1) There are no provisions that specifically say a vessel under oars (oar) has a right of way over anything. (someone correct me on this please) See rule 18 "Responsibilities Between Vessels" 2) Due to 1) above, we must resort to rule 2 "The Responsibility Rule", also known as the rule of good seamanship. "Nothing in these rules shall exonerate any vessel, or the owner, master or crew thereof, from the consequences of any neglect to comply with these Rules or of the neglect of any precaution which may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen, or by the special circumstances of the case." If I were in the hotseat in a Coast Guard query, I would interpret this as saying both vessels/crews were ultimately responsible for safe shipkeeping of their individual vessels. If you were vessels passing in the storm, OK, but if there was a history that your highly maneuverable kayak was "playing" in front of the ship, well, you decide how the courts would look at that. Oh, the rule of gross tonnage may really come into play with this too....You may never make it to the Coast Guard hot seat. Tom Unlimited Tonnage Any Ocean
attached mail follows:
The rules of the road say that a kayak has the right of way over a whaling boat, do they not? Therefore, if there is a large group of kayakers in the way of a whaling boat, the whaling boat has to move. If the exclusion zone law has priority over the rules of the road, then we could get a couple of harpoons in our kayaks and engage in whaling activities as well. If me and my fellow paddlers are there with our baidarkas performing traditional whaling with our harpoons, and the Makah whaling machine shows up, who has to move out of the way? Does the fact that it is very unlikely that we would ever reach a whale with our harpoons give them the right of way to force us out and steal our whale? There is no need to interfere with the Makah whaling activities with our kayaks. Instead we should show them, and help them revive, the traditional hunting techniques with kayaks and harpoons. If a whaling boat interferes with our class and teaching, it is their fault. - Julio *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
Excellent, yes, I do remember that discussion about lights and how you quoted things right out of the book of rules. I glad you are around, Tom. Ok, scrath the rules of the road. A new idea: The Makah are going to get an exclusion zone law which applies to any vessel engaged in whaling. If we kayakers engage in whaling, and try to tag (not kill, as we do not have any quota) the whales with harpoons for scientific study (guaranteed that we miss all attempts, I do not know of any kayaker that is good at throwing harpoons); then the Makah would have to respect the exclusion zone as well. The difficult part is to get to the whales before they do. In reality, what is likely to happen is that the Makah would try to run over a bunch of kayakers who would be blocking the harbor. There might be some arrests, and both the Makah and the Coast Guard would look extremely stupid in front of the media. What would you folks think if the Mexican police protected the Nahuac people while they perform ritual human sacrifices to revive their culture? It is very sad that the Coast Guard ended up sticking their nose it this issue by trying to create an exclusion zone law for whaling to protect the Makah. It is going to lower to the ground their well earned respect. - Julio > > This is a multi-part message in MIME format. > > 2) Due to 1) above, we must resort to rule 2 "The Responsibility Rule", also > known as the rule of good seamanship. "Nothing in these rules shall exonerate > any vessel, or the owner, master or crew thereof, from the consequences of any > neglect to comply with these Rules or of the neglect of any precaution which > may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen, or by the special > circumstances of the case." > > If I were in the hotseat in a Coast Guard query, I would interpret this as > saying both vessels/crews were ultimately responsible for safe shipkeeping of > their individual vessels. If you were vessels passing in the storm, OK, but if > there was a history that your highly maneuverable kayak was "playing" in front > of the ship, well, you decide how the courts would look at that. Oh, the rule > of gross tonnage may really come into play with this too....You may never make > it to the Coast Guard hot seat. > > Tom > Unlimited Tonnage Any Ocean > *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:32:51 PDT