*Continuing* Obstruction

Originally posted by gordon One reason for not considering a vessel under way as a continuing obstruction was to prevent the scenario in which a vessel  was moving a much the same speed and in the same direction as a boat racing remained an obstruction forsome considerable time. This vessel (which could be a boat racing) was being considered as a continuing obstruction and the rule pertaining to continuing obstructions was being applied. This was considered by ISAF Racing Rules as not a desirable situation.

I can't immediately see why allowing an overtaking boat to force its way in, in that situation is desireable either, when it's a big boat not racing.
I suspect the ISAF rules gurus are more concerned with Olympic standard regattas than playing chicken with dredgers in a PY race.

Originally posted by Brass Originally posted by RS400atC  I really fail to understand that a very long vessel underway is not sometimes a continuing obstruction. Maybe the reason for this is that it is not desirable, when near a large moving ship, to be relieving the outside boat of the obligation to give room at the last minute dependent on whether there is 'enough room' for the inside boat to pass between the outside boat and the ship under rule 19.2( c ).

Yes, I'd just re-read the rules and came to the conclusion that is the only effect of it.
Maybe 'continuing obstruction' should be in itallics, as it is effectively a defined term.

Originally posted by RS400atC  I really fail to understand that a very long vessel underway is not sometimes a continuing obstruction.

 I really fail to understand that a very long vessel underway is not sometimes a continuing obstruction.

It seems to me that such a vessel can obstruct a continuous area or create a continuous boundary, that is possibly much longer than bits of land that clearly do get treated as continuous under RRS.

Imagine two lasers running down the edge of a deepwater channel with a ship in the channel.
I would expect the other laser to treat the ship and the area in front of it much the same as if it was a wall.

So does a 1km long exclusion zone in front of a tanker rank as a continuing obstruction?
Would your obligation not to impede some vessels under IRPCS create a continuing obstruction?
If the shore is a continuing obstruction, how big does the Island have to be?

A solitary rock, which you might reasonably pass either side of is presumably not 'continuing'.
But if you have opted to pass one side of a shallow patch that is say 100m long, that could be 'continuiing'?