[jore]

My instructor told me that the size is what matters often in real life. He was sailing a 45 foot yacht from Europe to South America (ARC race) and in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean they were very close to hitting a huge tanker. They were with sails at night, but the tanker was not willing to change course for such a small boat so around 50m before the impact the sailing boat changes course. All the time they were on the radio talking with the captain of the tanker, but they could not persuade him to change course. And for them this is a race so they always wanted to follow the optimal course, therefore they were reluctant to change their course

[jacquesm]

He may simply not be able to change course. An oil tanker at speed plots its course radii in miles, whole ones. Those things don't turn on a dime and as a pleasure boat (sailing in a race is entertainment) claiming priority over such a huge commercial vessel is just plain arrogance.

[MerelyMortal]

Instead of arguing, they should have used that time to make a slight adjustment. Their hubris caused them to make a last-minute change which wasted significantly more time. Races of any type are almost always subject to external factors.