Who is right?

I've read this thread over and over and a few things keep on entering my mind. The closing speed of the cat in those wind speeds would have been quite high. Looking at it from the cats point of view, being the boat who has right of way you have two options, tack the boat (when you have right of way) which is a timely operation, or duck a skiff which has its kite up and could accelarate or change its course at any time. The cat incorrectly hailed but there is no demand for that boat to hail in the first place. By the cat luffing up slightly, it might have been able to avoid the colision, however it didn't and that can't be accurately predicted. Cats are also harder to manouvere. At the end of the day, no-one but the insurance companies can decide who pays and your best bet is to give them as much information as possible, mentioning other boats which were in the area. If you retired, the cat sailors can claim that this was you admiting you were at fault. These things happen and I've been in almost the same situation on a 5000 going downwind with a cat approaching us upwind. The cat held its course and we were lucky to see her just in the nick of time, crash gybed the boat and went swimming. Didn't think twice about doing so or even after it happened because the cat had right of way.

Yes it is the b14 responsibility to keep a look out,

Yes the B14 is in the wrong in terms of windward Leeward.

No it isn't 50 / 50 responsibility but I don't think I ever claimed that it was. But this doesn't change the fact that you have to avoid collision if reasonably possible. In My book a tack is reasonable, as is a crash tack. Certainly luffing up towards the wind and yelling protest is reasonably possible. Certainly the lesser of the 2 evils.  

I'm not saying that the B14 is in the right. But The Cat Does not leave the collision with a clean concience either.

Simon: You are corect that the b14 average course doesn't have any rules impact. or "Requirement" but just keeping to what is "required" is often insufficient to avoid unpleasntness. When I look at a boat I have a right of way over, I always try to work out where they are heading in case I have to tell my helm to avoid a collision with them. If the Cat crew were doing this they would be able to see that the b14 was just fetching  for the mark. It's an assym so it is liable to go for bears away in gusts, so you can give it an educated guess on what it is likley to do. There is no Requirement for me to do this, but I don't want to hit another boat ever again So I do it anyway. This way if nothing else the unpleasentness of a collision can be avoided. regardless of what the rules say Don't hit stuff.

I will bet you £50 that the cat wins on insurance stakes with what you have told me! All that £50 goes to Children in Need!

By the way Jamie, have you tried to crash tack a cat? At the speed a good sailed cat goes above her pointing angle, the cat would have still hit the B14, maybe just skimming her. 100m is a very short distance on a cat, or any high speed sailing craft. The point is, the cat didn't need to tack  because she had right of way, whos to say she didn't head up to avoid the B14?

Don't really think so. The outcome of protests is not supposed to affect insurance claims either; the insurance companies make their own decisions based on the facts they are presented with. The reason for this is that protest committees are (normally) volunteers while the insurers are professionals. It would not be fair to expect a protest committee to become in effect a small claims court, if costly repairs are involved.