Colour Blindness

[Kristal]

Any of the chaps posting here, and sailing regularly, have any degree of colour blindness? (No sexism here, I believe only men can suffer, women just carry the duff gene).

I'm slightly Red-Green colour blind, which only really affects me in daily life when playing snooker or choosing matching socks. However, I began to worry about it when I started doing pilotage - small, distant objects (or lights) of any colour would be an obvious problem for me.

However, it seems to have taken a different turn in my case - I can usually spot a buoy, and it's colour/topmark/type before anyone else aboard (and my long-distance vision is actually apalling), which allayed my fears somewhat when I discovered it. However, if a red or green buoy is in front of land, I simply cannot see it until I'm right on top of it, or close enough for it to have sea behind it again.

Does anyone else find colour blindness a problem at sea?

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[boatone]

I spend much of my working life with colour critical imaging activities calibrating computer monitors and colour printers and this is a real problem for some folk, many of whom dont even realise it!
There is an online colour blindness test <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.boatsontheweb.com/> Website, Photo Gallery, Chat Room, Burgees

 

[chriscallender]

I also have red-green colour blindness and I do find it quite difficult at night - especially I seem to have trouble with the sidelights of ships and often can't figure out what is what, and what aspect of the ship I am seeing until much later than others.

I typically don't have much of a problem with red and green buoys for channel markers but I think that is because I already have a mental picture of what to expect.... which is perhaps something that could get me into trouble at some point!

Daytime isn't an issue for me at all and I do find that I've got much better long distance vision than most, and making out shapes and cardinals that are tiny specs on the horizon is OK. I certainly would have no trouble in identifying the colour of a buoy by day (and anyway would know from the shape what it was).

I definitely don't like sailing at night as a result. I know the debate has come up before about whether crossing the channel is easier by day or night but to me there is no contest, day is much simpler.

Chris

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[Nich39Nige]

My colour sight isn't the best. I failed the Board of Trade colour sight test in the early seventies which procluded me from being a Nav. cadet in the Merchant Navy.
I have been sailing for a good few years and it has never caused any problem.
I sometimes have to get confirmation of ships lights from the crew but since I only suffer (?) not seeing certain shades (when white becomes pink...I see Dulux rose white as white) the only problem I have is choosing when reupholstering.
SWMBO still asks me to choose but then ignores my choice!

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[Capt_Scarlet]

A friend of mine cannot distinguish between red and green lights. He devised a cunning plan to get around this, by carrying a coloured lens to look through, which apparently enabled him to then spot the difference.

Unfortunately, on his first trip out with it, he dropped it over the side....

Now he relies on other crew members to tell him the colour.

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[Evadne]

I'm not colour blind as far as I know, but I believe the figure is something like one in five men suffer from some degree of colour blindness, the commonest being red/green. Fortunately most channel markers are black with a top dressing of white guano, so we can use the top marks and shapes but ship's side lights are another matter.

Incidentally you still have to pass the test for your ENG1 (merchant marine medical), along with weeing into a bottle, guessing the letters on the opticians chart and taking your trousers down so they can count your legs.

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[pugwash]

Me too

Dave White is right, as far as I know, it's about one man in five who suffers.
It's not a matter of socks and traffic lights but small lights at a distance. I did a test when I sat the old Board of Trade Yachtmaster certificate years ago. In a dark room I had to distinguish between two lights at two miles which could have been red, green or white. There are ten degrees of smallness and I didn't get past the first one.
Also, as a teenager, I was sailing in an American yacht in the Pacific when I was sent up the mast to look for coral as we approached a lagoon. Suddenly there was coral all around us and the skipper rightly swore at me. But I didn't have a hope of recognising the subtle nuances of green and blue shading.
Now I don't worry about it but when it matters I ask somebody else. When crewing I make sure the skipper knows. The important thing is to be aware of whether you are colour blind or not. The coloured paper chart tests are only a rough guide.

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[Peppermint]

Re:It\'s something I ask crew.

My old mate The Chief is red/green colourblind and only rose to the dizzy heights of chief engineer by the application of low cunning and dodgy medicals.

He tells me that in the control room there are big red buttons that do stuff like cutting off the fuel etc. His first job on board was to get the important ones labled.

I suspect that it must make nightsailing very tricky. I had one crew member who had a hell of a time in daylight with different coloured lines.

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[Kristal]

The lens is an interesting one - some years back, I heard about some experiments with very faintly tinted glasses that eradicated the problems associated with colour blindness (I mainly have trouble with browns/reds, blues/purples, and anything very bright or very dark). Interestingly, they also believed the same principle caused dyslexia and dyspraxia - that it was a similar misinterpretation by the brain rather than a physical defect.

Singlehanded sailing is what's worrying me now, as I regularly get terrified when I can't spot any of the buoys marking the safe route over the Deben Bar!!

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[Evadne]

I didn't know there was a safe route over Deben bar, only a recommended one!

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[Kristal]

Good point, well made!

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[ashanta]

One in 6 males are colour blind and they are all red green colour blind. This genetic disorder is passed from their mother but the male is not a carrier. If the sister has boys they too will be red green colour blind. It's a defect in the red green cones behind the eyes. This means that reds greens browns purples are problems. The only safe colours are Blue and Yellow which is why the wires in domestic plugs were changed many years ago.
If you are colour blind you cannot be a fireman, policeman, military services deck rating in the merchant fleet etc.
If the nav lights were blue and yellow there would't be a problem. I am sure that if women were colour blind the nav lights would be blue and yellow as they would have done something about it but we men don't like to discuss issues like this for whatever reason.
Regards.

Peter.

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[Kristal]

Or a pilot, as I found out at 16. Interestingly, my brother isn't colour-blind.

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[ashanta]

It is interesting.

I am colour blind as is my brother. I have done quite a bit of research on this purely because, like you it has had a dreadful effect on my career. For you to find out that you were colour blind when you were 16 is a testament to the poor and un attentive education system. I remember, when I was at primary school, my teacher was an ex yeoman of signals during the war. I was mad on boats and painted a warship. Possibly thinking he would be impressed with me. he looked at the picture and said "Well done boy but the sea is not purple" and all the class fell about in hysterics.
I went to the Idefatigable and still didn't know I was colour blind. I had to take the commercial lantern test and the RN colour sight test but failed miserably.
I joined the one of the few (can't go in any now) regiments that allowed you to have colour preception below normal.
I sailed in the Baltic from Kiel during the seventies.
Haemophilia acts the same way as colour blindness to males for red green colour blindness. In rare circumstances male and females suffer different forms of colour blindness usually as a symptom of another disorder of the sight. Like you my wife has uniquely suffered. She has haemophlilia like disease (Haemophilia usually carried by the female but suffered by the male) called Von Willibrands and is rogue. Her parents dis not suffer it. there is no eveidence of them carrying it, or their parents. My daughter, the oldest does not have it but my son does. he cannot join the RAF which is what he always wanted to do. he cannot play rugby or competitive football. He was, fortunately born with a good brain and as well being a good athelete he starts Uni in sept.

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