The following is from the COLREGS EXPLAINED website.

Rule 5 Look out.

Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight
and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the
prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full
appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.

****************************************

This rule has as consequence that all solo sailing for long trips is
against the COLREGS as there is no look-out when the skipper is
sleeping. Apparently the risk is tolerated, but it remains that most
authorities insist on a proper look-out, and check it was effectively
carried out after an incident. In spite of this the look-out duties
are more and more neglected on many ships. On large commercial
vessels the officer of the watch (OOW) is often busy with
administrative duties, and no extra look-out is posted by day
light. On other ships, such as the fishing boats, other works are
preventing any decent look-out.

An hearing look-out is seldom carried out on large ships where
unfortunately the bridge doors are kept closed with the eventual
look-out remaining inside.

'All available means' mainly designates a look-out, to which also
a poor attention is often paid on large vessels, some OOW trusting
excessively the 'guard rings' features of the radar. Keeping this
is mind is quite important for small crafts which can wrongly assume
that they are easily detected by the navigating on larger vessels.
The largest commercial vessels can have a total crew complement of
only 18 persons or less, on coasters they can be as few as 4 on board,
each of them with a lot of duties, which include a paperwork increasing
every year but also the GMDSS Radio communication equipment.

Modern wheelhouses are now fitted with one or several computers which
are inviting the OOW to keep himself busy with some typing work when
he assumes that an occasional look outside and on the radar PPI will be
enough to detect the eventual other crafts. This, added to the other
detection problems, can make that the OOW is totally unaware of the
presence of some small yachts on a collision course with his vessel.

This summary is written by
By Captain P. WOININ
Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions
at Sea, 1972 : Summary and comments mainly oriented to recreational sailing.

save your breath, neal. neither one of those clowns has the mental candlepower
of a rhino on ice.

Subject: Educating Jeff Morris, otn, and Master Shen44
From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Capt._Neal=AE?=
Date: 2/8/2005 7:14 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Message-id:

The following is from the COLREGS EXPLAINED website.

Rule 5 Look out.

Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight
and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the
prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full
appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.

****************************************

This rule has as consequence that all solo sailing for long trips is
against the COLREGS as there is no look-out when the skipper is
sleeping. Apparently the risk is tolerated, but it remains that most
authorities insist on a proper look-out, and check it was effectively
carried out after an incident. In spite of this the look-out duties
are more and more neglected on many ships. On large commercial
vessels the officer of the watch (OOW) is often busy with
administrative duties, and no extra look-out is posted by day
light. On other ships, such as the fishing boats, other works are
preventing any decent look-out.

An hearing look-out is seldom carried out on large ships where
unfortunately the bridge doors are kept closed with the eventual
look-out remaining inside.

'All available means' mainly designates a look-out, to which also
a poor attention is often paid on large vessels, some OOW trusting
excessively the 'guard rings' features of the radar. Keeping this
is mind is quite important for small crafts which can wrongly assume
that they are easily detected by the navigating on larger vessels.
The largest commercial vessels can have a total crew complement of
only 18 persons or less, on coasters they can be as few as 4 on board,
each of them with a lot of duties, which include a paperwork increasing
every year but also the GMDSS Radio communication equipment.

Modern wheelhouses are now fitted with one or several computers which
are inviting the OOW to keep himself busy with some typing work when
he assumes that an occasional look outside and on the radar PPI will be
enough to detect the eventual other crafts. This, added to the other
detection problems, can make that the OOW is totally unaware of the
presence of some small yachts on a collision course with his vessel.

This summary is written by
By Captain P. WOININ
Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions
at Sea, 1972 : Summary and comments mainly oriented to recreational sailing.

JAXAshby wrote:
neither one of those clowns has the mental candlepower of a rhino
on ice.

However, you have...


--
Wally
www.artbywally.com
www.wally.myby.co.uk

compared to either of them (or you, squathead), 10^2000000000000 candlepower.

From: "Wally"
Date: 2/8/2005 8:39 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Message-id:

JAXAshby wrote:
neither one of those clowns has the mental candlepower of a rhino
on ice.

However, you have...


--
Wally
www.artbywally.com
www.wally.myby.co.uk

Subject: Educating Jeff Morris, otn, and Master Shen44
From: (JAXAshby)
Date: 2/8/2005 5:11 P.M. Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

save your breath, neal. neither one of those clowns has the mental
candlepower
of a rhino on ice.


G Actually, there are 3 clowns mentioned, Jax, and your poor assessment
aside, I'd hazard a guess that all three of us have long ago forgotten more
about the subject of the discussion than you've ever learned.
Seems I'm constantly saying that to you. Oh well, not much longer, as AOL will
be dead and I'll probably need to find a new name to use these NG's.

Shen

Shen44 wrote:
Oh well, not much longer, as AOL will
be dead and I'll probably need to find a new name to use these NG's.



I'm glad to hear you're planning on staying - you can still be shen if
you want. For a few bucks a year you can even get shen44.com

Can you convince otn to also dump aol and get a proper isp?

Subject: Educating Jeff Morris, otn, and Master Shen44
From: Jeff Morris
Date: 2/8/2005 7:15 P.M. Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

Shen44 wrote:
Oh well, not much longer, as AOL will
be dead and I'll probably need to find a new name to use these NG's.



I'm glad to hear you're planning on staying - you can still be shen if
you want. For a few bucks a year you can even get shen44.com

Can you convince otn to also dump aol and get a proper isp?


I'm presently looking at other options (DSL and cable not available ..... yet).
To the best of my knowledge, otn hasn't used AOL in years.

Shen

You'll note, that to date, I have not disagreed with you're basic premise
regarding Rule 5.
IMO, however, if there is a collision, odds are that the courts will find that
someone didn't maintain a proper lookout, but, if there is NO collision, who
can say that a proper lookout WASN'T maintained?
Rule 5 is an "after the fact" gotcha!
I.e., it's telling you a basic premise for how you should conduct yourself and
that there will be consequences if you have a collision ...... don't have a
collision, and.... who's to know?

I've followed Capt Woinin's (sp?) comments for a number of years.
Most of what he writes is quite accurate, though he obviously has an agenda, so
you need to know he's apt to push the boundaries of his arguments in one
direction.

Shen