Be Safe! Be Seen!
November 7, 2007
by Michel & Jane DeRidder

A friend with countless sea miles under his keel tells of being woken by his novice crew to tell him a ship was bearing down on them. Sure enough, the stuff of nightmares, a red and a green light, and two whites in vertical line. John grabbed the microphone. "SHIP, SHIP heading south. Do you see the vessel directly ahead of you?" An abrupt change of course by both vessels. Collision averted. He spoke afterward to the bridge watch. No, they had not spotted his yacht on their radar nor had they noticed his lights.

We began our ocean cruising in the 1960s, in less dangerous times, when the seas were far less littered with traffic, both commercial and cruising, before gargantuan container ships with vision obscured by high-heaped deck cargo were rampaging between ports. Our bright white light at the masthead we kept on all night long. When we spotted the light of another vessel, a rarity, we turned on our running lights, changed course if we thought it wise, or perhaps even went a little closer to investigate. When clear of shipping lanes, we both slept, with wind vane steering and the masthead light sending out its all-round glow. We have crossed oceans without seeing one other ship. (Perhaps because we were asleep?) Also we tended to keep to less traveled routes and regions. Our philosophy? When we chose this way of life, we became responsible for our own safety. It was up to us to keep out of harm's way.

As the years went by, shipping increased and many cruising boats joined the fun. We changed our ways. We stood watch. The watch keeper slept in the cockpit with a timer to wake him at regular intervals. The main danger came from fishing boats. The squid boats were brightly lit with dozens of bare, bright lights so were easy to avoid. Besides they were usually stationary, or nearly so. We always put on our running lights as we passed by, even though they would have been blinded by their own brilliance, therefore unlikely to see our comparatively all too dim lights.

Nowadays, many yachts have gone to tri-color running lights at the masthead, super bright and easy to spot from a distance, the problem being that apparently it is difficult to gauge distance off. We still have the old-fashioned kind, with port and starboard lights, one on each side of the pulpit about six feet above the water.

We have several times turned on the spreader lights and shone strong lights on our sails to signal our presence when we felt threatened, or simply to identify ourselves as a sailing vessel. We carry a powerful sealed beam light in the cockpit that we use for this purpose.

For longevity and ease of maintenance, our sails are white and our hull and deck are white, so we are perhaps more difficult to spot than is a red or orange hulled vessel or a dark colored one, or a boat with rust or tan sails. However, we have noticed that in certain weather conditions, colored sails show up better than white ones do, so ideally I suppose we would have one bright colored sail and one white one. Colored sails are more beautiful and easier on the eyes, but more costly to maintain because of susceptibility to sun damage. A friend just arrived back in NZ after an absence of many years. During his year long voyage, his new sails rotted through, whether because of sail color or gaff rig chafe or possibly both, or just a lousy suit of sails we do not know. He very nearly did not make it because of persistent strong head winds for the last long leg from Tahiti. Using an awning for a sail and eating fish for survival he finally arrived by powering the final miles in the proverbial calm ahead of yet another strong southerly front.

We carry with us a large rescue orange tarpaulin that could be a lifesaver if - God forbid - we should ever have to be searched for from the air or by sea. We also have a red sail for our dinghy-cum-lifeboat whose seats and floor are painted red. We realize now that to be still more easily seen we should have painted the whole interior of the boat red or orange and covered the flotation panels with orange rather than white fabric. The hull of the boat could also be rescue orange. There is nothing more difficult to spot than a white boat on a rough sea.

Audible signals can supplement attention-seeking lights and colors. Even a foghorn, one of which we keep in the cockpit, can and has come in handy in a pinch. We cruise with VHF Channel 16 on, both to hear should anyone call us and to call to inform an approaching vessel of our presence, position and course.

Should we continue offshore voyaging we would choose to have radar now that they are small, affordable and have lower current drain. We have never had radar, though we have never been without a radar reflector - up as high as we can get it, even though we realize that all too often we may be tuned out as 'sea clutter' or lost in a rain squall, so its protection cannot be depended upon. In thick fog and heavy seas we had a near collision with a large freighter that passed so close to us we had to look up to read its name. They were as shocked as we were. They scolded us from the bridge for not having a radar reflector and were surprised to learn that we did indeed have one. We were simply tuned out by the radar operator and relegated to 'sea clutter' among waves higher than our hull. Had our hull been steel, alu or ferro we might have bounced back a better radar return.

The worst of collisions involving a yacht that we know of occurred in blinding rain, heavy seas and next to zero visibility off the coast of New Zealand a few years back. The yacht approaching the coast, reported their expected arrival in Opua at around 8 o'clock the following morning. However, they were run down during the night by an outgoing freighter that had obviously felt the thump because it paused and turned around, but continued on its way without notifying anyone. All but one member of the small family made it into the dinghy as the boat went down, bow first with a young lad trapped in the forward cabin. The father and the second child were swept from the dinghy by monster seas. The mother, fortuitously found on a beach near the entrance to the Bay of Islands, was the only survivor. The hit and run vessel was traced because of shipping records, and positively identified at its next port by the yacht's paint on its bow.

Whatever we do to render ourselves easily seen will not keep us safe from accidents in appalling conditions. A huge component of luck enters into it. That we have had in abundance.

Do not depend on being seen by the watch on the bridge of a large vessel. You MUST show up on their radar screen. "Radar is God nowadays." This comment came from an experienced cruiser who for several months each year serves as Chief Mate on a large commercial vessel to supplement the cruising kitty. He is therefore aware of the problems and viewpoints of collision avoidance from both sides of the increasingly busy shipping/cruising scene.

He told us of a young third mate coming to relieve him, going straight to the radar without once looking around from the bridge. This is apparently the way they are trained. Ships are usually short-handed and the work load enormous, work that must be dealt with during the watch period. Calling on Channel 16 VHF may do no good as some crew members may be unable to speak any English.

"What do you do on your own yacht to make yourself seen on radar?" we asked him.

"We have a radar reflector right up at the masthead, one of the old fashioned kind, " he said. We discovered it to be the same as the one we have on our own masthead, one of those many-faceted aluminum jobs, light weight for it size, made from alu sheets slotted together to effectively form an airy orb. He is convinced that this design with its all round reflective surfaces gives better radar returns than do the new-fangled smooth cylinders. Though ours on Magic Dragon is higher because of a taller mast, theirs is larger. We might be smart to find a bigger one ourselves.

Today many merchant ships automatically broadcast full-time their names, position, course, speed, destination and other pertinent information. Vessels equipped with Automated Identification System receivers are able to see this info on screen displays. (We noticed recently that some laptops now have built-in AIS capability.) I hate to think it but some day in the future we may all have to have compulsory two-way AIS for cruising yachts.