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Course Outline

If a sailing vessel with the wind on its port (left) side cannot determine whether a windward sailing vessel has the wind on the left or the right, it should give way to the windward vessel.

Note that the following illustrations are not drawn to scale. The vessels are shown closer to each other than they should be when actually encountering another vessel on the water.

Wind on Same Side: When two sailing vessels are approaching one another with the wind on the same side, the leeward sailing vessel is the stand-on vessel.

Sailing vessels encountering each other when the wind is on the same side

Wind on Different Sides: When two sailing vessels are approaching one another with the wind on different sides, the sailing vessel with the wind on its starboard (right) side is the stand-on vessel.

Sailing vessels encountering each other when the wind is on different sides
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