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Maritime & Shipping vocabulary · Navigation & the Bridge

COLREGs

Meaning in maritime & shipping, with examples

abbreviationCore term

In maritime & shipping, COLREGs means: The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972: the rules of the road at sea, covering lookout, safe speed, which ship gives way, lights, shapes and sound signals.

In Turkish: Denizde Çatışmayı Önleme Tüzüğü, COLREG, çatışmayı önleme kuralları

How it is used

Officers quote them by rule number: Rule 5 (lookout), Rule 15 (crossing situation), Rule 19 (restricted visibility). Every deck officer is expected to know them very well, and they are a standard part of oral exams.

Example sentences

  1. In open water, under the COLREGs, a power-driven vessel keeps out of the way of a vessel engaged in fishing.

  2. The investigation found that neither ship had followed the COLREGs in restricted visibility.

Common collocations

  • Rule 15 of the COLREGs
  • comply with the COLREGs
  • breach of the COLREGs
  • rules of the road
  • give wayTo keep out of the way of another vessel, as the collision rules require, by altering course, changing speed or both. The vessel that must do this is the give-way vessel.
  • starboardThe right-hand side of a ship when you face forward towards the bow. At night it is shown by a green sidelight.
  • radarEquipment that sends out radio waves and shows their echoes on a screen, so that officers can see the coast, other ships and buoys and measure their range and bearing, even at night or in fog.
  • CPAClosest Point of Approach: the shortest distance at which another ship or object will pass if both keep their present course and speed. TCPA is the time left until that point.

More terms: Navigation & the Bridge

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