Somebody can relate?:
For the WAFIs on the forum:
Which rule(s) were broken/ignored?
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Carver Marine recently made a video on their transit of the Erie Canal. It’s pretty neat and has great production values.
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Aaaah, that’s a very technical question.
Red (sail) initially had right of way by being on starboard tack.
Blue approached on port tack and had to keep clear. He gibed onto starboard tack and being the leeward boat attained right of way. But red was not obliged to start to keep clear until blue had completed his gybe. There’s a technical definition, but suffice to say it happened very quickly I this case.
Red attempted to keep clear by altering to starboard. Blue had meanwhile started to capsize and the skipper fell overboard, but red”s spinnaker touched blue - technicality red failed to keep clear of blue and so was at fault.
Red”s spinnaker snagged on blue and stopped red and turned it to collide with blue and both boats were entangled.
So my reading is that red had right of way until blue completed his gybe and was thereafter required to keep clear of blue and couldn’t so should be penalised.
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A lesson for those who take things that doesn’t belong to them:
There is still somebody who rights the wrong.
For the WAFIs; "what is that rigging called?
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She is a gaff rigged sloop with the mast mounted in a tabernacle so it hinges. The forestay runs through a block and is run aft. They were showing off. The gaff would have been lowered before the bridge. Jib last minute then mast.
How they did it it would have been a hell of a job to get the rig up and sailing again.
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…close shave with the mast, anyway 
I’d describe the rig as pretty standard sliding gunter rather than gaff rigged. The difference is that gaff rigged is generally accepted that the yard projects abaft the mast at about 45 degrees and is hoisted by two separate halliards. In the gunter rig the yard simply extends the mast upwards with the mainsail laced to both mast and yard and only a single halliard is needed. Gunter rig was common for dinghies.
I think this crew were well drilled on this and simply let go the stay and the mast and sails folded aft and would have been similarly hoisted again on the far side by hauling on the stay and pushing the mast forward by hand.
We used to have races at the Naval College called ‘crash whalers’ in which four whalers would both pull (row) and sail. Each leg alternated between pulling and sailing and all masts and sails had to be below the gunnel before oars were shipped and conversely the oars had to be in before masts were stepped. We never achieved the degree of perfection in the video but it was sort of chaotic fun and confusion and changes could be very quick with a good crew.
The whalers had a lug rigged mainsail which is minimally different again.
You stirred a few grey cells, I stand corrected.
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Another 90 seconds of my life I won’t get back.
Drama in New Zealand:
A bit of sanity in this crazy world we live in today:
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