Definition of WAFI
Discussion
Sail does not have automatic right over power.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-246...
In all seriousness though I get the impression he was bloody minded about it and that's why he ended up in court.
Not sure what the fallout of all this will be yet as the HM insists on 3 times as many safety craft as race boats for the Cowes Torquay powerboat race which has effectively killed it and I can see the sail side getting some of that treatment soon.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-246...
In all seriousness though I get the impression he was bloody minded about it and that's why he ended up in court.
Not sure what the fallout of all this will be yet as the HM insists on 3 times as many safety craft as race boats for the Cowes Torquay powerboat race which has effectively killed it and I can see the sail side getting some of that treatment soon.
Here is the AIS playback of the yacht and the tanker, with the audio from the bridge data recorder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-wn1DM0NYE
I can't see how he thought he was going to get away with trying to go in front. He could quite easily have avoided the collision by turning left and passing green to green.
I can't see how he thought he was going to get away with trying to go in front. He could quite easily have avoided the collision by turning left and passing green to green.
I'm only a new skipper, so forgive my not knowing the ins and outs of this but two questions spring to mind:
1). Does RN status have bearing on the ruling? Do you get away with more as a civvie?
2). If nobody died or was seriously injured, why has this gone to court?
I feel that in his shoes, I'd feel that in a situation where nobody was hurt, a non-sailing judge telling me what *might* have been what would irritate the tits off me...
1). Does RN status have bearing on the ruling? Do you get away with more as a civvie?
2). If nobody died or was seriously injured, why has this gone to court?
I feel that in his shoes, I'd feel that in a situation where nobody was hurt, a non-sailing judge telling me what *might* have been what would irritate the tits off me...
Good verdict. "Power gives way to sail" is one highly simplified and largely irrelevant element of COLREGS. We would see this on a regular basis back when I was on the cruise ships. Leaving Southampton, the sunday sailor heros (power & sail) darting across the bows of 100,000grt+ of floating hotel. What they forget is that right or wrong, it is our paintwork vs their lives.
Disastrous said:
I'm only a new skipper, so forgive my not knowing the ins and outs of this but two questions spring to mind:
1). Does RN status have bearing on the ruling? Do you get away with more as a civvie?
2). If nobody died or was seriously injured, why has this gone to court?
I feel that in his shoes, I'd feel that in a situation where nobody was hurt, a non-sailing judge telling me what *might* have been what would irritate the tits off me...
His RN status would infer that he knows Colregs backwards and he had blatant disregard for that. Also he should be fully aware of a skippers duty under SOLAS and he wrecklessly put his crew in danger. One of the RN idiots even jumped over the side and was lucky to have not gone through the mincer.1). Does RN status have bearing on the ruling? Do you get away with more as a civvie?
2). If nobody died or was seriously injured, why has this gone to court?
I feel that in his shoes, I'd feel that in a situation where nobody was hurt, a non-sailing judge telling me what *might* have been what would irritate the tits off me...
My guess, as I said above, is that in interview the guy got cocky rather than just holding his hands up and saying well sorry about that it was just a complete misjudgement. If he had done that I'm pretty sure the HM wouldn't have hauled them up as they generally don't have cash sloshing about to take a risk on losing court cases. They don't get the fine money.
I recently had cause to remind the second largest yachting regatta of their skippers duties under rule 9 as I didn't want a fleet of 40 odd poweboats run up a mud bank on transisting a speed limit through a narrow channel. I was greeted with a response from both the organiser and the HM of confusion, in fact they asked do you mean the HM byelaws? And of course on the day we had the usual yottie coming side on to the fleet demanding that he could use every last bit of the river and expecting them to part / stop for his benefit.
So for clarity.
Racing gives you no rights to ignore duties of Colregs and Solas.
Sail does not have automatic right over power.
The overiding rule of Colregs is for all craft to avoid collision at all costs regardless of any precedence given in other rules.
And lastly, if you are fool enough to take on something that quite clearly will destroy you, your craft and your crew then frankly you deserve to be left £103,00 out of pocket.
And all in the sailing / pleasure boat / racing community should be thankful to this idiot as the unintended consequences on sailing regattas could be far reaching.
Yup, all that makes good sense and I agree he ought to know colleges inside out.
I don't think my post explained that I completely agree he was an idiot but I was just surprised that on top of wrecking his boat he was fined as well but a very stupid thing to do either way.
It was in YouTube IIRC wasn't it?
I don't think my post explained that I completely agree he was an idiot but I was just surprised that on top of wrecking his boat he was fined as well but a very stupid thing to do either way.
It was in YouTube IIRC wasn't it?
Yeah it went viral at the time and I, amongst others, have been keeping a keen eye out for the outcome. Pleasure boaters generally don't need this sort of crap to give Harbour Masters fuel to regulate waters but as usual there was the brigade of misinformed numpties that along with himself argued he was in the right.
I actually generally detest the use of the terms WAFI and Stinkboat as I believe everyone has a right to use the water in a safe manner regardless of their form of propulsion and when utilised outside of humour it can be detrimental to that. In this case though I think he has earned the title.
I actually generally detest the use of the terms WAFI and Stinkboat as I believe everyone has a right to use the water in a safe manner regardless of their form of propulsion and when utilised outside of humour it can be detrimental to that. In this case though I think he has earned the title.
Did he really think the tanker was going to swerve to avoid him? And costs of £100K - did he really think he was going to win and be awarded costs?
But I cannot think he 'impeded' its progress; I doubt the tanker's crew felt a thing:
'Did you hear something just then, Number Two?' 'I don't believe I did, Number One...'
But I cannot think he 'impeded' its progress; I doubt the tanker's crew felt a thing:
'Did you hear something just then, Number Two?' 'I don't believe I did, Number One...'
Simpo Two said:
Did he really think the tanker was going to swerve to avoid him? And costs of £100K - did he really think he was going to win and be awarded costs?
But I cannot think he 'impeded' its progress; I doubt the tanker's crew felt a thing:
'Did you hear something just then, Number Two?' 'I don't believe I did, Number One...'
Many years since I sailed yachts but I think this is a salutary lesson in common sense. Clearly the tanker could do nothing to avoid the collision given the timeframe whereas the skipper of the yacht could and should have done so. Whether this will alter the balance of responsibility I do not know. But it must be right that the only vessel that could manoevre in this potentially deadly situation should have done so. Does seem common sense prevailing to me. The sting in the tail is the costs and the loss of reputation for the skipper.But I cannot think he 'impeded' its progress; I doubt the tanker's crew felt a thing:
'Did you hear something just then, Number Two?' 'I don't believe I did, Number One...'
MOTORVATOR said:
Yeah it went viral at the time and I, amongst others, have been keeping a keen eye out for the outcome. Pleasure boaters generally don't need this sort of crap to give Harbour Masters fuel to regulate waters but as usual there was the brigade of misinformed numpties that along with himself argued he was in the right.
I actually generally detest the use of the terms WAFI and Stinkboat as I believe everyone has a right to use the water in a safe manner regardless of their form of propulsion and when utilised outside of humour it can be detrimental to that. In this case though I think he has earned the title.
This bloke is a proper WAFI though though I suspect he's a bloody minded idiot no matter what method propulsion he's using.I actually generally detest the use of the terms WAFI and Stinkboat as I believe everyone has a right to use the water in a safe manner regardless of their form of propulsion and when utilised outside of humour it can be detrimental to that. In this case though I think he has earned the title.
As already said, sometimes you just have to use a bit of common sense and if you do anything that increases the likelihood of a collision, then you deserve a kicking.
Simpo Two said:
But I cannot think he 'impeded' its progress; I doubt the tanker's crew felt a thing:
The tanker knew he was there, and attempted to take avoiding action. If you listen to the audio above, you can hear them give a single horn blast to indicate the starboard turn, and then shortly after, helm commands and 5 blasts on the horn to warn him. Impede does not mean physically prevent passage, it basically means getting in the way. Under the collision regulations the tanker was obliged to try and avoid the yacht, and as soon as that happened his passage was impeded.Disastrous said:
I'm only a new skipper, so forgive my not knowing the ins and outs of this but two questions spring to mind:
1). Does RN status have bearing on the ruling? Do you get away with more as a civvie?
2). If nobody died or was seriously injured, why has this gone to court?
I feel that in his shoes, I'd feel that in a situation where nobody was hurt, a non-sailing judge telling me what *might* have been what would irritate the tits off me...
The judge is a yotter and sails a Bav36 on the South Coast...1). Does RN status have bearing on the ruling? Do you get away with more as a civvie?
2). If nobody died or was seriously injured, why has this gone to court?
I feel that in his shoes, I'd feel that in a situation where nobody was hurt, a non-sailing judge telling me what *might* have been what would irritate the tits off me...
Hard-Drive said:
Disastrous said:
I'm only a new skipper, so forgive my not knowing the ins and outs of this but two questions spring to mind:
1). Does RN status have bearing on the ruling? Do you get away with more as a civvie?
2). If nobody died or was seriously injured, why has this gone to court?
I feel that in his shoes, I'd feel that in a situation where nobody was hurt, a non-sailing judge telling me what *might* have been what would irritate the tits off me...
The judge is a yotter and sails a Bav36 on the South Coast...1). Does RN status have bearing on the ruling? Do you get away with more as a civvie?
2). If nobody died or was seriously injured, why has this gone to court?
I feel that in his shoes, I'd feel that in a situation where nobody was hurt, a non-sailing judge telling me what *might* have been what would irritate the tits off me...
Then no wonder matey was Donald Ducked!
Imagine being in the dock and thinking "no worries, I'll just spiel off some navy chat, shine it on a bit and I'll be fine..." and then spotting the judge's dubarry's poking out from under his robes...
I was in the Solent at the time the incident occured, we infact were the very definition of "some Saturday afternoon jaunt" as described in the article as we bimbled back from Southampton to Gosport each nursing a shocking hangover.... At the time we heard of the incident we were doing our best to avoid the Portsmouth - Ryde catamaran to do anything about it. At the time we assumed he was at the head of the race and cutting across the tanker whilst everyone else would have to tack and lose time. Not sure if that was the case though, I do laugh when people assume that even in these circumstances, sail has right of way over a 100m+ tanker on a set course with limited maneuverability in the on the first day of Cowes week...
Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 28th October 12:17
MOTORVATOR said:
Not sure what the fallout of all this will be yet as the HM insists on 3 times as many safety craft as race boats for the Cowes Torquay powerboat race which has effectively killed it and I can see the sail side getting some of that treatment soon.
Is it the HM that requires the fleet of safety boats or is it the governing body?
Huntsman said:
MOTORVATOR said:
Not sure what the fallout of all this will be yet as the HM insists on 3 times as many safety craft as race boats for the Cowes Torquay powerboat race which has effectively killed it and I can see the sail side getting some of that treatment soon.
Is it the HM that requires the fleet of safety boats or is it the governing body?A decoy boat pretends to get into difficulties a few miles away; use the maroon as the starting signal.
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