| Author | Message | ||
     David Sheriff Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 325 Registered: 01-2004 |
What you get out of this class depends on what you bring into it and how diligently you work during the class. If this is your first encounter with maritime rules of the road you will be at a disadvantage. If you have never been on a boat it is unlikely you will be motivated to take this course. If you are a licensed master with years of experience you will probably take more away from the course than if you are new to boating. The course is designed to be comprehensive, we will cover everything at some level. You can make up for previous experience with diligence. You can take the course with the plan of repeating it until you get it. In this case, you are advised to take it on a "no grade" basis. In summary, previous experience helps, and you can take the course profitably with very little experience and a lot of effort. This class meets only once a week. If you miss several classes in a row, it is doubtful that you will be able to catch up if you are taking the course for the first time. If you don't pay attention in class or you don't study the assigned reading, you're unlikely to absorb anything significant. This course was given for the first time in the fall of 2008. Everyone who was still present at the final exam did well. This is a college-level course, so you should expect to spend at least as much time studying between classes at you spend each week in class. Class time is divided between lecture and laboratory in approximately a one to three ratio. On any given night, lecture or lab can predominate. The sessions we spend on the water are almost entirely laboratory. I will attempt to space out homework assignments so they do not bunch up around sessions that are primarily lecture. The sessions on the water are where it all comes together. No simulator within our budget can even approach the experience of being on the water in the dark navigating by your instruments. Your student materials fee pays for boat time. I'm sorry if it's a burden, but it is necessary. Being in a boat on the water is never free. Someone is paying for it. | ||
| David Sheriff Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 324 Registered: 01-2004 |
Every skipper is tasked by international rules of the road to maintain "situational awareness." When "accidents" occur, inevitably situational awareness has been lost by those in charge of controlling the path of a vessel. Situational awareness involves continuously paying attention to every sensory input regarding your vessel and anything else that could present a problem in the mid- to near-term. From that sensory input, situational awareness means developing and maintaining a consistent mental picture of how your vessel is performing and how it relates to everything in its immediate environment. If you are situationally aware, you are highly likely to spot potential collisions while there is time to take action to head off the collision. Every vessel is on a collision bearing from time to time while underway. Vessels rarely collide because their skippers become aware of the possibility of collation and take appropriate action to avoid it. In the late 20th century, commercial airliners principally relied upon ground controllers to guide them on safe courses. The aircraft's internal radar and navigation systems were not sufficient to prevent collisions with other aircraft at the speeds involved. Vessels have always been on their own. Vessels are responsible for their own navigation and for detecting potential collisions far enough in advance to do something about them. Rules for interactions between vessels have developed over millennia. These rules are now codified by international treaty into a standard set of Rules of the Road. Every vessel is legally obligated to understand and abide by the Rules of the Road. A body of maritime law stretching back hundreds of years underlies the interpretation of the Rules of the Road. The underlying principle embodied in the Rules of the Road is that you have no right to collide with another vessel. In spite of anything else the rules have to say about who has right-of-way in a given situation, in the final analysis every vessel bears responsibility for avoiding collisions. If you collide with another vessel, you will be assessed part of the fault. If you collide, it is legally assumed you were not sufficiently aware of the situation around you and/or did not take evasive action in time to avoid the collision. Failure to take evasive action when you understand a hazard is rare. It is almost as rare as failing to regain your balance when you stumble. What leads to most collisions is the failure to "maintain a sharp lookout" in the words of the rules. As a skipper, two variables are under your control: the speed of your vessel and the direction in which it is heading. If you cannot detect potential collision hazards in time to prevent them, your speed is too high. Situational awareness regarding driving an automobile at night includes maintaining a speed such that you can swerve or stop within the distance illuminated by your headlights. If you are stuck in Tule fog, get as far off the road as you can and stop. The Rules of the Road mandate that vessels take standard measures to show lights at night which permit other vessels to determine their relative direction of travel and any special status that may give them right-of-way priority. in conditions of reduced visibility, vessels are mandated to produce certain sounds that can be heard by others far enough away to be aware of the vessel's presence. Electronic devices can compensate somewhat for a human's inability to visually or audibly detect another vessel at night or in bad weather. They can also advertise a vessel's presence independently of your ability to see her lights or hear her signals. In this course you will learn about electronic devices that effectively augment your sight and hearing as well as those which advertise your position. You will get hands-on experience with equipment that requires practice to use well. Within the constraints of a one semester class, you will learn how these devices function. Without personal knowledge and experience, most electronic navigational devices aboard a vessel are useless or worse. Finally, the experience you can get in a class is only the beginning of the process to competence. You must practice. There is no substitute for time on the water honing your skills. | ||
| David Sheriff Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 323 Registered: 01-2004 |
Strictly speaking, navigation and collision avoidance are different subjects. You will find very little mention of collision avoidance in traditional texts on navigation. The collision avoidance rules only mention devices used for navigation peripherally, as in don't rely on scanty radar data. For the small boat sailor as well as the master of a supertanker, the two subjects are intimately related. The electronic navigation devices aboard are designed to help you guide yourself from one point to another without running aground. Several of them are also designed to help you to avoid collisions with other vessels and objects. Therefore this class will treat both subjects, electronic aids as they apply to navigation and to collision avoidance. We will treat these subjects principally as they apply to small vessels because the MST program is optimized to produce good small boat skippers not merchant seamen. Radar is the best example of a device important for both navigation and collision avoidance. Although your chart plotter and GPS purport to tell you the location of fixed objects in your vicinity, if radar tells you one thing and the chart tells you another, a prudent sailor will assume the chart is probably wrong. This leads to a very important principle in navigation. The prudent mariner relies on as many different sources of information to determine a safe course as possible. Two GPS receivers are better than one. One GPS receiver may have a better view of the sky than another. A GPS receiver and a loran receiver, which determine position by completely different technology, are even better. A paper chart and an electronic chart may or may not show the same information. One may be easier to interpret than the other. Using more than one method to determine your position and your spatial relation to the world around you is always a good idea. Causing a vessel to sink, whether by acts of commission or acts of omission, is almost the worst thing a skipper can do. Fire and collision are two more terrible actions. Only circumstances determine which infraction is the worst. Sinking and fire can take place while tied up at the dock. This course will give you tools to avoid collision, which is the one of these three perils that occurs only when you are under way. |
