UK COLREG revision for Day Skipper and Yachtmaster learners

Place collision rules within the wider course

The RYA describes Day Skipper Theory as an introduction to navigation and seamanship that includes collision regulations alongside chartwork, tides, weather, safety and other subjects. Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster Offshore Theory develops navigation and seamanship further. A strong simulator score cannot demonstrate completion of either syllabus.

Keep a revision list from your own course or assessment requirements. Use the guides for the topics they teach and your course provider’s material for the full scope. The fictional chart and harbour exercises add observation practice, but do not replace tidal calculations, passage planning, pilotage instruction or practical boat handling.

First explain the duties of both vessels

Begin with a crossing, head-on and overtaking encounter. Before choosing an action, state whether the vessels are in sight, whether collision risk exists and what each vessel must do. Add a power-and-sail encounter, then revisit the assumptions: overtaking, channel constraints and vessel operation can change a simple answer.

Finish this round with a stand-on vessel whose give-way contact does not act. Explain the stages of Rule 17 and why maintaining course and speed does not excuse ignoring the developing danger. The replay helps you connect an early decision to the later amount of water and time available.

Revise lights and shapes as observed evidence

For a night display, name the colours, vertical order and directional aspect you can see. Then identify the operation or status and discuss what remains unknown. For a day shape, count the signals and describe cone directions before recalling the label. This approach helps when an examiner presents an unfamiliar viewpoint.

Pair not-under-command lights with the two-ball day signal, and restricted-manoeuvrability lights with ball–diamond–ball. Compare fishing cones with the motor-sailing cone. Avoid learning a vessel ranking that ignores the actual encounter or assuming that a familiar hull proves a legal status.

Listen and give the reason for your response

Alternate manoeuvring signals with restricted-visibility signals so that context forms part of your answer. Distinguish short from prolonged blasts and astern propulsion from astern movement. Practise an overtaking proposal and its reply, including a case where the proposed passage is unsafe.

Move into fog and explain why Rule 19 applies when the other vessel is not in sight. Assess safe speed and the limitations of radar-only or sound-only information. When a signal is apparently ahead, state the qualifications and required caution rather than offering a fixed speed or a universal turn direction.

Connect Region A buoyage with a harbour approach

For UK buoyage revision, select exercises labeled Region A. Follow the stated conventional direction: red port-hand marks and green starboard-hand marks. On the outward leg the passing side relative to your vessel reverses, while the mark’s definition stays the same. Cardinal marks require compass direction rather than a port-or-starboard mnemonic.

Try the linked Region A harbour voyage after individual mark practice. Read the fictional chart, choose a junction branch, align leading marks, answer an obscured bend signal and assess channel traffic. Use this sequence before a passage as a prompt to review actual charted hazards, local directions, weather and a suitable plan with the crew.

Make each revision session explainable

Choose a small mix of encounters and recognition tasks. After each one, write the observation you missed or the rule qualification you omitted. Return to the governing text, then repeat the situation without relying on its title. Accuracy of explanation is a more useful revision target than memorising the location of an answer.

For a particular oral or professional examination, use its current published syllabus and instructor guidance to check every required subject. This page supports the collision-rule subset it describes and makes no claim of official endorsement, exam completeness or guaranteed results.

Take the watch in the simulator

Explore an authored situation, make your decision, then see the result and the rule behind it.