Next time you see a ship and think, he must have seen me....

[Daydream believer]

Look at it this way: It is the thing of the future. The autonomous ships that are being mooted won't have the ability to avoid you or even speak to you to avoid collision with your yacht in accordance with colregs. It'll be a return to 'might is right'.

i expect your vhf call will be patched through to a call centre in India which is handy really because you can cancell your credit card and sky tv at the same time just before you drown. You might even get sky to give you a cheaper deal for the final 5 mins
i wonder how the accident helplines will handle that 6 months after the event " i hear you had an accident, yeah i drowned, oh dear were you hurt bad?"

 

[Topcat47]

Coming up the Alderney Race in poor vis, back in the 80's the skipper was keeping a close radar watch on a contact that was wandering around ahead between Alderney and Cap. We were closing and suddenly, in a gap in the fog bank a small coaster appeared. We took appropriate avoiding action, sounding our own horn in the traditional "wake up" manner. The only response we got was a large Alsatian type dog appeared in the bridge window and appeared to bark at us. no-one saw any sign of a human on board. Didn't read the name or port of registry as it went by either. The bow lookout got a fright as he had no idea the skipper was watching the target in the Nav.

 

[Stemar]

My working hypothesis for all encounters with small to medium merchant vessels is that they are under the command (sic) of a single watchkeeper with no English and forged qualifications who is sprawled in an alcoholic stupor across the wrong chart.

I use much the same plan. Mine is based on a MAIB report of a small coaster in the channel, heading East. The second mate's on watch, with only a bottle of whisky to keep him company. After a while, he got bored, so he switched the bridge alarm off and went to cuddle his 40% friend in his cabin. No one was any the wiser until the boat steamed full ahead up Dungeness point.