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Why the Navigation Rules Exist
💡 COLREGS are a shared rulebook that makes vessels predictable, and its foundation is always keeping a lookout and going at a safe speed.
Out on the water there are no painted lanes, no traffic lights, and no brakes. So how do thousands of vessels — from kayaks to container ships — avoid hitting each other? The answer is a shared rulebook: the COLREGS (the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, adopted in 1972). Think of them as the "rules of the road" for boats. Because every skipper follows the same rules, each can predict what the others will do — and predictability is what prevents collisions.
Two rules sit at the very foundation. Rule 5 — keep a proper lookout — requires you to watch and listen at all times, "by sight and hearing as well as by all available means," so you spot risks early. That means eyes up and scanning, not buried in a chartplotter or phone. A collision that could have been avoided almost always starts with someone who simply wasn't looking.
The second is Rule 6 — safe speed. You must always be able to stop or turn in time to avoid a collision, given the conditions. "Safe" isn't a fixed number: in thick fog, at night, or in crowded water, safe speed might be a slow crawl; on a clear open bay it could be much faster. The test is simple — could you react in time to what you can actually see?
Everything you'll learn next (who gives way, what the lights and shapes mean) only works because these two habits come first: see the danger early, and travel slow enough to do something about it.