Bob,
Great link. I gotta say that I sailed in Tampa Bay for years. It is also a heavily traveled port. The shipping channel is shallow by national standards, and a narrower channel by definition.
I can't recall all the stupid things I have witnessed from boaters interfering with big ships. Yet I've witnessed many encounters of the CLOSE kind in clear/rough conditions & traffic clustered.
Most of these ships are considered "RAM's" meaning restricted in their ability to maneuver. And/or "CBD's", meaning constrained by draft. Also most people misjudge the speed of these ships. I see this all the time in "meeting & crossing" situations.
I can say, that if you hear 5 blasts, the small boater is usually the culprit. Then there are the anchored-near-marker fishing boats. And, when conditions change, they swing into the channel are now interfering. Tampa bay doesn't have a traffic separation scheme so clearance room is at a premium.
So, this brings me back to the 27 sailboat. I once witnessed a similar boat on the correct side of the channel with a ship bearing down on him from astern. The sailboat skipper stayed his course as the ship's pilot sounded the danger blasts 4 times. There was also an inbound freighter & where the sailboat was, the ships would pass one another with little free room (RAM?). Outside the channel there is plenty of depth.
At the last minute, the sailboat made an evasive maneuver to STBD and just past the bow of the freighter it kissed the sailboat's hind quarter slightly. The sail boater was STUPID & steadfast idiot feeling he was on the correct side of the channel and had right-of-way, luckily, he only ended up embarrassed & a big dinged hull. Hopefully he learned a valuable lesson.
"Rules of the Road states that "BIGGER HAS THE RIGHT-A-WAY".
Your boater, I was not there, not enough details of the event, why he was there, did he follow fog signal rules etc. etc etc? Suffice it to say, unless the sailboat was a CBD, with no clear depth outside the channel, my vote says he was at fault. It's a lot easier to maneuver a small boat in short order than a large RAM.
CR