Colour blind

[AntarcticPilot]

Thank you everyone for contributing to an interesting issue. A predominately male condition, I understand that at least 1 in 12 men are colour blind yet I can find no reference to it on the RYA website. Is colour blindness not viewed as a disability in sailing?And therefore not part of any inclusion and diversity strategy?

You only need to worry about colour-blindness when doing an MCA commercial qualification. And that's why navigational marks are distinguished by shape (or top-mark) and contrast as well as by colour. The only real problem with colour blindness is navigation lights or sector lights where there is no supplementary information to distinguish red and green, and there are good ways of overcoming that using red/green filters as described by others. But colour-blindness shouldn't be an issue during the day.

Worth bearing in mind that it can be very difficult for a person with completely normal vision to distinguish the colour of a distant buoy; the resolution of our colour vision is much less than that of our monochrome vision. I can usually see the shape of a buoy before I am sure of the colour, and I have good colour vision. Also of course, sunglasses may very well affect the colour of objects.

 

[magicol]

Thanks again to all who have contributed to this thread. It has been really interesting and helpful to read all the comments and practical suggestions. I have now received a reply to my enquiry about this from the RYA. Their response, I am pleased to report, was positive and suggested that instructors would support those with a colour blind condition to identify buoyage and lights in other ways. In circumstances where colour differentiation was essential but just not possible, certificates might be marked ‘assistance required’.
I hope this offers some encouragement to fellow sailors who live with colour blindness and the implications of this condition when out on the water.