Møte mellom større skip og fritidsbåter - en kapteins råd og tips

[Trond123]

Kom over dette i en diskusjon på cruisersforum.com:
Link: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f57/watch-out-for-big-ships-187092-8.html

 

Synes dette innlegget, skrevet av en som tydeligvis er dekksmannskap på et større skip, gir en grei oppsummering/ tips/ råd til oss fritidsbåter i møte med nyttetrafikken/ større skip: (Dette er post nr 114 i tråden jeg linker til)

Kort oppsummert: Vis intensjoner i god tid og følg COLREG.

 

"Ships do NOT routinely turn off class B AIS reception. In fact I have never yet seen this done. I am a merchant seaman btw and have sailed professionally since long before AIS was invented. Or ECDIS. Or ARPA. Or GPS. etc. Take it from me. It would ONLY be done in an extreme situation like with a hundred or more AIS contacts onscreen at relatively short range. We WANT to see you.

A ship is NOT going to deliberately chase and run down a yacht. What would be the point? Would "the hunt" be worth loss of license and life in prison? Get real.

AIS is indeed a wonderful tool. Even if you only get a receiver. However, the full transciever setup offers a LOT of advantages. Don't want to transmit your data? Why not? Okay, forget your reasons. Lets say you just do. Simply turn it off. But unless SERIOUSLY constrained by budget, I recommend going full class B.

On a ship's bridge, it is very easy to overlook a tiny (relatively speaking) sailboat amidst a huge expanse of ocean when you are 75 feet or more above sea level and you are concentrating on seeing ships 20 miles distant. Its just the way it is. Often even in good visibility, sailboats aren't easily spotted until they are within a few miles. It really helps if you do your part. A GOOD, EFFECTIVE, VERIFIED radar reflector as a minimum. The old fashioned corner reflector is hard to beat. Yeah, if you get careless they can tear a hole in your sail. Well, don't blame the reflector. Mount it where it doesn't come in contact with anything. A pole mount on a pushpit rail works okay. Even that low, it is still visible on radar from typically 5 or 6 miles. Add another, to double the fun. They are cheap, or easily fabricated. Most radar reflectors really don't work particularly well. It almost seems like the more it costs, the less it works. The humble corner reflector works well enough that swordfish boats use them on longline bouys. If Fishermen use something, something that has to be paid for and must contribute and not detract from the bottom line, then you better know it works.

Be aware of, and UNDERSTAND, the Rules. You CANNOT expect a ship confined by its size to navigating within a narrow channel to avoid you just because you are under sail. You cannot expect a ship to treat you like a sailing vessel when you are using your propellor no matter how many rags you are flying. Display the proper day shapes. It avoids confusion. Make sure your nav lights are working properly, and don't be shy about illuminating your decks with spreader lights or flashlight. It helps. We WANT to see you and identify you and avoid a collision.

Ships are NOT left with the bridge unmanned, just because there is an autopilot. It simply does not happen. Generally there is a minimum of two men on the bridge. Nobody wants a collision, trust me. Can you imagine the paperwork involved? Probably not. Not to mention the perfectly ordinary and normal concern for human life, and the universal law of the sea regarding harm or aid to other vessels. A lot of yachtsmen are under the very false assumption that we just don't care, and that is as far as you can get from the actual truth.

Changing course? Once again, make your move early on. Don't wait until you are a quarter mile from a ship with which you have risk of collision. It takes a bit of doing for that ship to change from one way of avoiding you to another.

Confusion is the enemy. The reason for the Rules to exist is to help take the guesswork and uncertainty out of collision avoidance. If you are the stand-on vessel and you depart from the rules, be sure that you are not confusing the ship's watch or creating uncertainty as to your intentions. The ship can ASSUME that you are following the Rules without any guesswork, and that is what he will do until you indicate otherwise through passing agreement or action. Once you start guessing, you are gambling.

The "Rule of Tonnage" is not a rule at all, merely a sensible courtesy. If you are the stand-on vessel and you are only 40 feet long, often it makes sense to give way to a 900 foot ship anyway. Easier for you to turn than for the ship. Your choice. But do call up on 16, preferably with the name of the ship, which your AIS will give you. In very crowded inshore waters, it is often safer and more practical to simply stay clear, period, and do so early and obviously, and not tie up the VHF when it is really busy. No matter what, make your move early and obviously. Remember that ship that is nearly a fifth of a mile long is easy for you to see, and you can easily determine when he is turning from many miles distant. Imagine if the ship was just another sailboat... would it be so obvious? That is the view that the ship has of you.

In mid ocean, you might be surprised at how many watchstanders are also sailboat owners, and are happy to chat for a bit on another channel. Especially US flagged ships. We are not the enemy. We just have a sometimes very tough job to do what with small boats waiting to the last minute to decide how to pass, and then changing their minds when they are under the ships bow and out of sight. If the ship changes course to avoid you and then you change course and make him change course again, and again, and again, pretty soon you are in what we call a "dance of death" or "Tango Del Muerto" situation. Be especially careful not to tempt a ship to turn to port to avoid you, or to turn to port to pass ahead a ship, without a very clear passing agreement.

You can lose your wind unexpectedly when passing to leeward of a ship, especially a car carrer or a loaded container ship. They have a lot of sail area. If you don't have your auxillary running you can find yourself helplessly in irons.

When two vessels collide, BOTH VESSELS have violated the rules. The only exception would be a faster vessel deliberately chasing and ramming a slower one that was trying desperately to get away. How often does that happen? Anyway, when collision cannot be avoided by the other guys actions alone, or he is obviously not taking appropriate action, and you do not do whatever you need to do to avoid collision, you are also at fault. Keep this in mind. Generally speaking, EITHER VESSEL COULD HAVE AVOIDED THE COLLISION, even with no cooperation from the other one.

The Rules is a lot more than "Show him red, then go ahead". Everyone who ventures out in waters where another vessel might be encoutered, should have an in depth knowledge of the Rules, not just the high points. Above all, remember that the Rules were written in such a way as to be practical in their application, and that there is a reason for all of them. The Rules even tell you what do to when you are in a situation where the Rules can't reasonably be followed! We are human and we make mistakes, but the better you understand the rules, the fewer will result in tragedy.

Well thats enough for me. Be safe out there and I will try to do the same, whether on my boat or on a ship. "

Redigert 4.Juli.2017 av Trond123 (see edit history)

[M/S AIOLOS]

Skaff en oversettelse så alle kan lese dette :-)

[Shore]

Man får essensen ved å bruke Google oversetter.

[littmild]

Greit oppsummert, kjenner meg igjen i mye av det han skriver og tror de fleste andre sjøfolk er enige. Spesielt dette med AIS, det er overraskende at ikke flere båter som koster flerfoldige hundre tusen ikke investerer i en transponder til 7-8 tusen, nytteverdien både for deg og for oss som skal se deg er ENORM. VHF har "de fleste" seilbåter ihvertfall, men nesten ingen bruker den, det er definitivt noe folk kan bli flinkere til, det er mennesker på broa på større båter også, som han nevner er mange av de også glade i å slå av en prat.

 

Og det viktigste, som tilogmed er helt gratis, kjenn sjøveisreglene, kjenn dem godt.

[Trond123]

Ja, greit å få høre synspunktene og hvordan ting oppleves fra broen på skipene.

Radar og AIS-transponder er beste investeringen jeg har gjort.