Mike, The RoW term is legacy and obsolete. The “stand on” and “Give way” is there for a while now. And please note that the Colregs apply (there are no racing instructions in place, because there is no race).
Interestingly, there was along discussion about that in SBO recently. The point that was made very clearly was that the “stand on vessel” has fewer rights than the “Give way” vessel (i.e. the stand on one has to continue on its course and the give way one has the right to select the best option to avoid collision. One extra point that should be made here is that the give way vessel should make its action clear to the stand on vessel (e.g. turn substantially and early on, so that the stand on vessel has no doubt wrt its actions). But having said all this, I side with Joe – what is comfortable to you, is not necessarily comfortable to the other skipper. And you have to take that into account (not him). Me passing a foot (or even 5 ft.) behind your boat may or may not be comfortable to you. This is very similar to car racing. When you race around an oval, quite often you ride single inches behind the other car (you are getting a great tow); imagine you try driving like that on a highway (and don’t be surprised if the driver in front of you freaks out). my couple of cents Marek Ottawa, ON
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