Hazard perception
Tap when you would act
An encounter develops in front of you from behind your own wheel. Press the button the moment you would alter course. You are graded on when — because knowing Rule 15 and feeling the moment it applies are two different skills, and only one of them keeps you off the front of a ship.
The bearing is the cue
She is drawn against your own shroud or forestay. A bearing that does not change shows up as a vessel that does not move along the wire while she grows — Rule 7(d)(i), without a compass.
Early is the answer
The window opens once you have watched her long enough for a steady bearing to mean something, and shuts five minutes from her closest approach. After that, Rule 8’s “ample time” has gone.
Sometimes you hold
2 of these 8 encounters pass clear, and altering course for them scores nothing. Doing nothing is an answer here — you submit it by letting the clock run.
The coaster on your starboard bow
Motoring north at 6 knots on a clear afternoon. A coaster is out on your starboard bow, a little over two miles off, and you have just lined her up against the shroud.
95sRule 15Take the watchThe fast ferry from starboard
PremiumMotoring north at 6 knots. A fast ferry is three miles off on your starboard bow, making around 12 knots. Line her up and watch her.
110sRule 7Take the watchCrossing from your port side
PremiumMotoring north at 6 knots. A motor cruiser is about 50° on your port bow, two and a quarter miles off, holding her course and her speed.
110sRule 17Take the watchDead ahead and closing
PremiumMotoring north at 6 knots. A motor cruiser is almost exactly dead ahead, three miles off, bow-on to you and making about 8 knots.
90sRule 14Take the watchComing up on the motor cruiser
PremiumUnder sail on a fast broad reach, making 7.5 knots. A motor cruiser is a mile ahead, pottering along at 3 knots on much the same course, and you are gaining on her.
107sRule 13Take the watchTwo sails converging
PremiumClose-hauled on port tack at 5 knots in a northerly, heading north-east. Another yacht is 45° on your starboard bow, a mile and a half off, close-hauled on the other tack.
95sRule 12Take the watchA red light, out on the starboard bow
PremiumMotoring north at 6 knots on a dark, clear night. Well out on your starboard bow, about 60° off, you can see a red sidelight and two white masthead lights — the higher one to the right of the lower. Nothing else.
110sNightRule 15Take the watchA green light on the port bow
PremiumMotoring north at 6 knots on a dark night. Two and a half miles off on your port bow: a green sidelight, and two white masthead lights above it with the higher one to the left. Nothing else.
100sNightRule 7Take the watch
Each clip is compressed: a collision builds over a quarter of an hour and nobody drills for a quarter of an hour, so the encounter runs at six times real speed and says so on screen. The geometry, the window and the grading all work in the encounter’s own time. If you would rather not have anything move, every encounter can be stepped through a minute at a time instead.