I don't have any problem believing it. At all.
Pleasure boaters are, quite often, dumb. Or entirely unaware of the colregs, which is essentially the same. (You wouldn't drive a car if you didn't know the rules of the road, would you?)
That guy probably went "Rule 18! Good visibillity, I'm under sail, he's power driven, STAND ON, BABY! WOO!" Never mind the NTM that say to stay clear of surfaced subs, or, you know, good seamanship and ****. A lot of sailboat people think that everybody should stay clear of sailboats... Including in the Detroit river, for exemple. I won't even start into why that's stupid.
But I don't have ANY problem believing it. Of course, in a court of law, the blame would probably rest with the submarine, (Unless they were in a narrow channel or fairway) but in a practical, day to day thing, the sailboat was extremely stupid.
It's big and it's steel. You're small and fiberglass. Keep away.
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