Thanks, glad it helped! 🙂 If you liked this one, you might like some of my other videos about sailing skills too. Happy sailing ⛵⛵🙂

Glad the videos are helping! If you're still working on the basics, have a look through my 'sailing skills' playlist. Might take a while to watch them all but it's all suited for dinghy sailing. Happy sailing!

Wow, thank you so much for showing your appreciation 😊 Glad the videos are helping you with your sailing!

👍

🤣 There's always plenty of lasers to have a crash with 😂

Thanks, hope it helped!

Thanks, it's a common question, glad it was cleared up. The wind direction doesn't set the rules, just the windward and leeward sides, based on where the mainsail is actually set. There's no arguement that way! Happy sailing 🙂👍

Yeah it's so helpful!

🤣🤣😂😂 Best comment yet 👍

This is for when sailing boats meet other sailing boats. There are loads more rules about other types of vessels coming together. Hope it doesn't put you off going on the water but it's important to understand the rules 👍🙂

Especially if you don't know if the other boat is racing or not, I which case you should default to the colregs 🤦

Haha yeah, fair play to him for letting me use the footage

Hi, Yes, good question! If the wind is going the 'wrong way' across the sail, you're sailing by the lee. This can be unstable but it can also be quite quick. Because the wind is hitting the leach of the sail first, it is not disturbed by the mast so there's an arguement that it could be more efficient. Another benefit of sailing by the lee is that you could stay on starboard tack instead of gybing, which in some circumstances will mean you remain the right of way boat in a race (see my right of way video for more info) Hope this helps!

Thanks, glad you found it useful! Yes it can happen on a range of boats that have quite a square transom corner

Hi, A rule is broken if the right of way boat has to take action to avoid a collision with a give way boat, whether or not a collision occurs. In your example, if the leeward boat had to change their course or take action to avoid a collision with the windward boat, or if there actually was a collision, then the windward boat would most likely have broken rule 11 (windward boat keeps clear). I say ‘most likely’ because it depends on the situation and there are a few other possibilities. If the windward boat had plenty of time to react, then they have failed to keep clear. A boat is deemed to be tacking after she has passed through head to wind, so, on the start line, the leeward boat would normally be able to luff to head to wind, and the windward boat would probably need to do the same to keep clear, and so on along the start line. If your windward boat only makes a small change of course momentarily, most likely they haven’t done enough, but it really depends how much room there is between the boats and whether the leeward boat is able to sail where it wants to go. If the leeward boat had come from behind at speed, it does not become the right of way boat until an overlap is established. At this point and not before, the windward boat must start reacting, but if the leeward boat has come in so fast or so close that the windward boat cannot avoid a collision, the leeward boat may have broken rule 14 and 15 (14: Avoid contact if reasonably possible, and 15: When a boat acquires right of way, she shall initially give the other boat room to keep clear). Also there is a limitation on luffing up if you come from behind, although this only applies from the start signal of the race. (Rule 17: If a boat clear astern becomes overlapped within two of her hull lengths to leeward of a boat on the same tack, she shall not sail above her proper course while they remain on the same tack and overlapped within that distance, unless in doing so she promptly sails astern of the other boat.) There is no proper course before the start, as described in the definition of ‘proper course’. If a boat establishes a leeward overlap from behind and within 2 hull lengths to leeward, she would then be able to start luffing the windward boat up before the start signal. However, at the start signal the leeward boat would have a ‘proper course’ and would therefore be required to bear away onto a close haul, assuming that it’s an upwind leg to start with. For your second question, yes you can try to prevent the astern boat from becoming overlapped in the first place. Bearing off might make the overlap happen sooner though because you’d be turning the side of your boat towards them. You’d probably be better just trying to manoeuvre to keep your transom facing them so that they can’t get alongside you. If there’s a small overlap, the windward boat might be able to break it by luffing up to point her transom at the other boat. Luffing up would also push your back end further downwind, and if the other boat has to sail behind it and to leeward of you, this would help to create more space between the two boats if an overlap is established. Sorry this is quite long, but I’m just trying to explain the different possible scenarios. Hope this helps! Phil

Yes, you're right - if a racing boat had come from behind, when it establishes an overlap to leeward of the other boat, it would become the right of way/stand on boat. However, in the racing rules there are also some limitations which make this scenario a little more complicated. If a boat gains the right of way from behind as you describe, she is not allowed to sail above her proper course (rule 17) - the proper course is the course that she would sail in the absence of other boats. Occasionally when racing, a leeward boat may wish to turn upwind as far as head to wind to defend her position against a following boat, to prevent them overtaking - this limitation is to prevent someone coming from behind from being able to 'attack' in such an agressive manner. In the video I'd intentionally avoided making it too complicated!

@@philswatersports Much appreciated!

That's a good idea, to have a quick prompt. Glad you found it useful 🙂

Thanks, glad it's helped!

Yes it is confusing! That's why I've tried to explain the differences, but it would be simpler if the rules were always the same. Especially when racing boats come close to non-racing boats, and they might not know what the other boat is planning on doing

Everyone should know ALL the rules of sail meets power, vessels restricted in their manoeuvrability etc. I think sometimes people just think that sailboats have priority which isn't the case a lot of the time

@@philswatersports they for sure think that way, I have seen it in the deep water channel approaching Harwich years ago. A sailing boat, with a very posh accent on the vhf, was thinking it had preference over a container vessel of 300+meters. real-life wafi's

It's worrying, and there's no excuse really when it's so easy to access the resources and information about these things

@@philswatersports common sense should be used, if you think a 300mtr container vessel can stop in a few meters to let you cross in your sailing boat than I'm sure you have a lack of common sense

It's interesting to hear what people use around the world to remember. Thanks for commenting 🙂

Not in the colregs, but the racing rules of sailing describe a boat as the give way or right of way boat. A stand on vessel or right of way boat can still be found to have broken a rule

I agree, and the people you're referring to are probably not on here trying to further their knowledge..... What's the equivalent for powerboating?

Sounds like you've got some stories?

Yes that's true, everyone always talks about port and starboard, not about starboard and port! Even the port/starboard rule is often called it in that order. Glad you enjoyed the vid

I always remember Port has 4 letters, so does left.

Thanks, hope it helped!

Thanks, hope it helped!

Thanks for your great feedback! It's so nice to hear when it helps people because yes, it's a lot of time involved! Have you seen my other videos about sailing skills? You might like them if you liked this one 😃👍

True! I'm not sure how it works in other languages 🤣

@@philswatersports Believe it or not I only recently was told this about 10 years ago, so 32 years trying to remember my port from starboard the hard way,lol.

Lol 🤣 There are a few ways to remember, a common one that's already been said, is that there's no red port left in the bottle. Also associating red nav lights with port being on the left

Not sure I agree, if someone's broken a rule they're still liable for the aftermath. People get prosecuted for it, upto and including manslaughter. Maybe it's different in the US, that's how it works in the UK at least

@@philswatersports I'm not sure about the UK myself. Here in the US they had to actually put into law to enforce what use to be common courtesy. Thing's like being responsible for your wake, not operating at speed close to anchored vessels and fishing vessels, keeping at least a boats length apart if possible when overtaking. Those sorts of things. Florida itself has just put into law on its waterways a mandatory 50' rule, basically pleasure vessels must stay at least 50' apart when operating on the waters if the situation allows, then they must slow and operate with caution. If they keep enforcing that rule it will be nice for when your running in the channel and hopefully the larger pleasure boats will stop passing at full wake speed. In close course racing though boats can still run board and board passing the Grey Pupon mustard, if you haven't seen it before it's a old commercial.

Yeah that all makes sense. In the UK there might be local byelaws with rules that are specific to certain areas. And speed limits etc in harbours and rivers

Good way to remember! Have you heard, 'there's no red port left in the bottle'? It doesn't help for the green and starboard though 😂

Thanks for your feedback! 🙂 Yes, colreg 18 describes the responsibilities between vessels.... As you describe, a sailing vessel underway shall keep out of the way of a vessel engaged in fishing. Although I wonder how many people display the cones or correct lights?

We also like to fish and sail. We always try to respect fishing and everyone is out to have fun. You may want to check the colregs carefully. Fishing is defined as commercial fishing. Just tossing out a line is not necessarily going to give right of way. I have always heard the rules are shields not weapons. Rules are meant to save us from injury. One rule not mentioned is to treat others the same way you would like to be.

I agree Also, if someone has just tossed a line out, this could be pretty hard to spot anyway from another boat. People need to learn all the scenarios, which is way beyond what I have been able to cover in this video

Lol! I've seen many skippers flapping their arms around for no obvious reasons 😂😂

Rule 18 describes the pecking order. The rules here are only for *sail* meets sail. Obviously the other rules apply in addition. Doesn't matter how big you are, a vessel not under command isn't going to move 🤣

🤣🤣 You'd think but it really seems to go that way sometimes for some people 😂

Glad you enjoyed it! You might like my other videos about sailing skills on this playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PL2VtZj-uQwyjfdNsbYbWWjKeJjnYGiUEW

Hope it helped! 👍

@@philswatersports I have been following you for a few days. Your video content quality is very good. But I noticed that, due to video optimization problems, the videos are not getting more views and subscribers. You need to fix it. Best wishes

Thank you, glad you liked them 👍

@@philswatersports "You're welcome! They were fantastic. Looking forward to more collaborations."

Thanks. I used to sail around there too, yes it can get really busy! I think sometimes people push the boundaries of the rules because they're trying to get a good time in. Also, people racing with each other will give each other a lot less room than 2 people sailing leisurely, for example, so leisure sailors might find racing boats getting uncomfortably close. It doesn't change what the rules are though!

Hope it helped! There are lots of other similar videos on my channel to help with sailing skills, have you watched those too?

Glad it helped!

Great! Yes, green is for starboard and red for port. Navigation lights are situated accordingly, split into 3 segments, so you can see which way a boat is going. From the front you'll see red and green, from the side you see one colour so you know which side you're looking at, and from behind it should be a white light. Well, more or less anyway, the segments should be 120 degrees each around the boat. Think of a mercedes badge in terms of the 3 segments 👍

Great, I'm so glad you found them helpful! Thanks 👍

Hi, yes, this is explained at 3:18 We need to be aware of both rule sets incase one of the boats is not racing

Yep that's an easy way to remember it 🙂

🤣 let us know when you're arguing that in court so we can all watch

Big plastic boat crashes into a little tugboat, your the loser

Yep, worrying that these people are on the water and have no idea what they're doing

Yes, I agree, people hiring a boat for a party may not have much sense around the water either, I've come across a fair amount of this before too. Good skippers are always having to take into account that other people may not know the rules or even how to handle their boats properly.

Not always, a few factors go into play. Size,draft, maneuverability And sail,power, or manual propulsion

The 'starboard' side is derived from old longboats that had a steering oar or steering board on the right hand side of the boat, or the 'stoerbord' in old English. Because this was mounted on the starboard side, they would put the other side of the boat against the port, hence the 'port side'. In terms of why the rules give the starboard tack boat the right of way over port tack, I don't know why it's that way round to be honest. Maybe there's a reason or maybe it was just 50:50. Or maybe, if the steering board was on the starboard side, and two boats are sailing upwind, the the helm of the port tack boat would be on the starboard side and have a better view of the starboard tack boat - the other helm would have their view more obscured by the sails. Dunno tbh! Any thoughts from anyone who knows would be great!

@@philswatersports TY for answering! Actually, it was a retorical question that you are partly correct on. One thing that needs to be added is that the "stoerbord" would have been located on the right side of the vessel because most people are right handed. My opinion on the starboard tack right-of way rule is that, on starboard tack the vessel is healed to port, that that causes the stoerboard on the right side to be raised which makes for less effective steering. On port tack, the steorboard would become deeper in the water and would be more effective. Since right-of-way rules have generally been based on relative manouverability, I think that this idea makes sense. Capt. (ret.) Jeff

Yes, good thinking. I was thinking about manoeuvrability and I guess I didn't really think about the board being raised and lowered. You're probably right 👍

I don't see why not, I've used it on ropes with maybe 40-50mm diameter. It's the stiffness of the rope that could be an issue - if it's too stiff, the bight won't pull out of the knot to release it if it's been pulled tight (the bight being the loop)

A burgee is a great idea, as they show the apparent wind direction. They can be a good starting point for the general sail setting, but they won't show as much detail as the telltales do. By this, I mean that you can set the angle of the sail fairly well based on the burgee, but the telltales are more sensitive to react to the air flowing around the sail itself. A burgee is particularly useful in light winds when you might be struggling to work out where the wind is, or to get the airflow to attach to the sail. The Hawk MKII is a popular choice for un-stayed boats (Laser/ILCA, Topper etc), as it shows the wind approaching the sail: amzn.to/3J1dCa1 Or a masthead burgee is ideal for doublehanders: amzn.to/49cOfgc A mast head burgee will also find the wind a bit sooner in light winds, because it's probably a bit stronger a bit higher up; but bear in mind that any rocking of the boat will affect the burgee. Hope this helps!

Hi, yeah it's a Hartley 15, made by Hartley boats in Derby, UK. It's a general purpose style plastic dinghy

Thanks, yeah they can be useful to help people who are first learning, one less thing to think about when you're still trying to control the boat. And also they can be useful if you suddenly have a mental block in a busy situation!