreational. Sail somewhere else or expect a wake or two.
Click to expand
Napa Ed said:
Change your quote below to: I know they are working and I am screwing around, but did I have to risk killing myself, my friend and his 8 year old son...
Click to expand
Ed...please ready my post again and see the attached, albeit imperfect illustration...we (yellow square) were not in the shipping lane by a long shot and were, in fact, on a tack perpendicular it and further away from it. I really don't appreciate your remark, but perhaps this will make the situation clearer to you an absolve me of the blame you so readily assigned me.

The ferry buzzed us after dodging two other sailboats (one represented by a green square) to which your remark perhaps replied. He was heading back to the channel after completing the second curve of the S-shaped course (in red) he employed to zig-zag around two other sailboats tacking out of Boston harbor (the wind was pretty much blowing from 4-o'clock in the picture, as I recall).

I certainly agree that it was the situation (wind direction leading to traffic tacking across the shipping lane) that created a problem (boats in his way), but in my opinion he had a responsibility to ensure that his vessel's speed and course suited the conditions. His rate of speed was such that sailboats, correctly crossing the channel as quickly possible (as perpendicular as possible to the lane), still represented a dangerous navigational challenge that brought him far out of the lane and too close to the stern of my boat, making it necessary for me to emergency tack in order to put my bow into the huge wake he threw at us.
 

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