Port or starboard tack?

[markpierce]

schooner or ketch?:

[Flagman101]

The main sail determines on which tack you are.

[Richard5]

Mark, I saw your text without the picture. That is when I thought, What is the largest cat boat anyone has seen? I came back to your post after logging in and saw there is now a picture. That is a cat boat schooner.

[Jim Cate]

I think that is a Freedom 40 IIRC, and they were sold as a ketch, again IIRC. With apparently equal height masts, it is a bit equivocal as to w hich is the main, so it will be a field day for the sea lawyers to argue details. If they decide she's a ketch she's on port, but it she's a schooner she's on starboard.

Take that to the protest committee!

Jim

[dfelsent]

I believe
1: equal mast height is a schooner
2: I recall there is about a 6” difference in mast height and the freedom 40 is a ketch.
So port tack.
Nothing quite like sailing wing on wing on wing on wing ......

[Montanan]

Now that is interesting. How does one determine which mast is the main?

A mainsail is defined as: The sail set on the after side of the mainmast in a fore-and-aft-rigged vessel.



1 A boat is on the tack (P or S) corresponding to her windward side.

2 The leeward side of a boat is:
- the side away from the wind, or
- when the boat is head to wind the side that was away from the wind (so 2 boats head to wind can be on opposite tacks) or
- when a boat is sailing dead downwind, the side on which her mainsail lies. , or
- when a boat is sailing by the lee, the side on which her mainsail lies.

3 The windward side is the other side.

[Montanan]

Not an expert in the various rig types but my understanding of a ketch is the aft mast is shorter than the foremast, the aft being a mizzen mast. Whereas for a schooner the fore mast is shorter than the aft mast which is the main mast.

The pictured boat appears to be a two masted cat boat, but are the masts of equal size?

[psk125]

That was the point of dfelsent’s and Jim Cate’s posts, which defined the Freedom 40 as a ketch. That makes the forward mast the main mast, and the after mast the mizzen in this case. As they concur: port tack in the OP’s photo.

[markpierce]

Hard to distinguish a six-inch difference in mast heights. The pictured-boat's skipper should be prepared for other boats' confusion.

[StuM]

ISTR that the same question was asked here a couple of years ago.


Ah-ha, found it:


More than a couple of year ago, it was back in 2014.
Same picture, same question, same poster.
Same discussion with 60+ comments
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ck-128003.html

[Wotname]

Good recall StuM!

[GILow]

I don’t care what tack it is on.... I want one!

[Montanan]

I located this comment regarding the Freedom 40 masts from this referenced forum: .https://www.freedomyachts.org/viewto...11494&start=10

"Measured aluminum rig: I measured a Freedom 40 with a set of standing aluminum masts and found them to be close in length. The mizzen mast step was 20" below the main mast step. Both masts roughly measured 49' from base to mast head."

Stepping the aft mast lower would make the Freedom 40 a ketch.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

I think that is a Freedom 40 IIRC, and they were sold as a ketch, again IIRC. With apparently equal height masts, it is a bit equivocal as to w hich is the main, so it will be a field day for the sea lawyers to argue details. If they decide she's a ketch she's on port, but it she's a schooner she's on starboard.

Take that to the protest committee!

Jim

Originally Posted by Flagman101

The main sail determines on which tack you are.

Sorry guys, Port or Starboard is decided by "the windward side" (if racing. Otherwise it does not matter.)

Sail Racing rules state: "Tack, Starboard or Port A boat is on the tack, starboard or port, corresponding to her windward side"

It says nothing about which side the mainsail or any other sail is on, well except if sailing dead downwind, then its the "boom" (which boom? Aha! circular argument.

Colregs does not address this.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Sorry guys, Port or Starboard is decided by "the windward side" (if racing. Otherwise it does not matter.)

Sail Racing rules state: "Tack, Starboard or Port A boat is on the tack, starboard or port, corresponding to her windward side"

It says nothing about which side the mainsail or any other sail is on.

Colregs does not address this.

And there in lies the Main argument [pun intended] when it comes to maritime law and apportionment of liabilities.

IIRC ???? If I remember [recall] correctly.