This quiz is just for fun. Despite any passing similarity between its name or logo and that of another well-known quiz, I can promise you that it won't make anyone a millionaire. The format is completely different, too!
It is based on a quiz that I prepared for the RYA for their Spring "Muster" at Cowes in April 2009.
In each round, there are a number (usually five) straightforward questions, and one that I have called "What happened first" in which you are invited to comment on the events leading up to a collision. The collisions are all recent and genuine, and none of them were fatal.
Round 1
1. What is the difference between “not under command” and “restricted in ability to manoeuvre”?
2. What is the difference between under way and making way?
3. How is the expression “right of way” defined in the official text of the collision regulations?
4. What is the definition of “an overtaking vessel”
5. If you break the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions At Sea, while in UK territorial waters, which court would hear the case?
6. The call of nature
It was just before midnight on a clear November night in the Baltic, when a cargo ship and a fishing vessel made their appointment with destiny. The container vessel was making about 18 knots, while the fishing vessel was stopped and drifting between hauls. The container vessel’s master sent his lookout to call the next watch and carry out fire safety rounds, then checked his radar before going to answer the call of nature. He left the toilet door open so that he could hear any VHF call from another vessel.
Fifteen minutes later, he emerged from the toilet in time to see the fishing vessel’s lights close by and on the starboard beam.
What was happening on the fishing vessel during those fifteen minutes?
Round 1 Answers
Round 2
1. You are in a boat fitted with an operational radar. Under what circumstances do the collision regulations allow you to not use it?
2. If the bearing of an approaching vessel is changing, does this mean that there is no risk of collision?
3. Identify four circumstances in which a sailing vessel is required to keep out of the way of an ordinary power driven vessel (not one that is claiming some special status such as a fishing vessel or a vessel not under command)
4. A cup of coffee
At about half past five on a September morning, a small general cargo ship was making about eight knots through the Dover Strait, when the officer of the watch got up from his chair to rinse his coffee cup. His movement prompted the lookout to glance behind, where he saw a larger vessel very close astern. Then the two vessels collided.
What was happening on the bulk carrier in the half hour or so before the collision?
Round 2 Answers
Round 3
1. What is AIS?
2. How long does it take our eyes to become fully adapted to the dark?
3. The steady bearing test is well known as a means of assessing the risk of collision. But which type of bearing is it talking about?
4. When do the colregs say you should switch your nav lights off?
5. One of the latest changes to the colregs deals with the introduction of WIG craft. What is a WIG craft?
6. A GPS-assisted collision
It was just before dawn, on a foggy summer night, and two ships were heading towards a bend in a traffic separation scheme, at which they were both intending to alter course about thirty degrees to starboard. One was about three and a half miles from the bend, making about 13 knots. The other was about five and a half miles from the bend, travelling at almost 18 knots. The officer of the watch on the leading ship reckoned that the faster vessel would overtake him soon after he altered course.
He wasn’t quite right. The waypoint alarm sounded at 0215, so he altered course as planned. The other ship didn’t hit him until 0223.
What happened on the overtaking vessel?
Round 3 Answers
Round 4
1. Which tack is this vessel on?
2.
What is the significance of this shape?
3. What day shape is this
vessel displaying, and where is it displaying it?
4.
What do these shapes mean? (just to the right of the funnel)
5.
What is this vessel doing?
And for two more bonus points, identify two ways in which she is infringing the collision regulations – assuming that she is drifting, rather than anchored.
6. Not so fast
With visibility down to 50 metres, a 277 metre container ship was heading down the English Channel at 25 knots. At the same time, a 14 metre yacht was heading north from the Channel Islands at 7 knots. Both vessels watchkeepers could see each other on radar at a range of about six miles, with the container ship’s sophisticated ARPA suggesting that the yacht would pass three quarters of a mile ahead of the ship.
Less than a quarter of an hour later, the two vessels collided, and the yacht sank.
What turned a near miss into a collision? And, for a bonus, what piece of equipment failed after the yacht sank?
Round 4 Answers
Round 5
1. You are the skipper of a 10m power driven vessel, in open water. Ten minutes ago, you noticed a large ship about ten miles away on your port bow. It is now on the same bearing, but the range has reduced to about six miles. At what stage to the collision regulations allow you to give way?
2. You are the skipper of a 21metre vessel, in open water, and you have identified a potential collision risk with what appears to be a small coaster. It is now about three miles away on your port bow. How should you contact him by radio?
3. In a narrow channel which of the following should you do?
a. Move to the right hand side when you see another vessel approaching
b. Keep as close to the right hand side as you possibly can
c. Keep to the right hand side of the centreline
d. Give way to all commercial traffic
4. You are the skipper of a 16 metre sailing yacht, crossing a traffic lane of a traffic separation scheme. In front of you is a fishing vessel, apparently stationary. Approaching from your port side (i.e. following the traffic separation scheme) are a large container ship and a small motor cruiser. Which of the three vessels should you keep out of the way of?
5. Your tender is a 3.4 metre rigid inflatable with a 15hp outboard motor good for about twenty knots. What lights should you show when pootling quietly down river after an evening ashore?
6. Knowing Left from Right
One very foggy day, with visibility down to less than two hundred metres, two large, modern container ships were heading directly towards each other, both doing almost twenty knots. Both ships had radar, ARPA, and AIS, and both captains were on their bridges, along with their officers of the watch. They both knew that the other was there. One of them altered course fifty degrees to port: the other altered course fifty degrees to starboard.
Why?
Round 5 Answers