powerboater was going to maintain course and speed? Or did the ferry operator fail to take evasive action soon enough to entirely avoid a collision because he assumed that tooting his horn would change the situation? What if the powerboater had had a massive stroke and was really incapacitated?

When I see another boat on a collision course, I try to make small adjustments well ahead of time not merely to avoid a collision but to avoid even being on a collision course.

That said, I was middle crew on a Highlander at Edgewater - Cleveland - once that was run over during Wednesday night racing by a much larger JAM racer. We had the right of way and my skipper and the skipper of the JAM had clear views of each other and were talking and the JAM skipper told my skipper to hold his course.....and seconds later the JAM boat hit us at the shroud, the forefoot of the boat riding up onto the Highlander. The fwd crew went over the side, fending off the JAM's forefoot as he went. We were dismasted, of course. The JAM skipper's insurance paid for everything.

One time I was sailing in New Bedford harbor and mistook a round buoy that was marking a sunken wreck for a mooring ball. The buoy was whitish but had just faded from the original orange or red color. I wiped my rudder out, shattering it on some immovable part of the wreck.