Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #239500 in Books
• Published on: 1993-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 56 pages

Synopsis
To be safe at sea you must be able to identify other vessels by their special lights and shapes and be able to predict how they are likely to alter course or speed in any potential collision situation. This latest edition helps interpret the rules correctly.

Customer Reviews

It does what it says on the tin!
This slim book (58 pages) is aimed primarily at the skipper of a pleasure craft and is packed full of information on... international regulations for preventing collisions at sea. It's hardly an exciting page-turner but the sort of information that you really need to know before going out on the sea, explained in layman's terms.

There are 38 rules in total subdivided into General, Steering and sailing rules, lights and shapes, sound and light signals and exemptions. There is also an "annex" which gives the positioning and technical details of lights and shapes, sound and signal devices, distress signals etc.

Some of the contents of this book seem rather unnecessary - details of the candela power of the lights on your boat, for example (no doubt 99.9% of boat owners have the lights already installed on the boat and don't need to know the engineering details of them).

What's particularly helpful is this book doesn't just give you the "rules" but it gives explanations as to what these mean in real-life situations. It also highlights the limitations of the rules - rule number 17 (action by a stand-on vessel) is potentially contradictory and it gives helpful information about how to handle this. The final pages which show lights and shapes are a very useful reference and also give warnings about the difficulties of identifying lights at night

This book is intended for someone studying Coastal Skipper or Yachtmaster qualifications and is helpful and clear although perhaps some of the explanations could have been expanded or had more examples given.