PART I

PART I - Safety tips for soloists who cannot maintain a proper 24-hr a day watch as required by the rules. The primary point is you want to maximize your visibility so Merchant Shipping and other vessel has a greater chance of detecting you in all kinds of visibility conditions so they can take evasive action if necessary.

1. Use the Red over Green lighting scheme as allowed by the rules (The more lights you have, the easier it is to identify you). Seeing a solitary light may be a little confusing, since one cannot tell the exact direction you are traveling just from a visual sighting, also some all-round 3-sector lights can sometime be obscured by the mast and/or sail.

2. Make sure that your lights are bright and exceed the minimum requirements as imposed by the rules. I have seen way too many sail boats with dim (seen only from a couple hundred feet) or no navigation lights on. (I know it is a drain on batteries, but is your life worth it?) This will enhance the probability of being spotted at night in clear weather at longer distances even in heavy seas at night.

3. Use a large radar reflector that is properly rigged (not the small foil covered cardboard gimmicks) or several smaller reflectors. This will enhance when merchants can see you (with the radar) in restricted or reduced visibility situations. Wood and fiberglass are poor radar reflecting materials, and the tear-drop shape of the aluminum mast will scatter most of the radar energy rather than reflect it.

Note: A radar reflector is designed to reflect radar energy directly back at the source using precise angles of a radar reflecting material. Cardboard is subject to warping and may not reflect directly back after it has been exposed to the weather. Another gimmick is the radar reflective flag, sewn with metal fibers which will only work when fully extended and at a right angle to the radar source which almost never occurs. Whereas these gimmicks do not hurt your radar signature, in most situations they don't help that much in comparison to a good solid sheet metal radar reflector.

If you loose your radar reflector (or cannot afford one) a good substitute are coffee cans (or other large tin-cans) sliced in half vertically and placed back to back (concave surface facing out). The more cans the better. This works remarkably well as I have observed in poorer countries where small wooden fishing boats use them on top of broom sticks as they cannot afford the pre-constructed radar reflectors. In fact I think they even work better than most other reflectors available.

4. During the daytime, use a colored sail other than white (with numerous white caps from medium to high wind you will blend in with the background with a white hull and/or sail and be very difficult to see), gray, or blue (color of clouds or sea). Ideally use red, orange, or something that contrasts highly with your surroundings. You also may want to do the same to the color of your boat as well.

5. If you are equipped with radar, use its advanced features such as auto target acquire, and collision avoidance, set the alarms loud enough to notify you when a vessel is going to be coming close to you. I recommend 24 minutes and two mile CPA for the alarm settings. Quite a few of the newer radar’s have these features, learn how to use them correctly. Although it is not nearly as good as a proper lookout, but it is better than not maintaining any lookout at all. Especially for soloists who must sleep at some time during their ocean crossing.

6. Even though this is not authorized by the Rules of the Road.... I have seen it done quite often in the Med. When there is no lookout on a vessel, the vessel is showing "Not Under Command" lights and they hope that someone sees them and changes course to avoid them.