Gdavid
Guru
GFC, thank you for sharing your experience. Exposing yourself to such scrutiny for the sake of collective learning and increased awareness is commendable. Debriefing such events can be good for all of us, especially if it can be done objectively without berating each other. I also think it is to be expected that we are interested to go through it with a fine tooth comb.
Can you clarify the sailboats light display? (Edit: I just noticed post 56 where you cleared it up) You said 360 degree light and it's green starboard light. Are you referring to the tricolor as the 360 or was it displaying it's anchor light. Either case would have been incorrect as a sailboat should not display both the tricolor and deck level navigational lights but it is commonly done and it certainly shouldn't have displayed an all around white but others have pointed out, an anchor light would appear as a steaming light even if it is at the top of the mast, typically when motor sailing there is no headsail so a steaming light halfway up the mast would show but if you are motor sailing with a jib/genoa it would be obscured from leeward.
You also said that the sailboat was moving very slowly when you first saw it, yet your diagram shows the yellow path being roughly 3-4 times longer than your path from point D to the point of intersection. I'm sure your diagram isn't to perfect scale and distances are hard to estimate at night, but you must have been moving extremely slowly for this diagram to match the event. If his final course was a starboard tack broad reach, he would have been going straight upwind from point A to B.
Most of us spend very little time on the water at night and it is skill that requires a lot of practice for true proficiency. It can feel so vacant on the water, that many are lulled into a false sense of solitude. If you were moving as slowly as the your diagram would suggest, he probably didn't distinguish your lights from those on shore behind you. Personally, taking 1/8 - 1/4 mile away from you was not a failure to Stand On, given the location, that is a relatively long distance away and should have been plenty of time for the burdened vessel to avoid him. He also has a responsibility to himself to live to see tomorrow and he could have been more defensive.
(If he was on a indeed on a starboard broad reach, the diagram is accurate and the wind didn't shift, he didn't tack at between C and where your paths met, he just bore away)
Can you clarify the sailboats light display? (Edit: I just noticed post 56 where you cleared it up) You said 360 degree light and it's green starboard light. Are you referring to the tricolor as the 360 or was it displaying it's anchor light. Either case would have been incorrect as a sailboat should not display both the tricolor and deck level navigational lights but it is commonly done and it certainly shouldn't have displayed an all around white but others have pointed out, an anchor light would appear as a steaming light even if it is at the top of the mast, typically when motor sailing there is no headsail so a steaming light halfway up the mast would show but if you are motor sailing with a jib/genoa it would be obscured from leeward.
You also said that the sailboat was moving very slowly when you first saw it, yet your diagram shows the yellow path being roughly 3-4 times longer than your path from point D to the point of intersection. I'm sure your diagram isn't to perfect scale and distances are hard to estimate at night, but you must have been moving extremely slowly for this diagram to match the event. If his final course was a starboard tack broad reach, he would have been going straight upwind from point A to B.
Most of us spend very little time on the water at night and it is skill that requires a lot of practice for true proficiency. It can feel so vacant on the water, that many are lulled into a false sense of solitude. If you were moving as slowly as the your diagram would suggest, he probably didn't distinguish your lights from those on shore behind you. Personally, taking 1/8 - 1/4 mile away from you was not a failure to Stand On, given the location, that is a relatively long distance away and should have been plenty of time for the burdened vessel to avoid him. He also has a responsibility to himself to live to see tomorrow and he could have been more defensive.
(If he was on a indeed on a starboard broad reach, the diagram is accurate and the wind didn't shift, he didn't tack at between C and where your paths met, he just bore away)
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