Woman dies after sailboat and motorboat collide off Newport
 

if this happened near fort adams the boat traffic flying in and out of the Harbor is madness .. very sad ..

Question: (because I don't know)
Can sailboats navigate in any direction? or are they truly limited to and at the mercy of the wind?
It seems sailboaters intentionally tack back and forth across the busy harbor, and my thinking is why the heck can't they just get in line and follow the trafic like everyone else?

all I know was near the bridge & the sali was a 18' cat in a race & boat they said was a 25' power .
Sat afternoon a boat burnt at a gas dock in warwick cove , they towed it burning to the boat ramp .the man that owned it that was his home

They were racing Saturday up the center span; probably collided with someone fluking, as the fleet was on the Jamestown side....

RIR I thought it happened yesterday .Sunday

Sat there was a high powered speedboat race up the West passage around Beavertail & back by the east Passage

Probably racing both days. Those 18ft fancy Cats were definwtly there Saturday.
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I listened to it all go down on channel 16 as I was sailing back from cuttyhunk. So sad and jarring to hear one moment of a person in the water bleeding badly to could not resuscitate.

Mike - sailboats can not sail into the wind of 40 degrees to either side of it. They are also difficult at times to change course quickly as you can not just turn a wheel to change course. You have to ease the lines that control the sails as well and all that takes time.
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Doubt it.
More likely it was your typical Cranston Navy dip#^&#^&#^&#^& in a bayliner not looking where he was going.
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Nebe .I know ROW for sails …… But Sunday W/E boaters .

When I was OTW full time .I didn,t work Sundays except the winter when you took what you could get ..

But actually scares me between , Jet ski,s , yaks & the high speeds of boats of all sizes , wakes & wind & water .
&&&&& too many people have no fear of any of these .

just think of the incidents that we never hear about ><

I hear ya Clammer ! Sunday’s are the war zone days.
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Be interested in details. An 18' catamaran can reach some pretty high speeds in the right conditions and angle to the wind.. maybe more than my Grady. Unfortunate in any event. Sounds like she was an organizer of this event 30 years ago and an accomplished sailor.

My guess is the cat hit the other craft and the impact caused her injuries as well as throwing her into the water. Person steering might not have looked behind the sails to see the other boat. Preventable and tragic

Totally possible.
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I've almost been hit more than a few time by a hole sailboats while drifting. This IS sad, and I have no idea of the details but a lot of those f'ers always think they have the ROW... and the do not. When under power I ALWAYS give them a wide berth. I had one jackass bearing down on me while IN THE CABIN ON HIS PHONE until I laid on the horn

ONCE I had an issue with another powerboater.
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Had a jet ski go head to head with me .i was doing 20kts with the family with a big cruiser 50 yards to my starboard with his buddys between us and this guy blasted by my portside doing 35 so close we got sprayed a little as he went by. He had zero reason to be that close at that speed . Simple steering failure would have been deadly
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Well, while really not wanting to type this POV, here is where the racing sailor's head is at... He wants to go as fast forward as possible. Tacking is the worst thing he wants to do if he could rather stay on his straight line building or maintaining speed. I could drive a sixty footer under sail at speed within three feet of you on a drift or at anchor and be totally comfortable. You on the other hand would (understandably) be #^&#^&#^&#^&ting bricks and going crazy.
But that's not every sailor.... The two sides will never get along totally. But Freak, I would be glad to arrange getting you out sometime so you would better understand what a competent sailor can and cant do....


They will also seem to tack in front of you, with no warning and seemingly for no reason when what they are trying to do is avoid your wake, which again, will hurt their forward speed... Just some possibilities for what they might be thinking...

Ross as an sail boat racer in my youth, I couldn’t have added much to that, but neither of the two International 110’s I raced could move like these new super cats. Tough loss for sure.
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Never forget drifting in buzz bay alone and having a sailboat come up and scream at me for being on the race course. Not another vessel in sight.
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And of course you apologized.....

Terrible situation. Unsure of the details yet.

A Cat with the right wind can really, really crank fast. And racing they are right out on the edge of flipping or breaking (and often both).

Bob , now I know why your fu cked up :point:

Hey in my youth some of the most fun I had was several days after a strong storm with leftover big swells but boat length or two spacing. Give me a steady 15 knot I’d be screaming in fun, hanging out of the trapeze, and surfing those swells with that planning hull.
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Profusely

Are you getting close ? Lots of tasty mackerel looking fish around here.
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I’ve been yelled at a few times around Newport and I always give them the finger. It’s the “that’s my rock” mentality. Self entitled pricks :hihi:
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Freak on a bloo boat !,,,, what a sight that would be...

Same here Joe. Fishing the N end of J-town and this nitwit in a big sail about 35 or 40" aims right at me. He can see I am drifting and he is not on sail power but using his motor. Screaming at me that HE has the ROW.

Sad story around these parts.

Blow boats Vs power boats. Like Skiers vs snowboarders. A rivalry for eternity.

If he was sailing and not using his motor and you where drifting is there any case he would have the right of way? That wouldn't seem right.

If you were drifting and not under power and the sailboat was under motor power he absolutely does not have the right of way. I think even if you were drifting and not under power and he had good headway speed under sail he would be the boat required to adjust course, at least that to me is just common sense.
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No. Once he turns on his motor, he is the same class vessel. (only case I could see is if this confrontation took place in very narrow channel, but the right of way would not be dictated by vessel type.)

Thank you both.