Adrift

1 Adrift is under power for a boat. 2. The sailboat is a power boat 3. The sailboat is on the powerboat's starboard side. It sees the sailboats red port side. So it must give way. I.e power boat crossing rules apply here.

In that situation, you did not give way, but rather "avoided a collision". It was the other boats responsibility to give way to you (or fly signals for not under command), but when it became obvious that she wasn't taking appropriate action, it became your responsibility to avoid the collision. It's important to know the difference for liability reasons: Say for example, you jibed in the above mentioned scenario to avoid the collision, a crewman went overboard and is now suing you. You go to court and tell the judge you had to jibe to give way to the other vessel, the crewman will tell the judge (correctly) that you didn't have the responsibility to give way, and you could be found at fault. On the other-hand if you said "Rule 17 A (ii) required me to take action to avoid collision with a vessel not taking appropriate action in compliance with the Colregs", you would be found not at fault. Further more, Rule 17 D expressly states that the boat you had to take action to avoid was not exempted from her obligation to keep out of the way simply because no collision in-fact took place, and thus IS responsible for your crewman going overboard (at least mostly responsible)! Of course if a crewman went overboard, you likely did do something wrong, but avoiding the collision wasn't it.