Now Patrick, you've brought this out into public, insisting you were right, and you weren't EVEN THERE. So much for me trying to do a good deed for you and your friend. But then, no good deed goes unpunished.

We were not on a reach. We were HARD on the wind. As in, to weather, beating. I was pinching for all I was worth because I wanted to lay the bridge in one tack.

'Proper course?" There was no good reason for the cat to come below me, he was passing me just fine to my weather, him being on a UNIRIG and all. I wondered why he dropped beneath us at the time.

After cat mysteriously went beneath us, he had indeed been heading me up, and then with less than two of his, much less MY, boatlengths below, from slightly above my beam, WITHOUT HAIL, cut across my bows. It was a good thing I was just about pinching, because if I hadn't headed quickly, I'd have T-boned the cat.

Tell the whole story as it was told to you, not just how YOU want to tell it. Like I say, you weren't there. The man who WAS there didn't have a problem. The guy ACTUALLY DRIVING THE CAT WAS REAL NICE, let me make sure and state that for public consumption. The only reason Patrick is involved is because I made the mistake of asking him for the cat driver's contact info.

See, here's the thing. I'm not racing the cat, he knows it, so do I. Therefore, basic road rules come into play:

When two vessels are moving in the same direction, vessel passing is the give-way vessel and should keep out of the way of the vessel being passed. The vessel being passed is the stand-on vessel and must maintain its course and speed. If the stand-on vessel realizes that the course intended by the give-way vessel is not safe, it should sound the danger or doubt signal. (Like I had a chance.)

So, first: our friend didn't give me notice nor time to react. We were just on our toes because we could tell that our friend driving the cat was new at it.

Second: since we aren't racing each other, then basic rules of the road apply.

Third: It always is a real bad idea to pass anyone to leeward.

Which were the points I wanted to make to begin with. I'm sorry to involve everyone, this was supposed to have been a discussion between me and the cat driver.