You're sailing with full sails when the wind dies, so you start the engine to hold course while the canvas stays up. A power-driven fishing boat with nets deployed is crossing ahead. Who gives way?

You do — running the engine makes you power-driven, and a vessel engaged in fishing outranks power

The fishing boat does — your sails are up, so you still count as a sailing vessel with priority

⛵ Sail vs. Power: Where You Sit in the Pecking Order

You may have learned that sail has right of way over power — mostly true, but it's only one rung on a ladder the COLREGs call the pecking order. The idea: the vessel least able to manoeuvre has priority, and everyone more nimble must keep clear. From most to least privileged: not-under-command (broken down), restricted in ability to manoeuvre (dredgers, cable-layers), constrained by draught (a deep ship in a narrow channel), fishing (nets or trawls out), sailing, and finally power-driven. A tanker stuck in a shipping lane isn't being rude — under the rules, you give way.

So a sailboat is high up, but not the top. If a trawler is hauling nets or a ferry is constrained by draught in a dredged channel, your sailboat is the give-way vessel and must take early, obvious action. And there's a crucial exception (Rule 9): in a narrow channel, a sailing vessel must not impede a power-driven vessel that can only navigate within it.

The biggest gotcha: the moment you switch on the engine — even with sails still up — you become a power-driven vessel and drop to the bottom of the order. A sailboat motoring must show a motoring cone (point-down) by day and follow power-vessel rules. Two sailboats meeting still sort themselves by the wind rules from earlier cards; this pecking order kicks in when you meet everyone else.