On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 18:12:41 GMT, Gary wrote:

Bil wrote:
On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 08:50:35 GMT, "Dennis Pogson"
wrote:


richard wrote:

as others have said
it is red on right when returning
your green river bouy may be a bit more challanging if the river is
open at both ends or if it is so long that you don't know which way is
returning. keep in mind that the bouy numbers go up when returning.
One of the best things to do is to get charts and see what the red and
green bouys are keeping you away from. then you begin to understand
what they mean
hope this helps

In Europe the direction of bouyage is the same direction as the flood tide,
and when entering a harbour or river mouth the bouyage is red-to-red and
green-to-green. Time the shipping world got together on this and agreed a
worldwide system.



But IALA A and IALA B are the result of the world getting together and
agreeing!

I undertand that IALA B, now used only by the US, its territories, and
its client states in Asia, was the original proposal. But the
Europeans were slow to understand the import of a unified marker
system. So they failed to support it. And then came IALA A and the
current mess.
If IALA B came first it would be IALA A! The europeans had buoyage
systems in place when they discovered the Americas.

Gaz

How old are you, Gaz? Older or younger than 35?

Buoyage was in a mess, in terms of the lack of existence of a 'system'
or 'systems' until the 1970s. Cynics would argue it's still in a mess,
just that the mess has superficial order imposed on it.

IALA, then the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities
(they've since renamed themselves, see http://www.iala-aism.org),
started agitating for a single world system in about 1965. Nothing
happened.

A shipping accident off France in 1971, associated with
misunderstanding of European buoyage 'systems' (or lack thereof),
stimulated the final push that come up with two systems of lateral
markers - the two systems, you guessed it, differed in how they used
red and green markers.

The first system (now called B) seemed close to acceptance until the
final vote. Then the system now called A was put to the vote. The
'wise' men couldn't agree, so we now have System A and System B.

The A and B monikers are there because those pushing for green to
starboard when heading for a major port had their proposal in 'final'
form first (but that was a couple of years after the debacle of the
voting rounds, proving yet again that we cannot just all get along).
AFAIK, System B was only in 'final' form in 1980 or thereabouts.

Cheers