boats on autopilot

[busumark]

to-day i was trolling for kahli about 400 mtrs from shore when i caught a kahlija and was retreiving it slowly. a 40 ft yacht was heading straight in me i saw 2 persons sunbathing in the front and started shouting to them to change a bit their direction. the yacht just passed about 5 metres from me it didnt move a bit and kept going. when i retreived the kahlija i went after them to tell them to pay more attention next time. when i reached them and started shouting at them they were confused they didn t even know what happened. they had the auto pilot on and they didn t give a shit what was in front of them. i phoned afm operations room to tell them the name of the boat and what happened. they told me that they were going to contact him so that he doesn t do it again. all those who have auto pilot please use it sensibly. BTW the way my boat is only 14 ft

[ggantno1]

Your boat is 14ft ? Imagine the feeling when this happens when you are diving / snorkeling /spearfishing!!!!!! scary !!!!
You did the right thing to report them.

[Moonwalker]

Scary experience busu.
Something related - Do big ships (cargo ship) always have a captain on guard? If there is a small boat bottom fishing in their course will they change course? And what radio channel should we use to inform them?

[skip]

All commercial ships are supposed to have a watch officer on the bridge, and their radar if it picks you up should sound a collision alarm allowing them to alter course.

In such a situation you should try and contact the ship on Ch.16 and as you won't know the name the best you can do is to say Vessel in approximate GPS position xxxx this is Vessel x etc etc. Sometimes it helps if you can identify a bit and say Container ship, or oil tanker etc etc.

Crazy busu that these people had no one on the flybridge with their autopilot on in coastal waters.

[OKUMA-1976]

this is a very delicate issue where it comes to COLREGS rule No.5 Look-out you're right that on every vessel there should be a person on watch, on commercial vessels an officer. all the rules in the COLREGS interlink with each other so that collisions are avoided but accidents still happen.
That is why Rule No.2 Responsability and Rule No.17a(ii) in short state that if the the stand on vessel QUOTE (( may take action to avoid collision as soon as it becomes apparent that the vessel required to keep out of the way is not taking the appropriate action in compliance with these Rules )) the rule also says that This Rule 17 does not relieve the give-way vessel of her obligation to keep out of the way.

in practice if i happen to be on any craft and notice an approaching vessel towards me especially if i'm the smaller craft i would take all necessary action to run away from danger Guys remember Safety First.
what if your boat is wooden or fiberglass and the radar did not spot you, what if something happened to the person on the helm of the other craft/vessel?

[DJS]

Frightening experience Busu, as a boat collision at sea even at low speed can have very serious consequences.

Something similar happened to me in June whilst doing a bit of jigging on the edge of the reef outside the Freeport, when a part-time fisherman nearly hit me in his small luzzu on his return into M'xlokk.

I could see he was heading straight for me from 200m away and quickly I jumped onto the back seat of my boat and started shouting to him and waving my arms. Amazingly, he heard nothing - probably as he was sitting near his engine and was busily engrossed in reparing his fishing lines hidden behind the boat's canopy. As he got nearer, I braced myself for a collision but miraculously he missed me by only a matter of feet. Only then did he look up really shocked to see the front of my boat which was a good metre above him. ... at which point I unleashed an uncharacteristic volley of expletives in his direction!

Unfortunately, I didn't get his boat registration number... as I would have reported him to the MMA. Do they have rules on reckless driving?? Anyway, I learned an important lesson that shouts to other boats may not always be heard and the next day, I invested in an air horn... just in case for the next time. It was certainly an important warning to me to be extra vigilent while fishing off coastal reefs with the engines off. 

[Granitu]

i bet their inboard engines are so noisy(like mine) that not even the air horn will be enough... some of them are really terrible...

[bigboy]

hmmmmmm the ones of marsaxlokk lool trid tmur. l iktar jek kghandom xi bmc jew 4236

[joe2384]

Its not strictly legal of course but a schermuli flare banged across the front of an approaching boat makes most people sit up and pay attention

Joe