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

[Skik op reis]

I have radar alarm, ais, vhf, radar reflector and so on. On long single handed passages I sleep in the cockpit for 20 minutes at a time. Then I check the horizon, the sails, the navigation and go back to sleep. If I meet a Russian shadowfleet tanker, the colregs are the smallest of my problems.
99,9999 % of the traffic is larger than me. So safety matters to me more than regulations. There is a risk involved. I take it. On the road by car my risk is larger. Once I had a friend behind the wheel of my boat who fell asleep. I discovered it as we were approaching Dover...
Frankly spoken I think my solosystem is more safe because my loud alarm sounds every 20 minutes.

 

[potentillaCO32]

I think that's where the type of vessel and number of crew bit comes in

It seems a lot of ships don't bother either. We were sailing from dover to ramsgate when the big border force vessel went past us. Defender is it called?

They radioed us and asked us where we were headed etc.. all good.

As they trundled off they went past an anchored cargo ship in the anchorage, south of ramsgate. They must have called this ship on the radio at least 10 times but no answer. We expected them to get serious and board it but they caried on to ramsgate. By chance we were in the outside visitor berths just by where defender parks. I wandered over and asked why they didnt board her given she clearly didnt have an anchor watch. They said it was a daily occurance.....

 

[Babylon]

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

My boat came with a 1990s version of this called C.A.R.D (Combined Active Radar Detector) which I've never needed in anger as my singlehanded passages have never been longer than say 12-15hrs, but which still works nicely when I've tested it in the Channel. The main use is the alarm to wake up or prompt the singlehander, then the LED lights on eight points of the compass are more than adequate to give a basic sense of where the radar signal is coming from.

C.A.R.D Radar detector review – Ahoy!