Single handed sailing Col Regs and technology

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roger

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We've had a thread about single handed racing and compatibility with the Colregs - keeping a look out etc..
Surely nowadays we have the technology to keep at least a half decent watch while the sailor is asleep.
1. Radar is power hungry but using guard rings should give a reasonable warning.
2. GPS gives your position. AIS should give the position of all big ships. A small amount of logic make a warning possible at any required range.
In any case a visual watch isnt perfect. Can you be sure you'll spot a shipping container at night?
 
The half submerged container will do far more damage to ones fully eyeballed/radared/vhf AIS enabled vessel than the same will do to a well built steel merchant vessel (unfortunately).
Mine own firmly held belief,readily trotted out,was that if you slept with the hatch open you could hear any approaching vessel. This was 'soundly' dispelled when I woke up in a sweat somewhere between the Canaries and the Cap Verde islands to the loud throb of another vessel..only to look out of the companionway hatch and see,ASTERN,the disappearing stern light of a containership.I reckon she had passed down the side of me to leeward ( in 15-20 knots of wind) on a parallel course less than 200 yards abeam !
 
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Is there any mention in ColRegs that the only thing that can keep watch is the Mk1 eyeball?

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IRPCS specifically state that lookout shall be kept by sight, hearing and all other means available. That means a listening watch on VHF, use AIS/radar if fitted etc etc. You can't do that while you're asleep.
 
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IRPCS specifically state that lookout shall be kept by sight, hearing and all other means available.

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Not by all other means available, but by "all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions". So you don't have to use your radar if you have one, unless it's appropriate to do so. No need to use it in good visibility in harbour.

Which doesn't detract from your point that colregs do insist on a proper lookout by sight and hearing.

Mind you, I'm with the original poster that out of shipping lanes and away from land, it would be acceptable (to me if not to the law or to everyone) to have a kip and rely on technology to reduce the risk.

I'm also aware of the inconsistency of my views - I'm quite anal when it comes to road traffic regulations (eg speed limits), and I'm also quite old-fashioned when it comes to not relying on GPS etc. Yet here I am advocating breaking international law and relying on technology. But no-one said we have to be consistent!
 
Lets face it a single handed boat is unlikely to do much damage to any other ship just yourself. Single handed means only responsible for yourself ie no passengers. So the risks are taken only by yourself.
Regs really don't mean anything under those conditions. If you get hit you may or may not die if you don't get hit you must have obeyed the regs. I am sure that is how single handed sailors have seen it ever since Joshua Slocum. olewill
 
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So the risks are taken only by yourself.


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Two words, Tony Bullimore.

Five days in an upturned boat in the Southern Ocean while the Aus Navy raced to get to him? He may not have hit anyone, but the result was the same.

(BTW, I remember at the time reading that some of the sailing mags couldn't afford the interview fees with Bullimore, but yet how much did the Australian taxpayer have to fork out to send a ship out to get him and bring him safely ashore...)
 
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Two words, Tony Bullimore.



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It might be significant to note that when he was here for the Rolex Middle Sea Race in 2003 he, very quickly, acquired a new nickname:-

"Tony B***S**T"

I don't think that anyone here was favourably impressed at that time. Personally, I could not digest more than 5 minutes of his presence and I let someone else do the pre-race scrutineering of his catamaran. He seemed to me like a caricature of a know-it-all Naval Petty Officer - complete with beer-belly! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
I singlehanded from UK to Algarve this summer, 3 days across biscay. Raymarine radar isn't as power hungry as I tought it would be. The only vessel i saw for about 2 1/2 days was a yacht about 40m from spanish coast. Radar alarm woke me up. Though I could see lights moving onboard said yacht and i was stand on vessel I had to do slight corse alteration, prob wouldn't have hit it but would have come close. So radar works for me! A greater area of concern is being so tired when reaching port that i make mistakes, snoozing little and often worked on that crossing. Quick check on radar and with eyeball and head down for half or an hour cuddling kitchen timer. Mainly during the day. TRhe other downside is that I might have missed seeing a load more whales and dolhins.
Padz
Conachair
 
Actually I don't think that the taxpayer was any worse off really as the Australian Navy treated the whole exercise as a good training opportunity (or so at least a discovery documentary on the event led us to believe).

The problem is that once you adopt that attitude you could start arguing against any kind of sport that could result in you putting yourself in danger.

Not being particularly fond of skying I often shake my head at people who go off-piste and get themselve into trouble. I approve of the French charging for rescue in the Alps if they judge it was caused by gross irresponsibility. However I am well aware that I am guilty of double standards because I think differently of sailors needing rescue...
 
a boat could sail around the world with no crew at all with todays technology,it was almost done not so long ago by wotsername and she got a gong for being on board

so if you have the equipment you should be able to take a few zzzz

I think you will find that your insurance co will be more concerned than anyone I doubt you will be covered
 
Bishop Skinner wouldn't cover me for the biscay. Day sail Spanish & portugeese coasts fine, but not the long leg single handed. Not down to BS themselves, they were quite helpful.
 
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a boat could sail around the world with no crew at all with todays technology,it was almost done not so long ago by wotsername and she got a gong for being on board

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b******s
 
I single-handed all the way across the Indian Ocean west to east.

Didn't see a lot of "shipping" but when between Sri Lanka and Indonesia there was always a fleet of long-liners fishing around me. At times as many as 15 lights could be seen or were evident just below the horizon. I eventually kept a radar ring of just 8 miles else the alarm was going all the time. At no time did I have any collision problems with them but I reckon it was just luck and also the fact that I never slept more than an hour at a time.

On one occasion I tested their vigilance by sailing to within 20 metres of a passing boat and shrieking at the top of my lungs. Response? Zip! I developed the theory that they set 50 miles of line through the night with a radio beacon at the start then took a bearing on the radio beacon, set the autopilot and went to bed. The boat simply sailed back to the beacon completely unattended.

Another single-hander I once spoke to said that he used an ordinary radar detector like speedsters use in their cars because all ships at least run radar even though they may not watch them and then at least you know of their presence. I have no idea if it works but it seems to have some logic.

The colregs are one thing. Sailing for six weeks without sleeping is another and even heaving to is no guarantee you won't be run down. The scariest I had was when I was awake and on deck and a conatainer ship came over the horizon on my port beam and disappeared over the horizon on my starboard beam and the whole process took less than 45 minutes. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif So much for sleeping "only" for an hour.

But however right or wrong it is, hundreds of people are single-handing right now and at least half of them are sleeping - right now.

BTW - for anyone sailing in those waters (equatorial between 70 and 105 degrees E) be aware that crossing across the bow of another vessel is believed by the fishermen to be good luck and they will change course several times to cross ahead of you. It can be real scary at times.
 
RiverRat,

Your point is valid - I had omitted the section of rule 5 that I didn't think was applicable to the original argument. You can't really apply rule 5 solely without applying the sections of rules 6 and 7 that also are pertinent in this instance.

6.b(vi) The more exact assessment of the visibility that may be possible when radar is used to determine the range of vessels or other objects in the vicinity.
7.(b) Proper use shall be made of radar equipment if fitted and operational, including long-range scanning to obtain early warning of risk of collision and radar plotting or equivalent systematic observation of detected objects.

I realize that a great many sailors don't run their radars all the time to save the battery; I think that's reasonable, with the caveat that it should be brought up in reduced vis or to make a determination of risk of collision.

I think the argument that you only put yourself at risk is also false. While you may not, in a small boat, be capable of sinking large vessels, it is conceivable that while asleep the visibility could deteriorate; or at night an electrical problem could extinguish your lights. If a merchantman ran you down in that event, it would hardly be his fault, but it could affect his livelihood nonetheless. Not to mention the negative consequences that the solo sailor's death would have on his relatives and friends.
 
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