I think you give the guy too much credit for situational awareness … the facts show he had none. You’re backing a loser.
Do the vectors … the ferry was turning to stbd already on a stbd rudder, turning the rudder to port first had to stop the stbd turn then swing the bow around to port just in time to nail the little boat midships at 90 degrees.
Using your own logic, a continued turn to stbd would have created a sideswipe at the very most if not just passing closely astern of the little boat. Turning to port only assured a T-bone situation and increased the impact angle to 90 degrees.
It is bad enough the ferry driver didn’t make a tiny course correction 5 minutes earlier when it would have turned the incident into just another dumb yachtie story but then when he decided to do something he not only did it too little too late but then apparently couldn’t decide which way he needed to go.
There is no defense for that kind of stupidity. At least the guy taking a crap didn’t do anything wrong except not look out the window.