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Originally Posted by Airwaves
In looking at the diagram I probably would have steered the pontoon to starboard and fallen in behind the 34+
That would do a couple of things. It would eliminate the wake from the 34+ rocking your pontoon broadside and smoothed out the ride since you'd be in his wake. Yes you'd have to cross his wake but doing it at an angle to the bow is easier on the passengers.
It would have also eliminated the head-on situation.
This is assuming that both you and the 34+ ended up beside each other once the 34+ changed course and headed out into the lake. If you were ahead of him then you were the stand-on vessel to the 34+.
As far as the MP goes I believe both you and he should have steered slightly to starboard to avoid the head-on situation, unless the MP was restricted by draft (how close to the bouy was he?)
I know, the purists will say all vessels in a lake are restricted by draft but you know what I mean.
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The above is my gut feel for the best answer but if the 34'-er was abeam of SteveA then there might not have been enough time/distance for him to fall in line w/o putting himself into the path of the MP boat. The above allows everyone a nice port-port pass to resolve the scenario. I dislike forcing the MP (via a harder turn to port assuming the rocks would have allowed it) to shoot the gap between SteveA and the 34'-er unless it could have been telegraphed far enough in advance. The 300' - 400' mentioned previously sounds a bit too close for that. In some ways the MP boat, being the give-way vessel to SteveA, should have signalled his intent early via slowing and a turn to starboard. This would have allowed SteveA to cross and fall into line behind the 34. Assuming the MP didn't turn then perhaps the best answer is to have SteveA slow a bit (to allow the 34 to pass) and then parallel the course of the 34'-er at a legal distance. Now it's up to the MP boat to do his part. If he slows or stops and the distance btw him and SteveA falls to 150' then SteveA is also required to come to NWS. Is it this last bit that didn't occur and got the MP's attention ?
ps - Almost no matter what, because SteveA is going just above NWS, any manuver he does (or doesn't do) isn't going to create much of a difference in the trajectories.
pps - And kudo's to SteveA for bringing this up. A good discussion on one of the real life situations faced on the lake rather than the easy boat on boat encounters discussed in manuals and courses.