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Old 06-21-2017, 08:27 AM   #39
Rich
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V-ger,

I only used the WM page as an easy diagram, of course our laws control things.

I thought that I remembered this from my boating certificate course, there was a question, something to the effect of: "If at night you are comeupon two white lights in front of you, what should you do", if I remember correctly the answer was something in the line of "two white lights mean a sailboat under sail power, yield ROW".

But I could and probably am wrong here, I also have a tendency to remember old rules I learned as a kid on salt water. As an example, at the boating course I attended to earn my NH NASBLA boating certificate, I ended up in a discussion with the instructor over the fact that on the ocean, the 'cans' used to be black in color in the past. He stated that "no, they were always green".

To clarify, and 'end the discussion' I ended up calling a family member who was on the coast guard. He confirmed that years ago the CG had to pull all the black cans and paint them green as the regulations had changed, he was stationed out of Newburyport and was one of the crew at the time that had to repaint all the cans in the area. So my memory was correct (that one time), and I guess my boating experience pre-dated the instructor of the class, even though he seemed to have more grey hairs at the time than I did.

Thanks for the clarification, I'll do some more homework. I always thought a sailboat under power required two stern facing white lights.

Checking this link on the NH boat-ed website, it doesn't mention two stern lights:
https://www.boat-ed.com/newhampshire...102_700153762/

Perhaps I'm a bit confused (it wouldn't be the first time) as here it defines a Masthead Light as not being used by a vessel under sail:
https://www.boat-ed.com/newhampshire...102_700153618/

Quote:
Masthead Light: This white light shines forward and to both sides and is required on all power-driven vessels. (On power-driven vessels less than 39.4 feet in length, the masthead light and sternlight may be combined into an all-round white light; power-driven vessels 39.4 feet in length or longer must have a separate masthead light.) A masthead light must be displayed by all vessels when under engine power. The absence of this light indicates a sailing vessel because sailboats under sail display only sidelights and a sternlight.
So my memory of the question on the exam was probably a bit off (seems that I had it backwards! My dyslexia in action!), in that a boat under sail you will only see red/green sidelights, and no white light above it. This would indicate a vessel under sail power, as a boat under power would always show a white light above the side-lights, no?

I'm not saying this is the 'law', but here's a good reference of what nav lights look like at night:
http://www.bosunsmate.org/seamanship/lights.php

I'm sure glad I'm not a commercial operator so I don't need to try to remember all of the combinations of lights on that page!

as an example, Vessel under sail from forward:


Vessel under power from forward:


My apologies for getting this backwards and causing any confusion.

Again, sorry to get off topic for this thread.
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Last edited by Rich; 06-21-2017 at 09:20 AM.
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