Foggy behaviour

[stevepick]

On the 18th july we left Craobh, and headed up through Cuan and into the Firth of Lorne. From the north end of Cuan to Duart point the visibility was around 200m at best. We started a radar watch, and making sound signals, and felt our way north. Over a dozen contacts were made on our radar, none making sound signals, this included motor and sailing boats and sea angling boats. The only 3 other vessels making sound signals were the 2 Calmac ferries running Oban to Craignure, and one coaster. We saw vessels with no radar sets who were not making a sound signal.
Why weren't people doing what the IRPCS suggest? Is there some fear of making yourself heard in this situation? What does the panel think?

[BlowingOldBoots]

I would bet that most small yachts don’t have a horn.

[BlowingOldBoots]

The Collision Regulation apply to all vessels, with no length differential except in the application of certain regulations and on the equipment that must be available. Vessels less that 12 m do not have to have a "whistle", "bell", or "gong". There are definitions for the frequency that whistles shall transmit at and at less than 20m in length need to be capable of being heard at 0.5 nautical miles. Less than 12m a vessel is recommend to carry the sound signals but only needs to have something to make a suitable sound e.g. a frying pan and winch handle.

People are casual when it comes to risk, in general we don't believe that we will suffer the consequences of a collision especially if visibility is around 200m.

[stevepick]

The risk point is the one that gets me BoB. We were making between 4 and 5 knts most other contacts appeared to de doing similar ie they had slowed down, the ferries were moving around 10 knts which is less than half their usual speed. At a closing speed of 10knts the reaction time at 200m is around 35 seconds. That is if you and the other "blind" boat are looking at each other at the point they become visible to each other.

Maybe using radar makes me more paranoid in this situation. I can see lots of boats on the screen, some are coming up as "targets of concern" due to the expected closeness of the passing. There were several contacts that would have been extremely close to us, a few 10s of metres, if we had not taken action. There were far more boats about this year. So risks were increased, it did seem a bit ostrich like to putter along "on the quiet" hoping not heard meant not being seen.

[claymore]

I think the wider use of chart plotters, gps, ship finder technology and all the other stuff has led to a more relaxed attitude.
There may be a tendency to think that the precautions we used to use (and still do!) such as going slow and blowing the horn belong to bygone ages along with semaphore, barrels of burning tar and flying the ensign upside down.
Press on regardless - the screen will tell us if we have a problem!