As many of you know, I read a lot, here and on other boating forums. Consequently, I come across and read many of these COLREGS topics. The one consistent theme that recurs all too often is people missing the point. Often folks confuse common sense with the purpose of the rules. And those who support the rules are often too heavy in their dismissal of the folks who prudently employ common sense. Both of these groups often talk past each other.
What does COLREGS stand for? It's an abbreviation or acronym and the first part is COLLISION AVOIDANCE.
On cruisersforum, there is a frequent contributor, Dockhead, who yearly has sailed between the Isle of Wright in the UK to the Baltic. He writes well and is knowledgeable and, I believe, trustworthy. He started this thread (
Thread for Basic COLREGS Questions - Cruisers & Sailing Forums) as a result of another one about crossing situations. Because of where he sails, he has to cross the southern end of the North Sea, with heavy commercial traffic at the east end of the English Channel and the traffic to the Netherlands and Germany.
One of the first things he wrote in his introductory post in that thread is this:
Unlike right of way, the requirements to stand-on and give-way under the COLREGS is not a permanent status which applies during all phases of a crossing. These obligations arise only after (a) vessels are in sight of one another; and (b) a risk of collision exists. And this order of maneuvering ends when either the stand-on vessel has a reasonable doubt as to the efficacy of the give-way vessel's maneuver, or action by the stand-on vessel is required.
My conclusion is that Scotty and Charles could both be partly correct.
Why?
Scotty says "use common sense" and don't get into "close situations" where you have to apply the rules.
Charles says, however, that once you do, and you may well get into one or more, you ought to know and apply the rules.
These two opinions are NOT mutually exclusive, they should both exist for each of us. Some of us can sail for years and not get into potential collision situations at all, even on relatively active waterways, where common sense has kept you out of risk of collision to begin with because you were ahead of the game by avoiding it for starters. This could be because of traffic density or be as simple as everybody else knowing the rules AND applying common sense so that potential collisions do not even begin to develop. Some of us sail where potential collisions are unavoidable because of traffic levels, local sailing realities (SF Bay comes to mind for me), or the incompetence of other boaters.
But I believe that Dockhead's intro is very important because he addreses the key issue sometimes missed in these discussions. The rules have to be applied if a risk of collision exists between two vessels in sight of each other.
But all the applications of common sense, alone, may not avoid the risk of collision, in which case it is imperative to know the rules to avoid it if & when it does occur.
You may enjoy reading that CF thread, if just to see how many of the points in this discussion are repeated and refuted and discussed. Enjoy.
How long have you been sailing? Have you never had a basic course?
