If you read the Colregs--- always a good ideaOld Stone wrote:I know the horns are required in a fog, but is there any requirement for radar?
It's a bit controversial in its interpretation.* Some people interpret this to mean that if your boat has radar you must have it on at all times underway regardless of the visibility conditions.* After asking for an interpretation from some USCG folks a number of years ago, I don't believe this is the case.* The language does not say if you have it you have to be using it at all times.* It says that you have to be using all the means of collision avoidance that are appropriate to the circumstances.
In other words, it's up to you to determine what is appropriate under the circumstances..* Obviously, fog requires the use of radar if you have it (although it's still up to you whether you choose to use it).* If the visibility is great, it's still up to you whether to use the radar or not.
HOWEVER....... if you manage to run into someone in good visibility or bad, or someone runs into you, and it is found that you did not have your radar on and were monitoring it, then you are in violation* because hitting another boat is a circumstance that radar could have prevented.* Therefore, since you didn't have it on and you hit someone or were hit, you were not using all the available means of collision avoidance relevant to the situation.
When we had the old Raytheon 2600 that came with the boat, a CRT unit that required the use of a hood, we only used it when the visibility was poor in an effort to maximize the life of the tube. When it began to fail we replaced it with a Furuno NavNet with a daylight LCD screen, and this we have on whenever we are running. Not because it's necessary in good visibility but so that we remain totally familiar with what targets look like on the display and can practice adjusting the gain controls to ensure that we see everything around us.* Then if we do get into fog it's a no-brainer transiition to "driving on instruments" for us because we'd been monitoring the radar all along as well as following a GPS plotter course.
Bottom line is that if you have radar you don't have to have it on when you're running.* But should you have an accident or incident that could have been prevented by having your radar on AND monitoring it, you will be found neglegent of at least that aspect of the Colregs regardless of who caused the accident and what the visibility was at the time.* You're not going to be pulled over and given a ticket if you're running your boat in good or bad visiblity with the radar off.* Nobody's gonna know.* It's all about what happens if you have a collision.* That's from the perspective of the rules.* Common sense is another matter--- some people have it, some people don't.
-- Edited by Marin on Thursday 10th of February 2011 01:40:53 PM