Snagged line, angry fisherman: What would you do?

We constantly have fishing boats on our lay line near marks with lines cast a long way out in all directions. You just don't know where the lines are until it is too late. I have personaly taken out a few as with other club members with fisherman screeming. None have approached me afterwards.

Don't know what the solution is. Don't think the fisherman quiet understand.

We'd still be fighting.

I'd honestly say that 10 feet is too close to another boat not involved in the racing, IMO.

If you were approaching the boat at an angle from astern you may also have been considered to be overtaking, in which case you must keep clear.

Keep in mind here that the boat in question would not meet the definition of a fishing vessel, but...

We're all out there to have fun. Common courtesy should rule in this case. Now there is one adult and two children who believe the worst of the sailing community, only to have confirmed later on the beach. If it were me, I would have tried to figure out a good payment and I would have apologized profusely, and offer to buy the guy a beer and his kids some ice cream. I would hope for the same if the roles were reversed. But maybe that's just me.

But, again, I think 10 feet was too close, fishing lines or no. I would have tacked earlier, or called for room from the A-Cat. Also, and we keep forgetting this, it is a perfectly viable option to release the sheets and stop. If you had time to raise the boards, you had time to stop or slow significantly.

In the start sequence of last Tuesday's race I tried to carry the spin high enough to clear an anchored boat. I ended up snagging his anchor line with the boards, and torqued his boat. Fortunately things were slow enough that we could fend off. I apologized, he said no problem, end of problem. If he said he had dropped his steak dinner in the water I would have offered to buy him one after the race. It was stupid of me to be so close to somebody who was not involved in the race.

And now for the humorous - a couple of years ago the finish to the C-100 was in the dark at Sandy Point. The committee strobe wasn't very visible compared to the group of fishermen's set up 25 yards south. They lights, and coolers, and lawn chairs, and a bunch of lines in the water. A finishing boat (to be nameless here...) saw the lights, thought it was committee, heated up and did a Worrell finish right in the middle of them. Fortunately nobody was hurt, during the incident or in the moments following - lots of apologies went a long way to healing bruised feelings.

Sorry for the long tomb. This is all just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

OK - I'm down with being courteous and all ... but is the small fishing boat really a burdened vessel such that he no longer needs to yield ROW to a sailboat? Note that the poster said the fishing boat was under way - not anchored. If the boat in question was moving and it was impossible to tell that the guy was trolling anything until too late, I wouldn't feel that bad about having snagged a line...certainly not $250 bad. Based strictly on the information presented here, I would offer him to split the cost of the rig and if he didn't like that, I would offer to file a claim with the waterway folks and let them decide (DNR, Coasties, etc.).

Secondly, if his poles were so poorly restrained in the boat, what the hell was he going to do if he actually hooked a fish? That guy is likely at home laughing with his buddies about how he got $250 out of that sailboat guy (in front of his kids).

this kind of reminds me of the situation Trey and I had with the parasailing boat off of west palm during the Tybee.

We had established a course to stay clear of the parasail boat, it changed course and crossed in front of us with less than 50 feet to go, we were balls-out flying downwind... only thing to do to avoid entangling a parasailer was to crash-gybe and capsize to be sure to keep the mast out of the tow-line (which was very low to the water since the parasailer lost speed and therefore altitude).

Tempers were hot on our side but really there was no recourse other than to swallow our pride, right the boat, and keep going.

Its unfortunate that the fisher wasn't aware of the rules of the road. (And poo-hoo if they consider a trolling fishing boat

encumbered

)

I'm down with being courteous too, but the guy was screaming at me from the get-go and demanding an exorbitant ammount of money.

If he was calm and asked for $30 (which is more than what his other three poles appeared to be worth) I would have given it to him and apologized. As it was, that didn't appear to be an option.

This post brings up an interesting topic, fishing boats (recreational) often have trolling lines in the water for quite some distance behind them. Are these boats required to fly any type of signal to alert other boaters that they have lines out? If not, who is actually at fault if a another boat comes into contact with these lines after passing a

safe distance

behind and damage occurs to either boat?

Let me get this straight. A small motor vessel, trailing fishlines, is motoring right through a sailboat race course just upwind from the leeward mark ?

And the guy thinks he has got any rights ?

He pretty much abused you into pay but I can fully understand you gave in when some of your fellow sailors started to support this guy. An ugly story indeed.

Personally I would just have stopped and put in a slow tack, taking the hit in racing the A.

Actually we had a similar story in our club race last sunday. A sailing yacht was admiring the bunch of beach cats, all tightly grouped at a particular spot and wondering what those big orange bouy were doing in the water. And the yacht was moving along in a straight line nicely when the horn sounded and about 10 beach cats came screaming at it at about 10-14 knots speed. It continued on as it appeared that all the cats would pass it just a stern. Of course the course was perfectly along the coastline and only some 500 meters out. The yacht had to tack sometime or risk grounding. It tack right before the windward mark and starboarded the whole middle and rear pack of the racing fleet almost right on the mark.

At those situations you can hear racing crews yell :

hold you course !

and see them screaming passed the boat on both sides.

Now mishap happened but this particular yacht will remember next time what big orange bouys mean.

Wouter

If this was a weekend regatta. Where were the mark boats?
One of their jobs is to let power boats know what is going on and keep them away from marks and lay lines.

Unless he had a Bassmaster camera crew near by and a Triton boat there is no way he would have gotten $250. Maybe $50 for pain and suffering if he had acted civil.

I always used to think that fishing rods used to float ?

Wouter

I thought most did too except the heavy duty off shore ones.

I've done the same thing before. Passed to close to the stern of a fisherman and snagged his line. All he lost was his lure though. I apologized but he continued to chase me and shout obsenities. I learned a lesson that fisherman on inland lakes really do troll for fish. I had no idea people trolled on inland lakes prior to that event.

Having learned that lesson I probably would have tacked in your situation as it just isn't worth taking a chance. However, when you did catch the line and saw the pole drop in the water you should have stopped racing and gone over to apoligize in my opinion. I would have worked it out right there on the water if possible. If he was angry and yelling obsenities while I apoligized I would have turned around and sailed off.

Still I doubt if I would have given the guy $250 for the pole if it wasn't a deep sea rig or something. But I'm not up on my fishing prices. My guess would be in the $100 range for an average pole and reel.

the question now is what will you do if confronted with the same situation in the future? my years of experience have taught me to avoid conflicts no matter who has the 'right of way'. its possible to anticipate problems if i remain observant and realize its 'just a race'...stay clear and sail fast!

Remember I said that he did not fit the definition of a fishing vessel, and he probably didn't think so either. Some people in these cases try to make that point.

He was a motor boat, you're a sail boat, but you're a high speed sail boat. I'll bet the speed of the cat exceeded the speed of the fishing boat. A fast cat flying up on some guy dragging fishing lines with his two boys in a skiff (maybe I'm making the wrong assumptions on the fishing boat) is going to have a hard time justifying the

I'm a sailboat

thing IMO. Again, depending on the angle from astern, it may have been an overtaking situation where you become burdened whether under sail or power. Would he have been able to gun the gas to get out of the way in time? Was his boat even capable of that? I don't know. Even if he hit the gas the lines probably still would've gotten snagged. I still think 10 feet is too close to be to a non-participating boat.

He was probably pissed enough that maybe the cost of the gear went up to make his point. And part of him being pissed was probably him believing he was being buzzed. Maybe the rod that was lost was his best rig, and the others were just crap from the garage. Maybe it was favorite handed down from his Dad. Who knows? Give people enough room on the water and you won't have to find out.

There are still a$$holes out there. One Lighthouse Race I gave a guy that was anchored a wide berth. He pulled his line up, went to the bow, and gave a mighty effort to cast the line across my bows. Had I cut it too close he would've got me. As it was I needed to round up.

My $0.02

The incident was regrettable until he went berserk. Then it became a legal issue.

His remedy lies in the courts, it is a civil issue.

Getting in your face is an assault, a criminal issue. One of you should have called the cops. Or whipped his butt, or both.

I wouldn't have paid him anything. If he was paying attention he would have realized that there is a race going on..

That fisherman was a jerk, plain and simple. The foul language was reprehensible. He over reacted in every way, and worst of all he gave his kids a really poor lesson in how to handle a difficult situation. He probably shouldn't have been sitting in the middle of a race course and would have had better luck fishing in another part of the lake, but... As somene pointed out, we're all out there to have fun. The racing rules point out that the fishing boat is an obstruction. You could have called for room from the other competitor, but with navigable water all around the fishing boat the responsibility is yours to avoid him. With lines in the water, he is the burdened vessel, even though it's not clear where or how long his lines were, or that he was fishing at all. Looking at it from a slightly different scale. If you were at sea on Playstation and crossed within 50-feet of a long-line fishing boat and snagged its line, you'd be writing a check for a lot more than $250 of lost gear.

Despite the fisherman's bad attitude, lack of character and poor parenting skills, I think he was probably right.

next time I go sailing, I'm gonna take a piece of fishing line, and a hook, tie it off to my stern, and call myself a burdened vessel. :rolleyes:

For added context, this was at a long, narrow lake that is very sailing oriented, and a relatively famous racing venue.

The incident occured at the narrowest end, where it is ~ 200 yards wide. The fishing boat was ~ 50 yards from the shore. I was approaching him from the shore-side. When I fouled his lines I was more or less perpendicular to his course.

If I had realized that there were lines in the water, I would have tacked although I would have had to tack back very quickly and I'm not sure I could have cleared his bow after the second tack as he was motoring upwind.

I guess I could have slowed up, ducked the A Cat and bore off but as the lines were right on the surface I would have had to go dead downwind to clear them once I realized they were there. In that case the A Cat would have been the one to foul his lines.

With fore-knowledge, I could have ducked the A Cat and tacked early on the first leg after the mark, but that would have sent me into the traffic heading downwind to the mark.

Of course if I was a motorboat I could have just gone in front of him. There are reasons that sailboats have rights over motorboats, and it's not just about speed.

What I dont understand is how a fisherman and his kids, sitting on their boat, cannot see a fleet of cats racing towards him. I can understand that maybe if he was close to the shore and had little to no room for maneuverability, that it would be your fault, but if hes in the middle of a lake or whatever, he should follow the basic rules of the road and get that skiff out of there.

I went through a similar case when I was coming in at the end of the day from sailing around the lake on my H16. I was close-hauled on a port tack with the shore parallel to me and to port about 20ft from me and was approaching my entry/exit landing when suddenly I heard a man start screaming and looked just in time to see his pole ripped out of his hands and into the water. I immediately headed-up and appologized to the man profusely. I explained that the shore was crowded and I had NO idea that fishing was even allowed at that section of the landing. Fortunately he calmed down when we found that he only lost a hook and a worm. Not that he could have caught anything there anyway with all the boats moving in and out of there.

Years ago, a buddy and I were testing a tunnel boat on a river.These boats top 70 mph no problem. Anyway, my buddy is ripping down the river and fails to notice this old guy fishing from the bank. He runs over the guys line and the rod flies from this guys hands and launches about 30' in the air.The line breaks and the rod/reel heads into the trees on the other side of the bank still heading uphill. The old guy is stunned. He gives me a WTF just happened kind of look.After he recovers, he starts making noises that it was a $200. combo. After a bit of searching, the rod was found tangled in a tree about 25' up. My buddy climbs the tree and retreaves a K-Mart special rig worth about $10. Shortly after that, the butt beat a hasty retreat.I would never pay without a reciept.

He's fishin, he got the right to fish, he does not have to get out of our way, you had the decision to make, tack, miss the boat lose the race, or sail through, cut the lines and salute. those split second decisions are what make or break life, you paid the price, and maybe learned a lesson be happy for it. now you asked what I would have done, I know that fishermen have the right of way, and I keep clear in this situation I might have done as you did, and then I might have been abliged to let the helpful guy on the beach that offered to pay for the rig do so, I might have been drunk on the beach and not liked being yelled at and kicked his butt or died trying. However if the wife was there drunk or not I would have paid the man and been pissed and felt it was wrong. I think you did what you had to, do not feel bad, it could only have gone different if you tacked.

A fishing boat TROLLING is not a burdened vessell, it still owes a sailboat under sail the right of way. A trawler is, as is a para-sail boat

Restricted in it's ability to maneuver

Ram. If it is a large vessel it would probably be

constricted by draft

CBD also.
Your fisherman had no rights according to the Coast Guard.
I've had the same thing happen numerous times, including getting yelled at in the Ches. Bay for sailing through a guys chum slick,not even near his lines.He was real irate, I had a flare at the ready just in case.
I fish alot and have more problems 100 fold with other fisherman than with sailors.
Next time pull your knife and cut his line and tell him you just saved him a rod and reel.

It's called fishing. It's a fishermans responsibilty to tend his lines. Not just float them out there. A golfer is responsible for the flight of his ball and a fisherman is responsble in the same manner.

I've had a few encounters with fishermen and I try to avoid them when possible however when they fish in channels or near them or float thier lines far from the shore I have no mercy.

Lastly I wouldn't have given him a dime. What would have happened if the line had popped up out of the water and caught you in the face. Who's responsibily would that be??

Next time tell him to tend his lines.

I would have called the cops to intervene long before I would have paid him any amount over $50. Cops usually tend to side with the guy who is not out of control, yelling obscenities and acting like a jackass.

You both have the responsibility to keep clear of each other, you were both equally wrong, in my opinion, but his actions afterwards put him more in the wrong. And he didn't have to hit you for it to be assault, verbal threats are enough. You should have called a cop, maybe that alone would have sent him on his way, without your $250.

Although I didn't witness the incident I was sailing in the race. I would venture to say that the lake is one of the most sailed on lakes anywhere. Regattas take place nearly every weekend during the warm months. The 8 marks on the lake are essentially permanent when the ice is off the lake. Some marks are very close to shore, which facilitates great spectating but brings the sailing close to shore.

So unless it was the fisherman's very first time there ever, he should have known what was going on.

Basically, an unfortunate

accident

occurred. Rhino on his Nacra 5.8na had no way to avoid the lines by the time they were visible without ramming a Bimare XJ. No one was injured, just a $20 WalMart fishing pole goes in the drink. Normal humans would have discussed and resolved it. At most, Rhino could have offered to split the cost of a replacement as a goodwill gesture but not an admission of culpability.

When the

victim

went berserk (my kids heard him cussin' 300 yards away), the police should have been called. The likely outcome would have been: Drunk Fisherman Disrupts Regatta.

Instead, Rhino pays $250...outrageous. So why did it happen?

Other well-meaning sailors on the beach--not wanting bad blood with other boaters (and I understand that)--sided with the ranting, out of control

victim,

claiming they would help pay for the lost gear. Well, they and their check books all disappeared as soon as the crazy man felt validated.

Rhino, I say cancel the check!

I'm happy to share the water with powerboaters, fisherman, swimmers, etc; but it makes no sense to validate irrational and unjustified tirades.

I had a fisherman cast infront of me as I came past with the kite up in the Hurricane 5.9

No time to avoid etc.

He got real shitty, wrote to the sailing club sailing I had taken his lines. Very litte I Could do. I paid up

without admitting liability

. I know avoid these people if at all possible. A small number (I assume) They cause problems out of spite (and wish for financial gain).

Put it doen to experience, but I would have called the Cops as someone said above

Drunk fisherman causes regatta problems, goes mad infront of kids etc..

OK..... Racing on our local bay, we are coming down wind under spinnaker. There is a boat moored close to a lay line obviously fishing. We pass atleat 50 feet from one side of the boat and snag 3 lines tipping the lures of them.

My problem is why do they have to cast out so far if they are in a boat...... And how the hell are we to see which direction they go out in and how far until its too late. The lines are near invisable and cast out that far, our deep boards will pick them from a fair distance underwater.

Atferwards we slowed down, said sorry and continued. Next lap we gave them a wave again and appologiesd again. They later chased down our start boat and was very abusive stating that we cost them about $90 AU in lures.

tell the guy that you are fully insured for your activity and it is probably best that they sort this issue out bearing in mind the 'large' claim that he is making, and give him your insurance details , then ask him for his insurance details that cover him for what he was doing - that shuts them up!

The rights of way rules try to give right of way to the least manouverable/slowest boat. so you were probably in the wrong - but never admit it.