Navigational Buoys Used as Racing Marks

[jviss]

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?

 

[degas]

Yeah, not the most considerate use of navigation buoys.

I couldn't find anything specific to racing in the (Canadian) colregs, but it looks like Rule 9 Narrow Channels was infracted left & right (so to speak).

 

[dlochner]

Doesn't matter if they are racing or not. As a vessel under power, you are the give way vessel. If there is plenty of navigable water (for your boat) around the marks, I think it would a hard case to make that race course was restricting navigation in the channel. Using ATONs is a pretty standard practice for sailboat racing.

If you have any knowledge at all about sailing and sailboat racing, it is pretty easy to understand where the boats are going and what they will be doing. Very easy to be courteous and follow the COREGS and give way to the racers. And if you interfere with the race and end up at the YC that sponsored the race, expect a less than friendly reception.

 

[jviss]

Doesn't matter if they are racing or not. As a vessel under power, you are the give way vessel. If there is plenty of navigable water (for your boat) around the marks, I think it would a hard case to make that race course was restricting navigation in the channel. Using ATONs is a pretty standard practice for sailboat racing.

If you have any knowledge at all about sailing and sailboat racing, it is pretty easy to understand where the boats are going and what they will be doing. Very easy to be courteous and follow the COREGS and give way to the racers. And if you interfere with the race and end up at the YC that sponsored the race, expect a less than friendly reception.

It wasn't like that. I was entering the channel, constrained by draft, and they came up suddenly, fast, and I had a difficult time just slowing and maneuvering to avoid hitting multiple of them. It was as if they "swarmed" me.

 

[dlochner]

Can you post a screenshot of the chart where this occurred. It would be helpful to see what the actual conditions were.

The consensus on SA is it is not a problem unless the waters surrounding the mark are very shallow and other vessels cannot safely navigate the area outside the marked channel.

Regardless, this in not an incident I'd let raise my blood pressure or lose any sleep over.

racing around navigational buoys...

please help explain or provide the data indicating the rule, colreg rule or whatever may indicate if sailboats in the united states are allowed to use navigational buoys as start marks or turning marks that are not in the harbor.

forums.sailinganarchy.com

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Our club typically uses the channel entrance marker for the upwind leg when the wind is from the west. I was uncomfortable with it because the water is almost too shallow for me at the entrance and we had to approach from outside what I consider to be the channel. I see your point but I think a lot depends upon the circumstance. Navigation markers are often used as racing turning marks and I don't think there is any rule against it. All boats still have to follow navigation protocol, whether you are racing or not. If it's a notoriously crowded channel, it can be a problem. If you were the lone sailor trying to enter the channel while a race was going on, I'd say "just get over it".

 

[Rick Webb]

It wasn't like that. I was entering the channel, constrained by draft, and they came up suddenly, fast, and I had a difficult time just slowing and maneuvering to avoid hitting multiple of them. It was as if they "swarmed" me.

Were you flying the "Constrained by Draught Signal"?

How were they to know they should give way?

 

[jviss]

Were you flying the "Constrained by Draught Signal"?

How were they to know they should give way?

Ha, ha. They should have known. They were racing right across the entrance to the harbor. They weren't there when I approached the red, which I was holding tight to, as there was traffic entering, and they just happened across my path, fairly suddenly. Imagine trimarans racing.

 

[FastOlson]

If you were indeed the right-of-way vessel, it seems like sounding five horn blasts and contacting the USCG was your option.
Around here we race on a (large) river and all the clubs use nav buoys for marks for decades. That said the Race Instructions call for DQ-ing any boat that interferes with commercial traffic. We have lots of tugs/barges and they are "restricted in maneuvering" and have both rules and self preservation on their side.
The River Patrol (county sheriff) and USCG will cite a violator quickly, and they should.

All that said, there are always a number of racers with more entitlement than brains. Amazingly, at times. They are matched in cognitive disability by occasional hog-lines of salmon fishing boats who try to ignore the commercial traffic and occasionally get ticketed ..... or killed...

In the OD fleets I used to race in we always zig zagged around some clueless fishing skiff parked too close to a mark or line. Usually they would they would then wander away, still trolling. If we informed them that they were in the middle of a scheduled race and this was covered in their Notice to Mariners, 96% of the time we'd get a blank look or some uncreative swearing.

Such is life.

 

[WayneH]

IIRC the start/finish line on some of our Galveston Bay races was the entrance markers to the Kemah/Clear Creek Channel. But the other markers were an oil platform and a mid-bay radio tower both of which were well outside of the Houston Ship Channel.

Disclaimer: It's been over ten years since I raced in Galveston Bay so I may be full of !
Rum will do that to ya.