[quote=“Kennebec_Captain, post:17, topic:17073, full:true”]
Nobody here has ever “defended” the captain. He was in violation of the rules and was punished[/quote]
yes, you are defending him in that you are stating that his violation of the COLREGS is mitigated by the operator of the small craft not maintaining a watch. had he followed the Rules per their mandate, the fact that there was no watch on the yacht would NEVER have played a part. he was bound to avoid the small vessel from the moment the risk of collision existed REGARDLESS of whether that vessel had a man at the helm. He was wrong FIRST and FOREMOST
a long history of incidents of non professional behavior and practices by WSF masters and mates is VERY well documented. there have been MANY accidents due to nothing more that WSF personnel error stemming from wrongdoing and disregard of safe navigation but you don’t know this because you don’t live here so close to that culture
nobody ever said that WSF personnel are all idiots but what has been said is that many have an attitude that pleasure vessels and their operators are nuisances and that the COLREGS only apply to interactions between commercial vessels and the ferries however the COLREGS do not differentiate and the master’s BAD ATTITUDE is why there was the collision