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I agree we sailors should keep a lookout and watch for any potential collision. But a sailboat going 5 knots or so, and with its somewhat limited maneuverability under sail, can do little about a powerboat coming at 35 knots which can instantly maneuver wihout regard to the wind. The sailboat, having the right of way, is the burdened vessel and is supposed to maintain course and speed. The powerboat is permitted to rely on that.
Although I always try to avoid the near miss situation, if we get close the sailor is faced with an impossible choice. Maintain course and you risk a collision. Change course and you still risk a collision. The vessel with vastly higher speed has to be the one to maneuver, except in the case of a giant ship which has limited ability to maneuver, and then the sailor does not have to worry about a sharp turn.
Which is all a long way of saying that the fault seems to me to lie with the high speed vessel. We all often encounter power boats on the water that do not keep an adequate lookout and do not seem to understand that at 35 knots there is one seventh the reaction time that there is at 5 knots, and there are no brakes on a boat.
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