Score two points per correct answer, with several bonuses available in question 5
1. Starboard: the wind is blowing over her starboard side.
2. It’s a motor sailing cone, indicating that the boat is proceeding under sail when also being propelled by machinery
3. A black cylinder, (signifying that she is constrained by her draft, hanging alongside the mast on the port side
4. She is
restricted in her ability to manoeuvre. But
in this photo you can see another small clue that she might not
be keen to dodge a thirty footer that happens to get in the way...5. It’s involved in diving operations.
For two bonus points, the orange flag has no significance whatsoever, except in some American states. Unfortunately, a lot of divers think it means “I have a diver down”
And for one bonus point each, the two ways in which she is infringing the collision regulations are (assuming that she is drifting, rather than anchored):-
- the blue and white code flag A is supposed to be a rigid replica, not a floppy flag.
- unless the vessel is too small to display day shapes – which this one isn’t – she is supposed to show the ball diamond ball shapes to indicate that she is restricted in her ability to manoeuvre.
6. Not so fast
This is probably one of the most famous ship/yacht collisions of recent years, and would almost certainly have been a near miss if the yacht had not reduced speed, then stopped, right in the path of the approaching ship.
Five points for anything along the lines of “the yacht stopped”
Two bonus points for knowing (or guessing) that the yacht crew took to the liferaft, and triggered their EPIRB – which didn’t work. They were rescued nearly six hours later, when a passing ferry saw one of their distress flares.
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