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Watercraft navigation lights must permit other vessels to determine the type and relative angle of a vessel, and thus decide if there is a danger of collision. In general, sailing vessels are required to carry a green light that shines from dead ahead to 2 points (22 + 1 ⁄ 2 °) abaft [note 1] the beam on the starboard side (the right side from the perspective of someone on board facing ...
A light characteristic is all of the properties that make a particular navigational light identifiable. Graphical and textual descriptions of navigational light sequences and colours are displayed on nautical charts and in Light Lists with the chart symbol for a lighthouse, lightvessel, buoy or sea mark with a light on it. Different lights use ...
Leading lights, also known as range lights in the United States, are a pair of light beacons used in navigation [2] to indicate a safe passage for vessels entering a shallow or dangerous channel; they may also be used for position fixing. At night, the lights are a form of leading line that can be used for safe navigation. The beacons consist ...
The appropriate lights may also be displayed during the day at times of restricted visibility or other necessary circumstances. [3] Vessels under 7 meters are generally not required to display day shapes even if they are required to display lights at night. [4] A square black flag displayed over the ball may be used as a distress signal. [5]
Diagram of cardinal marks as seen during the day, with their light patterns. The lights shown here are configured as "Quick". A cardinal mark is a sea mark (a buoy or other floating or fixed structure) commonly used in maritime pilotage to indicate the position of a hazard and the direction of safe water.
The ship is navigating in the safe sector (white light is commonly marked as yellow in nautical charts). [ 2 ] A sector light is a man-made pilotage and position fixing aid that consists of strictly delineated horizontal angle light beams to guide water-borne traffic through a safe channel at night in reasonable visibility.
Navigation that follows a rhumb line — that is, all meridians are cut at the same angle. On a nautical chart following the Mercator projection, a loxodromic is represented by a straight line. This type of navigation is useful for not too long distances, as it allows the course to remain steady, [16] but it does not offer the shortest distance.
The mariner will know the geometry of the marks/lights from the navigational chart and can understand that when "open" (not one above the other) the ship needs to be navigated to "close" the marks (so one is above the other) and be in the preferred line of the channel.