Yellow flashing light

[Impaler]

Whilst on a night sail from Lagos to Gibraltar a few weeks ago I spotted a vessel on my starboard bow on a collision course showing a yellow flashing light. As she drew closer I altered course to stbd to avoid her and she crossed my bows and all seemed well. A few minutes later at about a mile (we had radar) she did a 180 deg and presented herself on a collision course coming from my port side. No response of course on Ch 16. It was obvious she couldn't care about me or any rules of the road. I assumed that she was towing something, she just had normal nav lights, no fishing lights. Anyway I did some fancy footwork and eventually passed astern of her by about 1/2 mile. She then altered course onto my course and speed staying about 1/2 mile away on my stbd quarter. Eventually she turned away and that was that.
I couldn't make out what she was, I seem to recall that hovercraft show flashing yellow but I very much doubt it it was. A submarine?
Anyone had a similar encounter?

 

[john_morris_uk]

Could easily have been a submarine. What makes you so certain it didn't care about or apply IRPCS?

 

[Nigel_Ward]

Could be purse seiners. They set their gear in a large circle and have to show two isophase flashing yellows.

The nets they use are enormous and expensive.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pu...&ei=KaF5Tq34EoXA0QWAy4TEAQ&sqi=2&ved=0CEoQsAQ

 

[electrosys]

Apparently proposals are being made that dhan buoys (the fishing sort) also display a flashing yellow - so it could become a very popular sight at sea ...

 

[Avocet]

Hovercraft under 50m????

 

[footsoldier]

Yes, fishing boat(s)

They are a right pain along the Portugese coast. Normal set-up is the mother ship and a large towed launch which serves as a buouy. Both display flashing amber lights.

Mother ship attaches net to anchored launch then steams off in a huge 1m/2m circle laying net as it goes. Get three or four of them circling round in opposing directions all across the horizon ahead of you and it's very difficult to work out where the hell to go. You have to plan to give them a very wide berth as it is almost impossible to work out which of the amber flashers are in pairs.

 

[ripvan1]

All wrong I'm afraid - it was a pelican crossing

 

[Impaler]

Fishing sounds about right, the guy was all over the place. Incidentally we saw a few buoys with constant green lights on, probably net markers??

 

[ancientsailor]

As said above,

Could be

purse seining in proximity:

http://www.sailskills.co.uk/colregs...tions_fishing_in_proximity_purse_seining.html or

air-cushion vessel - hovercraft - but seems unlikely from location and description:

http://www.sailskills.co.uk/colregs/Sailskills_lights&shapes_Air-Cushion_vessel.html

 

[l'escargot]

You were closer to land than you thought and it was dustbin day

 

[Alfie168]

All wrong I'm afraid - it was a pelican crossing

Silly boy...only Zebra crossings have yellow flashing lights (Belisha Beacons to the uninitiated), and no, I have never seen a Zebra or a Pelican on one either. God bless Mr Hore-Belisha M.P., who instigated them.

Tim

 

[VicS]

Silly boy...only Zebra crossings have yellow flashing lights (Belisha Beacons to the uninitiated), and no, I have never seen a Zebra or a Pelican on one either. God bless Mr Hore-Belisha M.P., who instigated them.

Tim

Originally did Belisha beacons have flashing yellow lights? I think not!
In fact I am not so sure they were even illuminated.

Anybody got a better memory than me ... mine does not go back as far as 1934!

 

[Alfie168]

Originally did Belisha beacons have flashing yellow lights? I think not!
In fact I am not so sure they were even illuminated.

Anybody got a better memory than me ... mine does not go back as far as 1934!

Evidence M'lud

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belisha_beacon

Tim

 

[VicS]

Evidence M'lud

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belisha_beacon

Tim

But what the Wiki article does not tell you is that they were not illuminated until 1953.

It seems that some councils may have initially illuminated them with non flashing lights

http://www.cbrd.co.uk/histories/pedestriancrossings/1.shtml

Note that Weymouth considered them to be a hazard to shipping!

 

[alan_d]

Not a direct answer to the OP's question, but not all lights on boats are navigation lights.

The Corran Ferry, for example, has yellow flashing lights on the ramps which operate when they are being raised or lowered. Lights flash both at the moving ramp and the stationary one at the other end of the boat, so that for the first 30 seconds or so after leaving the slipway at the start of its crossing the vessel displays flashing yellow lights at bow and stern as well as standard navigation lights (if it is dark).

 

[maxi77]

Long before their use was officially approved USN Polaris boats on the Clyde had yellow grimes lights. I can distinctly remember a mate of mine reporting from the bridge of an O boat proceeding north through the Cumbrae Gap that a USN SSBN was approaching down the Clyde. A few minutes later he reported it had turned right and gone over Bute.

Do not get confused by shore lights

 

[VO5]

Silly boy...only Zebra crossings have yellow flashing lights (Belisha Beacons to the uninitiated), and no, I have never seen a Zebra or a Pelican on one either. God bless Mr Hore-Belisha M.P., who instigated them.

Tim

Before the outbreak of hostilities in WW2, was he not the Secretary of State for War ? Very little seems to be known about him.

 

[penfold]

Long before their use was officially approved USN Polaris boats on the Clyde had yellow grimes lights. I can distinctly remember a mate of mine reporting from the bridge of an O boat proceeding north through the Cumbrae Gap that a USN SSBN was approaching down the Clyde. A few minutes later he reported it had turned right and gone over Bute.

Ooh a former dieselelectric bubblehead; how long did it take to shed the persistent
odour of diesel, lubricating oil and cabbage after you packed it in?

 

[alan_d]

Before the outbreak of hostilities in WW2, was he not the Secretary of State for War ? Very little seems to be known about him.

A fair amount on Wikipedia.

 

[maxi]

Found several in the Irish Sea a few years ago which caused some consternation. Subsequently found them to be mounted on anchored un-manned fishing boats and spoke with a fisherman who said that they were un-manned fishing machines and what was the problem? Welsh of course.