Of course you're right, Mary,



... And I do watch for boats appearing to need avoiding, and I do in fact avoid them, toss off a dirty look or a whistle, and then forget about it and go back to enjoying my sail. I didn't mean to sound like an advocate for beer-boob-boat-baiting.



...and of course I agree whole heartedly with the provision I seem to recall which I think says that all vessals must take evasive actions to avoid imminent collision even if they have the right of way.



So I guess I was wrong, since all vessals must try to avoid collision when it's imminent, then yes, power boats can be hit by a sailboat when the sail boat is at fault, in the sense that after a powerboat's failure to yield makes collision imminent, if the sailboat knowingly hits him, or negligently fails to avoid then the sailboat is also at fault.