Does the boat travelling the channel have rights over crossing? Am I wrong (Colregs)? or expectintoo much by the way of courtesy on thewater?I wish there were more education/enforcement of this. I had multiple run-ins this weekend with "two dopes and a six pack" who clearly did not understand the rules. In general, I try to give people fishing plenty of room. It is a big bay and plenty for everyone. But a few occasions over the long weekend, I found myself in a situation between wind and shoal that I preferred to stand-on as I was supposed to do. I am not suggesting that I got very close, or caused a problem, just that I didn't go out of my way to go around, and they probably had to alter coarse slightly to avoid me. One pair had the courtesy to yell obscenities at me on my way by. In the coarse of their diatribe, it became clear that there was simply a misunderstanding of the rules. They had read far enough to see "not under command" and "engaged in fishing" and believed they had two solid reasons to be the stand on vessel. If they had read further, they would have seen that the definitions of both of those terms did not apply to their situation. Temporarily putting your vessel into neutral does not make you "not in command." Nor does casual trolling make you "engaged in fishing" by the definition. The number of fisherman griping into the radio about "those damn sailboaters" suggests this misunderstanding is quite widespread. It struck me as the third highest radio complaint after "you are responsible for your wake" and "quit yapping on channel 16".
As near as I can tell, Memorial Day in the Chesapeake is a holiday primarily devoted to ignoring the navigation rules, mis-using the radio, drunkenly crashing your jet ski into anchored sailboats, and being generally discourteous to other boaters.
