Re: Collision

From: Kelly Wee (kelly@quake.net-DeleteThis)
Date: Sun Sep 21 1997 - 07:20:01 PDT


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Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 07:20:01 -0700
From: Kelly Wee <kelly@quake.net-DeleteThis>
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Subject: Re: Collision
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Barabara Ross has been right on the money. Unless both sailors had
registered for a sanctioned race and agreed to race by IYRU rules, race
rules do not apply (i.e. mast to beam, room at the mark racing rule
does not apply). The State of California has Sailing Rules of Road in
corporated into state law (Starboard over port, leeward vessel has ROW,
Overtaking vessel must stay clear, tacking or jibing vessel must stay
clear, etc). Since there is no enforcement of those regulations, they
only become important in a litigation situation (that an maintaining
some sort of order in all that chaos on crowded days). Hopefully your
situation will not result in a law suit. (That is the beauracratic
answer.)

Here it is in simple form:
According to how you described your incident, the other sailor is wrong.

If you were overlapped, you, being the leeward vessel, had
right-of-way. He should have stayed clear.

If you were not overlapped, he still should have keep clear because the
rules state that a jibing or tacking vessel must stay clear.

The only potential responsibility you have is, you are never supposed to
insist on your right-of-way if it results in a collision. Here, you are
clear because the collision took you by surprise.

By law, the other sailor is responsible & should pay for the damages
that resulted. If the sailor is a good friend, then I'd consider
splitting the cost because of the old "Stuff happens" rule.

The SFBA has the Rule of the Road posted our site, but it is currently
down due to a server swap and a domain name reconfiguration. We'll get
back to you on the URL.

Good Luck

-- 
Kelly Wee
kelly@quake.net-DeleteThis
San Francisco Boardsailing Association 

inStateHAL TANGEN wrote: > > Ok so I've been windsurfing hard for 7 years in all sorts of > challenging conditions and crowded sites but a collision? I'm very > cautious when I turn. I look all around me everytime. I never want > to turn into someone but that's exactly what happened to me. > > This morning while on my 4.7 at Magnuson Park without warning another > sailor appeared right in front of me in mid-jibe. I had no time to > turn or bail and we collided with each other. Neither of us were > hurt but the main panel in my sail was torn from seam to seam and the > side of my board had a 2" long crack on the rail. The other guy's > equipment was unhurt. > > The jibing sailor claimed no responsibility and was confident that > since he was the upwind sailor he had the right of way. He said that > it should've been the leeward sailors responsibility to avoid > anything that comes from windward and therefor I was at fault. > > So my question: Two sailors are on starboard reach. Without looking > the upwind sailor jibes directly in front of the downwind sailor. > The downwind sailor having not seen the upwind sailor initiate his > jibe did not have time to react and ran into the side of the jibing > sailor. > > Who's at fault? > > I appreciate any comments. Thanks.



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