Quote:
Originally Posted by bvimatelot
You will get fined if you are motor-sailing in French waters and not displaying a motoring cone. You will also get a stiff talking to if you do not display an anchor ball when anchored during daylight hours (half an hour before sunrise till half an hour after sunset) or if your courtesy ensign is tatty or too small. |
Depends on which French waters you are talking about! In
New Caledonia, a French territory, I have yet to see any observation of the motor/sailing shape
rule. That's as in NEVER. The only folks who seem to use
anchoring balls (a much more reasonable
rule IMO) are a few visiting yachts, mostly European or British, and mostly those with professional crew who presumably have their tickets and jobs at stake.
And in our many years of cruising and before that the many years of weekend sailing in the
San Francisco Bay, we again have not seen the cone displayed by motor-sailing yachts. While I agree that this mass disobeyance of the rule does not make it good practice, one must question the continuance of the rule by the relevant authorities. The observed fact is that despite the flagrant disrespect for the rule, even in the crowded waters of SFB there don't seem to be many collisions which could be blamed on the lack of the cone. My guess is that the general lack of knowledge which the
boating public displays far outwieghs this relatively minor point!
Looking at it practically, the idea of having to rush up to the flag
halyard, hook up the cone, hoist it and belay it each and every time the average weekender turns on the
motor, and of course, reversing this each time it is turned off, well, I reckon that they would be better off spending the time keeping a good lookout!
Cheers,
Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II lying Burnett River Qld Oz
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