how can Colregs rule 5 - lookout - be met by solo sailors on long trips?

[RunAgroundHard]

I agree with post 2, but ....
I once spoke to a guy who reckoned that if you hove-to on starboard tack then you could happily get your head down as everybody had to give way to you. He also had a gadget which flagged up the pings of other people's radar and showed which direction they were coming from.
It was quite nifty in a pre AIS world

It's called MerVeille It was once required for Mini650 boats, maybe still is
Page 1

The company was created in 1998 and it looks like the design (and the web-site) date from back then.
The company still seems to be in existence and does about 20K euros in business each year. The director and only employee is 80 years old.

You can order the box from the usual chandlers (Bigship, Acastillage Diffusion, etc).

Is that not what Echomax is: Radar Reflector Active Radar Target Enhancer Active XS RTE Echomax. Why Echomax has the box which can sound an audible (audible alarm can be switched on or off) and visual alarm, always on, when the antenna is swept by a radar. Echomax also enhances the return radar signal on the vessel with radar.

 

[jamie N]

Is that not what Echomax is: Radar Reflector Active Radar Target Enhancer Active XS RTE Echomax. Why Echomax has the box which can sound an audible (audible alarm can be switched on or off) and visual alarm, always on, when the antenna is swept by a radar. Echomax also enhances the return radar signal on the vessel with radar.

I believe the difference is that the Merville gives a directional indication of the radar signal, whereas the Echomax simply 'pings'.

 

[seeSimon]

Every petrol head knows you can drive without a pee for far longer than a battery EV can keep driving........

It doesn't yet take me half an hour to have a pee, and generally there's no Q. Also, I don't yet need an enabling app, and no suitable adaptor to use the ill thought out conflicting infrastructure.

 

[seeSimon]

If it goes wrong there's only going to be one death. So the regulators can ignore it.

Not necessarily...we regularly anchor overnight in a quiet spot not at all far from where Pip Hare hit Cornwall last year....while apparently asleep during a channel crossing. All kept very quiet and low key, but the RNLI were involved....

Not much is likely to change while "the authorities" continue to formally honour many solo long distance sailors...yet would prosecute a fatigued MN deck officer for similar cause/effect...imho...

 

[Black Sheep]

Not necessarily...we regularly anchor overnight in a quiet spot not at all far from where Pip Hare hit Cornwall last year....

Do you maintain a continuous anchor watch right through the night when anchored?

 

[obmij]

No the highway code is a "code" which has some special status in law but most of it is not actually law. You could consider it guidelines which might establish what a careful and competent driver would do. The Col Regs are not just guidelines they are enacted directly into UK Law (The Merchant Shipping (Distress Signals and Prevention of Collisions) Regulations 1989).

Not single handed but proof they will prosecute leisure skippers:
- Prosecutions report 2024
- Prosecutions report 2023
- Moment speedboat skipper hit teenage kayaker and ran him over

And for single handed not keeping a lookout:
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7dc27fe5274a5eaea662a9/mca_prosecutions_2012.pdf
- Skipper fined after failing to keep a look out - Practical Boat Owner

Obviously, if you don't survive the collision, you won't be prosecuted.

The above examples show how hard you need to push to get the MCA to show an interest. In the first one neither boat was keeping a lookout and one sank! The fine was £1K and only for one skipper. I've been fined more than that for a minor traffic offence!

The Colregs may be 'law' but the chances of being punished for infringing them are vanishingly small unless you screw up on an absolutely epic level. Like hitting Scotland in something big, or sinking someone.

There is plenty of opportunity for enforcement and it's pretty clear the authorities just aren't interested at best. Most of the vendee fleet and absolutely anything that is sponsored, broadcast their crimes for all the world to see..

 

[obmij]

I was thinking this issue through the other day. My planned trip is to go to the Faeroes this year, via Stromness from Inverness, and then back down to Stornoway. On Marine Traffic now, there's maybe 20 boats showing in the area that I'd be sailing in.
Now think of 20 blind & deaf people in the area from Largs to Edinburgh to Wick and Cape Wrath, which is similar to the above area, stumbling about at walking pace, some maybe even a bit quicker than that, entirely unaware of the others presence, what are the odds of them bumping into each other?
To change the odds, how about if half of them weren't blind or deaf, and were actually looking out for someone else, would they surprise each other?

Sounds like a great trip!

I think you are mistaken about the odds, although I cannot articulate why precisely - but then I have never really got the 'birthday paradox' either.

I don't think I have ever slipped lines and returned to port without either having to alter course for another vessel, or had another vessel alter course for me.

 

[seeSimon]

Do you maintain a continuous anchor watch right through the night when anchored?

I'm not aware that that is a REQUIREMENT?
On a small yacht....I'm certainly well lit, not that that is much use if the oncoming "watchkeeper" is asleep, or otherwise significantlydistractedd.

As but one high profile example
See recent SOLONG v Stena Imacculate .

Do I detect a Pip Hare fanboy of some description?

 

[Roberto]

Is that not what Echomax is: Radar Reflector Active Radar Target Enhancer Active XS RTE Echomax. Why Echomax has the box which can sound an audible (audible alarm can be switched on or off) and visual alarm, always on, when the antenna is swept by a radar. Echomax also enhances the return radar signal on the vessel with radar.

Indeed the difference is the MerVeille does not enhance the return, it's a simple receiver. It has the four quadrants though, and also a sort of "gain", one can set it more or less sensitive to radar beams.

 

[Black Sheep]

Do you maintain a continuous anchor watch right through the night when anchored?

I'm not aware that that is a REQUIREMENT? On a small yacht...

Have another read of Rule 5.

 

[potentillaCO32]

No they are the law not a framework.

It’s not unregulated - if you survive a collision and were not keeping a lookout you can full expect the MCA Enforcement Team to try and make an example of you.

Presumably, only in british waters if non uk flagged? And most blue water sailing, by definition, is outwith MCA's clutches.

 

[Black Sheep]

Have another read of Rule 5.

To expand on that terse answer...

The OP quoted the relevant bit above: "Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing... " (my emphasis). "Every vessel" : includes small yachts. "At all times" : means at all times; not just when underway, or making way, or when convenient. So yeah, the rule applies to all yachts at anchor, as well as to single handed yachts on passage.

There's two questions: (1) what's legal, and (2) what makes sense under the relevant circumstances. And there's overlap between the questions.

The conventional view is that what's legal is defined by the written law, Merchant Shipping Act says you must obey colregs. Colregs says that you must maintain a proper lookout by sight and hearing at all times. Therefore a single hander that has a 20 minute kip must be in contravention of Rule 5, therefore in contravention of the Act, therefore surely illegal. Unfortunately, the same logic applies to any yacht at anchor unless a full anchor watch is maintained. And also to any yacht on passage where the watchkeeper looks briefly at his/her watch, or rummages in a biscuit tin, or is otherwise, however briefly, not looking for other vessels.

But luckily, UK law doesn't work like that. The only authority that can say whether an act (or omission) is illegal, is a court of law. No court of law would rule that 5 seconds looking at a watch, or a phone, or a biscuit tin is illegal, despite the wording of Rule 5 of the colregs. And they are unlikely to rule that a small yacht, in a recognised sheltered anchorage, is acting illegally by turning in for the night. Despite what colregs say. So although a reductionist view would be that Rule 5 must have been broken, therefore so has the law, that isn't the way the law works. The courts have a very strong role in interpreting written legislation, especially in the light of the particular circumstances of the case, as well as precedent, and existing common law principles.

Add to the above that a case will only ever make it to the courts if it's prosecuted. That will only happen if there is a reasonable chance of success, and if it appears to be in the public interest. So yeah, if a 200m superyacht single-handed by a high profile experienced racing skipper slices into a fishing boat in the Dover Straits at 20 knots, killing half the crew while the skipper is asleep below, I would expect a fairly high chance of it getting to court, and depending on the circumstances, achieving a conviction. But a 30 foot MAB pottering along at 4 knots while the skipper takes a 20 minute catnap in clear waters, having checked that radar and AIS are detecting nothing within 10 miles... it's harder to envisage that getting near a court, let alone getting a conviction

So the law (as judged in the courts) does actually take account of what makes sense under the specific circumstances of the case.

 

[ylop]

Presumably, only in british waters if non uk flagged? And most blue water sailing, by definition, is outwith MCA's clutches.

No. The Merchant Shipping Act applies to UK Vessels wherever they may be. The Col Regs part says:

Application​

2.—(1) These Regulations apply to United Kingdom vessels wherever they may be and to other vessels while they are within the United Kingdom or the territorial waters thereof but not to seaplanes

And United Kingdom vessel” means a vessel which–

(i)is registered in the United Kingdom; or
(ii)is not registered under the law of any country but is wholly owned by persons, each of whom is either a British citizen or a British dependent territory citizen or a body corporate which is established under the law of a part of the United Kingdom and has its principal place of business in a part of the United Kingdom;

So MCA can get its “clutches” wherever you are unless you’ve registered elsewhere (or a not a UK national etc) when you probably fall under someone else’s laws.

 

[Roberto]

. "At all times" : means at all times; not just when underway, or making way, or when convenient. So yeah, the rule applies to all yachts at anchor,
.

IIRC there is an IMO document dealing with the anchor watch, it is mandatory in open waters, whereas in sheltered anchorages there is the specification "when the master deems it necessary". I'd read it one may leave its boat at anchor, if nothing happens fine, if there is an incident one could be asked to explain why the anchor watch was not deemed necessary. Flat calm and someone else bumps into your boat one thing, messy weather and anchorage one boat drags against yours while you are not there another thing, imho.