There are many ways to avoid collisions

Ahoy.

“Nearly 20% of all boating accidents in California occur during

the three summer holiday weekends of Memorial Day, Fourth of July and

Labor Day,” according to a report from California’s Department of

Boating and Waterways. The top accidents are vessel collisions that

are attributed to inexperienced or inattentive operators.

How true about the operators. Just take a boat cruise around

Newport Harbor on any summer weekend, and you will see vessels

barging against the flow of traffic and those under sail thinking

that they always have the right of way. Terms such as COLREGS (i.e.,

Rule 9), end-on, crossing, sea room, overtaking, CPA and maintaining

course and speed are unfamiliar to many skippers.

Venture outside the harbor into the ocean, and you have to wonder

if the approaching vessel has someone standing watch. I will bet that

more than 90% of the time, a boat hits the beach because the skipper

left the helm while the boat was on autopilot. Modern electronics

have made boating easier and safer, but I do see many toys such as a

$12,000 color touch-screen global positioning system, or GPS,

installed on a boat that goes only between Newport and Avalon.

“Of all the electronics you can purchase for your boat, there’s

one that’s not a toy!” said Wayne Spivak of the National Press Corps,

National Marketing and Public Affairs Department, and United States

Coast Guard Auxiliary.

“Sure, a GPS integrated into a chart plotter makes your life

easier. You just need to remember to occasionally [like every hour]

plot your position on a paper chart,” Spivak said. “The one

electronic tool that changes your legal standing [from a liability

standpoint], when installed, is radar.”

I have mentioned in previous columns that skippers need to use

every means available to avoid a collision and, yes, that does mean

using your radar, even in Newport Harbor with its 9,000 boats. All

vessels more than 12 meters or 39.4 feet long are required to have on

board a copy of the Navigation Rules, International-Inland, known as

Nav Rules or COLREGS.

Open your book to Rule 7, titled “Risk of Collision,” and read

Section B: Proper use shall be made of radar equipment if fitted and

operational, including long-range scanning to obtain early warning of

risk of collision and radar plotting or equivalent systematic

observation of detected objects.

Wayne writes in simpler terms, “If you have a radar unit aboard,

it needs to be operational. If the radar is operational, then the

radar needs to be on and scanning while the vessel is underway

[including during daylight hours].”

This rule is what changes the radar from a toy to a tool, since

there is no legal requirement to turn on your GPS. I highly recommend

that boaters take the time to learn how to use their radar. You can

practice with the radar on targets during daylight before you need to

depend on your radar skills at night or in the fog.

Also keep in mind that the radar’s image is accurate in comparison

to your GPS’s chart plotter. Chart images are basically scanned-in

charts that have known inaccuracies, so if in doubt, trust the radar.

I depend on radar constantly to enter harbors at night or in the fog

while using the GPS for reference of entrance layouts and buoy

placements.

Boaters can read Wayne complete the radar article online at

www.freeportflotilla1306.org /press/radar.html.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Recreational Boaters of California opposes Assembly Bill 694.

Amended AB 694 (Lloyd Levine, Monday) includes, once again, the

vessel use tax. Currently, the law exempts a vessel that’s out of the

state for 90 days, but that will be changed to six months. Meanwhile,

if the boat is registered to a California resident, the vessel use

tax applies automatically.

Who is thinking up these laws? Do they remember the devastation to

the marine industry from the luxury tax? So let’s double the time

vessels stay in Mexico, which is good for their economy and bad for

our local marine businesses. Take a look around town: How many RVs

and cars do you see with registration tags from Arizona? As I have

mentioned in many previous columns, to buy a $1-million yacht, you

will pay almost $100,000 in combined taxes the first year alone. Time

now to contact your state representative before we tax all our yacht

sales out of state.

Safe voyages.

* MIKE WHITEHEAD is the Pilot’s boating and harbor columnist. Send

him your harbor and marine-related thoughts and story suggestions by

e-mail to [email protected] or visit BoathouseTV.com.