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All the lights in the world don't help if the other vessel is not looking, or chooses to ignore you.

I've has to get out of the way or be run down a couple of times, once by a small ship, once by a large fishing boat, both in open ocean. Not sure if the ship ever saw us, but the fishing boat lit us up with a large spot light, and just kept coming. No, he wasn't fishing, speed about 14 knots, and standard nav lights. Very little wind, we were at about 3 knots. Had to start the motor to get out of the way - he would have hit our port bow - no change of course at all.

I know another boat that was hit while anchored, and lit like a Christmas tree...

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Think I have found it??

 

transportsafety.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/29537/11-Vessel-lights-day-shapes-and-sound-signals-VBSH2015.pdf

 

Australian but why would it not cover nz??

Seems a bit different HT, like requires red over green at Masthead. That's not current colregs, but was an alternative - red over green, sailing machine
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Even YNZ rules are not clear

 

www.yachtingnz.org.nz/sites/yachtingnz/files/YNZ%20Safety%20Regulations%201316%20FINAL%20Revised.pdf

 

 

19.07 NAVIGATION LIGHTS To be shown as required by the Collision X X X X X Prevention Rules to be permanently mounted and wired so that they will not be masked by sails or the heeling of the yacht, and are mounted above the level of the main deck. Side lights mounted into the hull are not acceptable.

 

Navigation lights on all boats shall be fitted no lower than the height of the upper lifelines.

 

 

Seen a good number of yachts where the nav lights are recessed in to the hull.   I always understood that lights are to be 1 metre above the waterline.

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Km how many really comply?? correct lights showing regardless of position is better than no lights?

 

seen a few fancy launches at the boatshow and their nav lights were right back on the end of the cabin side,so in effect about 25ft back from the bow and were proudly displaying msn numbers.

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I comply with ynz now with a tri light. The way my lifelines are set up there's no easy way to mount nav lights at lifeline level. If I attempt to comply with colregs by installing them at the gunwhale, I'm likely to fail my next category inspection as then I will have lights that don't meet the ynz requirements.

 

Think I'll be sticking with what I've got.

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This appears to confirm what my understanding of the light requirements were. See clause 22.23 sub clause 3 [a] Masthead trycolour with alround white light if vessel is under 12m in length appears to be correct. If you don't have an alround light then you would require a steaming light above the red and green.

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That's not how I read that section, it says nothing about tricolour quote:

 

Instead of exhibiting the lights prescribed in subrule (1), a power-driven vessel—

(a) of less than 12 metres in length may exhibit an all-round white light and sidelights; and

(B) of less than 7 metres in length, whose maximum speed does not exceed 7 knots, may

exhibit an all-round light and must, if practicable, exhibit sidelights.

End quote

 

This is simply combining the steaming light and stern light at the Masthead, and is shown in the power vessel section of the pic I posted earlier in this thread.

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Personally I have no issue running both, they are there specifically to make you visible and inform but that's using common sense, something regulations often are not good at. Anyone got any idea on the legality of the 2 sets question?

 

 

If you run two sets, you can end up from some angles looking like a different thing. eg.  You might end up showing red above red (not under command - even though there's 12m between the lights), or green above green (no idea what that would be but it would be confusing as hell).

 

If steaming, from some angles you might look like vessel restricted in ability to manoeuvre (red white red) but with some lights missing and funny spacing, or a fishing vessel other than a trawler,  or if seen as green white then green, maybe mistaken as a trawler under 50m loa (no masthead required) - would depend upon where your steaming light was positioned on your mast - up too high and you could look like one of those fishing boats.

 

You can show the lights you like in addition to the COLREGS so long as you don't look like something else specified in the colregs or like a navigational aid..

 

But looking at this from a new angle, if you have a boat that you dry out on the tide with beaching legs, I suppose you have to show anchor light until you're touching, then also the two masthead reds to show you're aground - at which point you'd need to kill your masthead anchor light and display and alternative anchor light laterally displaced from the two reds...

 

I'm wondering how the COLREGS deal with the old old old boats (or idealists) that still run kerosine lamps, i.e. Talesin. 

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Then there is the bull sh,,t black disk hanging from the forstay to the mast to say you are anchored , what a load of crap , I am in a bay. Late at might Anchor deeply imbedded , mast lights on , cockpit lights on in amongst other boats doing the same , and you can’t see the silly disk suspended ,will it save me from some mut who can’t see me ,,, but I am told I don’t get insurance. Really ,

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I think this is starting to highlight the need for many to read up on the Rules of Navigation. Nothing complicated, just the basic rules of the road at sea. We all harp on about Powerboaters and Jet ski's not knowing the laws, but it seems many here know little more. I don't mean to have this sound patronising, I am just saying that it is good to understand the laws. It is important. You may never intend to travel at night, but you never know of the one time that maybe you are forced to. Lights out there, and more importantly, understanding them and using them correctly is essential.
   Those of us that have been on the water for a long time have seen some seriously silly sights over those years, due to Boaters not knowing the basic rules. Most have been head shaking to the downright funny. But I remember a horror sight that could have turned to carnage and death, simply because the Power Boat did not know the rules. He went behind the Stern and Bow of two Trawlers that were some distance apart. What he did not know, because he did not notice the shapes displayed, was that they were connected together by a long cable. One was stuck in the Mud and the other was trying to pull her off. The towing boat had just reversed back and was now in the process of steaming forward as the Powerboat shot between them. The PB passed and the Steel cable came up out of the water and went taught. What seemed to be seconds later, the cable came clear of the water and the PB would have smacked into it.

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Boat/skipper licencing and registration will eventually happen,

More mishaps more likely

 

i was reading on another site about a person fishing Rakino way and a yacht with no lookout or on the helm almost ploughed in the side of them,they started motoring with anchor down to avoid collision,so its not just power/jet/ yachts.

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But really this anchor ball , what happened to looking at the anchor warp from the bow , so if I was in a bay of anchored boats and a launch hit me I would not get insurance , what a load of crap

May seem like crap but gives the insurance an out?  What about a vessel drift fishing,would it need to display 2 black balls from memory. Not under control? Long time ago since I did boat masters,must do a refresher course one day.

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