iWindsurf Community :: View topic - Right of Way!
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:15 am Post subject: Right of Way!
Can somebody tell me why nobody yields out by the Bridge? If I'm on the starboard and I'm carving up a wave I have row.
On "waves" it's pretty much he/she who is "on the wave" gets the goods. It is getting pretty crowded up there. For the most part, the cool thing to do is yield to someone who is clearly riding/following a swell regardless of their direction of travel.
Actually there is no "right of way" in the International Regulations for Prevention of Collisions at Sea or COLREGS but "stand-on" and "give-way". But remember even if you're on starboard you have to go from the "privileged" vessel to the "burdened" vessel and have to "give way" to the downwind sailors on starboard which I find tricky at the Bridge as a kiter that can go straight downwind riding a swell and suddenly be confronted by a sailor coming across fast on my port on a beam reach and I'm required to turn to starboard and stay out of his way. Also, when swell riding you are often going back and forth from starboard to port. We should all use the Golden Rule and just be nice and do our best to avoid confrontation and collision.
Sailors (one a WSer, one a kiter) have twice tried to force me out of their way by pinching up under me while we're going in the same direction on flat water. Both of them had the whole region below us to bear off a few degrees and simply pass by. I could not pinch any higher in one case, and never even knew the guy was there in the other. Does ANYONE think a windward recreational sailor has any moral or legal obligation to luff, stall, and/or jump in the water just because some stupid ORGANIZED IYRU RACE RULE BOOK says the upwind vessel is "burdened" and the other recreational sailor WANTS his path on flat water? Good luck wid DAT!
Agree with both of you that the rules as qouted (at volume, underway, with expletives) around here are a bit limited to cover the spectrum of possibilities.
IIRC, the more maneuverable vessel is burdened before the one on starboard tack, so if one guy is pinching, and another playing downwind on some swell, I'd say it's the slashers responsibility to avoid the pincher, regardless of tack. It's a different interpretation, since both vessels are technically equally maneuverable, but the pincher has only one line to take: the most upwind he can hold, while the slasher can go any old place.
1) Just because you are on starboard doesn't give you the right to pretty much do whatever you want. The whole point is that you hold your course so that the guy on port can avoid you. I once had some guy coming at me on starboard. I went downwind of him and he almost looped on top of me and then had the balls to yell at me because he was on starboard.
2) Isobars-I had the some kook at the Event Site yell at me about five years ago doing the same thing. He kept pinching me from underneath and yelled something about "leeward overtaking vessel." Yes that is a right of way rule when racing but give me break!
3) As far as I am concerned the chill out/good karma rule should always be in effect in the Gorge where you always have the current taking you upwind. Give people a lot of room and don't push the ROW thing just because it is your right.
The thing that I notice is that most Ws'ers tend to pinch from up wind on me when I'm kiting. The motive for this is to avoid going under my lines. The problem is that this causes me to lose the swell.
I always yield to ws'er and stringers when they are clearly carving a swell. The guy that played chicken with me was a summer looney and took a big risk in coming as close to me as he did. Very stupid and I would not have done it if I was windsurfing or kiting. I do both.
Bottom line is that the clearly looked at me and continued to pinch on me. I was on the starboard, I had the swell, and I was clearly in ROW. He should have yielded by just turning off 10degs.
It was a crazy day! I'm going to go buy an impact vest and a helmet.
I'm going to go buy an impact vest and a helmet.
Riding cheap, free, and/or tough boards helps, too, ultimately.
the more maneuverable vessel is burdened before the one on starboard tack, so if one guy is pinching, and another playing downwind on some swell, I'd say it's the slashers responsibility to avoid the pincher, regardless of tack.
And how far is that approach going to get a pincher at Leo Carrillo or any other surf site?
Even more broadly relevant, how can someone pinching another on the same tack claim ROW, when the pincher clearly has more options? Isn't the one being pinched the burdened one, presuming he's already pinching as high as he can?
And even though racing rules imply I CAN hold my starboard line at the expense of somebody playing on swell or waves, I'd never do so simply because it's inconsiderate. He's DOING something special ON something special, whereas I'm just goin' across the water. I give up nothing in giving him room, because I can rip just as well on some other path.
I wouldn't want to go under your 100 feet of line either. If you are heading down wind and surfing that swell on a starboard tack, don't you think that going upwind of you (even on a port tack) is the safe and prudent thing for the other person to do?
Like I said in a previous post, just because you are on a starboard tack doesn't mean you own the river or are free to change direction at will and continue to have right of way.