Foundations: Lookout, Speed and Risk

Roads have the Highway Code; the sea has the COLREGs (also written IRPCS) — one worldwide set of rules that tells every vessel, from supertanker to paddleboard, how to behave when boats meet. This lesson covers the rules that never switch off: lookout, safe speed, judging collision risk, and who gives way to whom. Start with a decision.

The COLREGs apply on the high seas and on every navigable water connected to them — open sea, estuaries, most harbours. Local harbour byelaws can add rules but never replace them. And a vessel is every craft that can be used as transport on water: a kayak has duties under these rules just as a container ship does.

COLREGs / IRPCS

The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea — the rules of the road for all vessels.

Give-way vessel

Must keep out of the way of the other, taking early and substantial action to keep well clear.

Stand-on vessel

Must hold her course and speed, so the give-way vessel can plan around something predictable.

Underway

Not at anchor, not made fast to the shore, and not aground. A boat drifting with her engine off is still underway.

Rule 5 is short and absolute: every vessel, at all times, keeps a proper lookout by sight and hearing and by all available means. Sight means eyes out of the boat, scanning the whole horizon — including astern. Hearing means listening: engines, fog signals, breaking water. All available means brings in radar, AIS (the Automatic Identification System, which broadcasts ship positions), a chartplotter, or a crew member posted forward.

• Scan the whole horizon every few minutes — a fast ferry can appear from astern in minutes.
• Everyone aboard is a lookout: brief the crew, because the helm cannot watch everywhere.
• Electronics aid the lookout, never replace it — kayaks, small craft and debris show on no screen.

A safe speed is one at which you can take proper and effective action to avoid collision, and stop within a distance suited to the conditions. There is no number attached; the rule lists what you must weigh instead.

• Visibility — fog, rain, haze, or a low sun in your eyes.
• Traffic density — anchorages and regatta areas need slow, deliberate movement.
• Your boat's handling — how far she carries her way, how fast she turns and stops.
• Background lights at night — shore glare hides other vessels.
• Wind, sea and current — and how close the dangers are.
• Draught versus depth — thin water limits your room to manoeuvre.

No compass to hand? Hold a steady course and line her up against a stanchion or shroud — if she stays glued to the same spot on your rigging, the bearing is constant. Rule 7 adds two cautions: if in doubt, assume risk exists, and the bearing of a very large vessel or a tow at close range can change slightly and still hide a real risk.

When two vessels of different types meet, Rule 18 ranks them by manoeuvrability: the vessel that can manoeuvre most easily keeps clear of the one that can manoeuvre least. Three abbreviations first — then decide the case below before you see the full order.

NUC — not under command

Unable to manoeuvre as the rules require through some exceptional circumstance — engine or steering failure.

RAM — restricted in ability to manoeuvre

Her work prevents free manoeuvring: dredging, laying cable, servicing buoys, minesweeping.

CBD — constrained by draught

A power-driven vessel severely restricted by the depth and width of available water relative to her draught.

Vessel engaged in fishing

Fishing with nets, lines or trawls that restrict manoeuvrability — not a yacht trailing a mackerel line.

The memory aid: “New Reels Catch Fish So Purchase Some” — NUC, RAM, CBD, Fishing, Sailing, Power, Seaplane. Two caveats keep it honest. Strictly, every vessel is told to avoid impeding a CBD vessel rather than formally give way — treat her as senior to you anyway. And the order has exceptions: an overtaking vessel keeps clear regardless of type, and in narrow channels and traffic schemes small craft lose their usual priority — both covered in the lessons ahead.