Navigational Buoys Used as Racing Marks
- Thread starter jviss
- Start date
I once had a similar incident entering Newport Harbor. It's a busy place and you can have real ocean swells with an afternoon wind chop superimposed on the swells. Add to that a lot of traffic and a fleet of YNG's racing out of the harbor, some. AC 12's circling around and you could have a pucker situation. Did I mention the car carriers coming down the bay?
As RC I often specified government buoys as marks as did all of the local clubs. I wouldn't pick a buoy which was adjacent to un-navigatable water - for the reason that you don't want parts of the fleet to ground there. I would always use buoys that had at least 50 yards of water before the shallow water as is often the case.
We would submit our races to the USCG to be published in the LNM for that week. Recreational boaters generally don't look at that publication but we thought it would give us (Our insurance company) a bit of an edge if there was a claim. We did have occasional stare downs with fishermen but when they see twenty sailboats heading at them they would usually leave. I would communicate with them if possible, being nice, and can't remember a problem.
As RC I often specified government buoys as marks as did all of the local clubs. I wouldn't pick a buoy which was adjacent to un-navigatable water - for the reason that you don't want parts of the fleet to ground there. I would always use buoys that had at least 50 yards of water before the shallow water as is often the case.
We would submit our races to the USCG to be published in the LNM for that week. Recreational boaters generally don't look at that publication but we thought it would give us (Our insurance company) a bit of an edge if there was a claim. We did have occasional stare downs with fishermen but when they see twenty sailboats heading at them they would usually leave. I would communicate with them if possible, being nice, and can't remember a problem.
Thanks you, I'm glad you appreciate it. Traffic in the bay was not an issue at this time, though there was a 675' freighter coming south when I got there. But not an issue. It was just that this fleet came up so suddenly, right across the harbor entrance, that it was startling and dangerous, in my experience.
By the way, I've been here dozens of times, and this has never happened to me before.
Navionics puts it at 0.3 miles between the buoys. If I were a race committee I would probably not hesitate to use buoys at that spacing. The fact that these are sport boats going 20+ knots does complicate things though, and like you said “you probably just had to be there.” I’m sure it’s no consolation but the racers are probably used to much closer passes than you and probably didn’t think you were too close.
I’ve also heard that rumor but I’ve never seen it codified anywhere. If nothing else it’s not a regulation that’s enforced to any significant extent. The Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association publishes all of the marks that it uses for every race on the bay at CBYRA RACING MARKS. Almost all of them are government ATONs, and they’re not some little beer can racing club.