Sailing right of way rules, colregs & IRPCS explained
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ค. 2024
- Sailing right of way rules are also called the COLREGs or IRPCS, short for International Regulations for preventing collisions at sea. These rules apply to all boats on the sea, and navigable water connected to the sea.
The Racing Rules of Sailing are also commonly talked about amongst sailors, and apply when boats are racing.
This video covers the basic sailing rules of the road, as they are sometimes called, focusing on sailing boats interacting with other sailing boats. The COLREGs and the RRS (Racing Rules of Sailing) are explained side by side, because they are very similar, but there are a few occasions where they differ, so it’s important to understand what to do.
It is the responsibility of the skipper to check which rules are applicable for their location - for example, if you’re inland, you may fall under the US Inland Navigation rules or CEVNI in European inland waters.
Port/Starboard Boom stickers: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296257079240
Waterproof camera ideas & how to mount them: www.philswatersports.com/filming
Buy the COLREGs book: amzn.to/3IhlmV3
Buy the Racing Rules of Sailing guide: amzn.to/3SXLMjH
www.philswatersports.com
(As an Amazon Affiliate I earn commission on qualifying purchases)
Chapters
0:00 sailing right of way rules
0:49 colregs
1:02 racing rules of sailing
1:15 port starboard rule
4:39 windward leeward sailing rules
6:32 racing overlap rules
8:20 racing rules overtaking
9:05 colreg overtaking
10:00 sailing crash upwind
11:21 windward leeward sailing rules
11:47 sailing racing rules downwind
12:46 sailing crash at mark - กีฬา
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Your examples and explanations are the clearest around! Thank you for another great video!
Thank you so much! Glad you've found it helpful. There are more videos on my channel to support your sailing skills 🙂
Great explanation. I'm a hobby sailor and familiar with colregs but I sail in the Solent and summer weekends are great fun attempting to dodge any number of races with all size of boats, from many clubs. Add in the restricted area and the regular ferries and even though I'm not racing and try to stay out the way it's not always possible. Although racing rules don't apply to me it is useful to understand the differences when you end up in the middle of the race unintentionally.😮
Thanks.
I used to sail around there too, yes it can get really busy!
I think sometimes people push the boundaries of the rules because they're trying to get a good time in. Also, people racing with each other will give each other a lot less room than 2 people sailing leisurely, for example, so leisure sailors might find racing boats getting uncomfortably close. It doesn't change what the rules are though!
After seeing the port and starboard sticker, the red and green lights on boats now make a lot more sense as to why they’re on which side. 🤣 Something I’ve wondered for quite some time now, despite being familiar with right-of-way!
Great! Yes, green is for starboard and red for port. Navigation lights are situated accordingly, split into 3 segments, so you can see which way a boat is going. From the front you'll see red and green, from the side you see one colour so you know which side you're looking at, and from behind it should be a white light. Well, more or less anyway, the segments should be 120 degrees each around the boat. Think of a mercedes badge in terms of the 3 segments 👍
Thank you so much
Glad it helped!
6:50 who else pines for the days when you could shout, "mast abeam!" 😀
Ah, the 'old rules' 🤣
At least they don't change too much each time
LMAO at those guys in the intro.
I sail in close proximity to float planes, it's an exercise in trust when one decides to takeoff over me.
Wow, that'll add some extra excitement!!
Thanks
No worries, hope it helped! There are more videos about sailing skills on my channel, you can see a playlist of them here :)
th-cam.com/play/PL2VtZj-uQwyjfdNsbYbWWjKeJjnYGiUEW.html
Crystal clear as usual! - Are lasers designed to slide over the top of each other when they crash?
Thanks!
I believe that when the laser was first being designed to be a mass-market boat, one of the considerations was that it should be easily transportable, so the deck is pretty flat to be able to sit upside down on a roof rack. I'm not entirely sure whether that's 100% true though.
I guess it was helpful in this example where one boat can slide over the other, but it doesn't always happen like that!
@@philswatersports I have an original Laser brochure. Has smiling people sailing off the beach. I should dig it up. Basically Bruce Kirby took his latest international 14 hull shape and scaled it a bit and gave it a raked bow (because the vertical stem on 14 is just a rule induced attempt at maximum waterline length).
Ah, yes, and there were such a range of colours when they first came out too!
A simple way of remembering some of this, if seating or standing on a sailboat/board facing the middle of it, righ hand closest to the Bow has the right of way.
Yes, if you're on opposite tacks, as long as you still realise you might be give way boat from the windward/leeward boat rule :)
@@philswatersports yes right, sorry, in was seeing it from a windsurfers perspective hahaha
Come to the Caribbean, most haven’t heard of col regs, mind you, you are lucky if they know port from starboard. Big charter industry here.
Yes it's worrying isn't it, especially when a lot of charter companies now require 2 Day Skipper or equivalent as a minimum. I've also had Day Skippers come on my dinghy sailing courses to improve their sailing skills, and the gaps in knowledge are astounding. At least they were the ones making the effort though!
14:50 - Did you get a chance to include some information about cameras and mounting positions?
Hi,
Yes I've put a few ideas on my website, hope it helps:
www.philswatersports.com/filming
I think all you need to remember is "there is no PORT LEFT in the bottle
Yes, great thinking!
That is often the case in my house 🤣
Haha thanks. I’ll be using that one
It’s actually there is no Red Port Left… Or another way to remember it is Right + Starboard + green are over 5 letters and over. Left, Port, red are under 4 letters and under. All these sayings give the side of the boat, and colour of the nav lights.
Yes It's handy to get the colours in there too... And with red for port tack and green for starboard it also helps a bit like traffic lights with the rights of way for the port/starboard tack rule 👍⛵
@@zooknutfun fact: normally hot and cold taps, are laid out similarly..
Hot, left, red, port.
Cold, right, green starboard.
Hey Phil, could we get a bunch of those stickers on the Fusions at Scaling? I know I and an other noobs would benefit greatly from that.
Hi, yes I'm going to do all the club boats 👍🙂
I think 'Stand-on vessel' is not used for racing. It's right-of-way and has a totally different requirement compared to Stand-on as defined in the ColRegs.
Hi, yes, this is explained at 3:18
We need to be aware of both rule sets incase one of the boats is not racing
at 1:17 anyone know what that is that they are sailing like make model type thing lol
Hi, yeah it's a Hartley 15, made by Hartley boats in Derby, UK. It's a general purpose style plastic dinghy
PORT has 4 letters, LEFT has __ ______?
Yep that's an easy way to remember it 🙂
This is fine for dinghies and racing. Do not watch this and sail into a VTS. You're going to get quite the suprise otherwise.
Yes we'd really hope anyone navigating at sea would actually take some form of skippers course to learn everything properly! It amazes me how many don't understand these basics
Why is starboard the right side of the boat? Why does starboard tack have the right-of-way?
The 'starboard' side is derived from old longboats that had a steering oar or steering board on the right hand side of the boat, or the 'stoerbord' in old English. Because this was mounted on the starboard side, they would put the other side of the boat against the port, hence the 'port side'.
In terms of why the rules give the starboard tack boat the right of way over port tack, I don't know why it's that way round to be honest. Maybe there's a reason or maybe it was just 50:50. Or maybe, if the steering board was on the starboard side, and two boats are sailing upwind, the the helm of the port tack boat would be on the starboard side and have a better view of the starboard tack boat - the other helm would have their view more obscured by the sails. Dunno tbh!
Any thoughts from anyone who knows would be great!
@@philswatersports TY for answering! Actually, it was a retorical question that you are partly correct on. One thing that needs to be added is that the "stoerbord" would have been located on the right side of the vessel because most people are right handed.
My opinion on the starboard tack right-of way rule is that, on starboard tack the vessel is healed to port, that that causes the stoerboard on the right side to be raised which makes for less effective steering. On port tack, the steorboard would become deeper in the water and would be more effective. Since right-of-way rules have generally been based on relative manouverability, I think that this idea makes sense.
Capt. (ret.) Jeff
Yes, good thinking. I was thinking about manoeuvrability and I guess I didn't really think about the board being raised and lowered. You're probably right 👍
Biggest boat wins.......... its as simple as that.
🤣 let us know when you're arguing that in court so we can all watch
Stickers are a great idea! Seems childish... but hey... cant hurt to have simple reminders!
Thanks, yeah they can be useful to help people who are first learning, one less thing to think about when you're still trying to control the boat. And also they can be useful if you suddenly have a mental block in a busy situation!