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The regs talk about "commercial" fishing boats with their lines overboard. If they're just weekend warriors fishing, they have no more rights than any other powerboater.
Boats "towing" also have the right of way over sailboats. Skiiers get a little more tricky. I once posed this very question to Captain Jack, who instructs instructors on the Gulf Coast in Texas. He was very vague about whether a ski boat towing a skiier is truly a boat under tow. I've had dads drag their kids right in front of my bow. Luckily, every time the kid dumped, it was out of my path, but I've always sweated the "what if" factor. I can certainly tell you I wouldn't drag my kid right in front of some "rag hanger" I didn't know.
Last year, I had the chance to be crew on a Swan 41 (I'm also a monohull sailor). We came out of the Alameda Estuary under power into San Francisco Bay, and we were on a collision course with a commercial fishing boat, with no tackle out. The two captains held course because one thought he had the right of way because he was a commercial fishing boat, the other thought he had rights because they didn't have any tackle out. Eventually, the fishing boat throttled up and steamed straight at us, just clearing our stern as they screamed obscenities at each other about having rights. At the time, I wasn't sure who had rights, but I knew that if the fishing boat was in the right, he was required to maintain speed and course, which he obviously and dramatically didn't, as he exhibited the nautical version of road rage.
On a slightly less professional basis, in a small inland lake we used to sail on often, I (being on a starboard tack) was on a collision course with a pseudo-buddy of mine (being on a port tack) who had dropped something in the sole of the cockpit and bent down to retrieve it (I'm thinking it was a beerverage). Because it appeared to me to be an unmanned vessel (and I didn't trust his helmsmanship), I veered dramatically to avoid a collision and casually commented he might want to brush up on the rules of the road (did I mention he was ten feet away as I did so?). The next week, at our monthly sailing meeting, he challenged our relative positions. When I clearly explained that I was the stand-on vessel, he excused his own behavior and backtracked saying that I had violated my own standing by veering off. I stated that regardless of who had the right of way, I had avoided a collision that I felt was imminent (remember constant bearing, decreasing range?), and had jeopardized no one with my actions.
The end result is that you don't want maritime law to determine culpability after an accident. We're all still required to avoid a collision. It costs us so little to tack and go way out of our way. Unless I'm being driven into another boat, lee shore, etc. I won't get so bent out of shape that it ruins my or my crew's day. When it comes to my crew's safety, I'll be very vehement about the rules of the road, and possibly try to educate someone who comes close enough for the lesson to be of particular value.
I hope I didn't sound anti-racing (would that be racism?) on my previous post. I used to race monohulls professionally. I believe that courtesy demands the cruiser to go around the racer if there are no safety considerations, but I've been in situations where there was little leeway and the racers in question thought they owned the water. We can both coexist as brethren with similar goals, just different ways of achieving them.
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Sea ya,
Chris Larsen
Co-Pilot of the Hobie Getaway
"The Twins"
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