Let’s take a look at some practical examples.
Here both boats are on close hauled point of sailing.
The boat in red is on port tack and is the give way vessel.
The green boat is on starboard and is the stand on vessel.
The red boat must avoid the green boat by either steering behind the starboard boat,
or, tacking onto starboard tack to match the green boat and sail alongside it.
The same rule applies if you are sailing with the wind behind you.
Once again the boat in red is on port so should avoid the boat in green which is sailing on
starboard.
The red boat has the choice of turning behind the green boat, or gybing onto starboard to
sail alongside the green boat.
Let’s now look at when a close hauled boat meets a boat sailing away from the wind.
The red boat is close hauled but sailing on port, so should avoid the green boat that
is on a dead run on starboard.
As before the red boat must keep out of the way by either tacking out of the way like
this, or turning to steer behind the green boat.
Let’s look at this in reverse.
Here it’s the boat that’s sailing away from the wind that is on port tack (marked
in red) and the other boat sailing close hauled is on starboard.
Once again the red boat must avoid the green boat by either steering behind it, or turning
onto the opposite gybe to sail clear.
Here we see two boats sailing on port.
In this situation it’s the boat that has the wind behind it sailing down the screen
that’s the give way vessel so must take avoiding action.
And steers behind the close hauled boat to keep clear.
Now let’s look at what happens when overtaking.
Here the overtaking boat must keep clear at all times, by either sailing well to the windward
side, or by turning underneath and sailing well to the leeward side.
Let’s look at boats on converging courses.
In this situation it’s the boat that’s on the windward side that is the give way
vessel, and must adjust its course to avoid a collision.
Or steer behind the other vessel.
The rules we’ve just illustrated are the most common and most basic.
Please be aware that other situations do exist, and if in doubt keep clear of other vessels
to avoid collisions well
in advance.