This June, a passenger catamaran and a sailing yacht collided in the Splitska Vrata channel near Split, and four people on the yacht died. The cause is under investigation and it is not ours to judge. What stands, whatever the finding, is that these are shared waters. In a busy channel, your safety rests as much on the vessel you have not seen yet as on your own helm, and the rules below only hold when everyone reads them the same way. Let's go over them once more before we cast off.
- Rule 5, Look-out. Watch by sight and hearing, and by every other means you have. In busy water, give one crew member one job: scan and listen, nothing else.
- Rule 6, Safe speed. Travel slow enough to stop in the distance you can see. Glare, traffic, and chop all cut your reaction time. Ease off early near harbour mouths, ferry lanes and anywhere visibility drops.
- Rule 7, Risk of collision. A bearing that holds steady means you are closing on a collision course. Take the other boat's bearing twice, a few minutes apart. If you cannot tell, treat the risk as real.
- Rule 8, Action to avoid collision. Make one change of course, early and big enough that the other skipper can see it. A run of small adjustments only confuses them. Then check the gap is opening.
- Rule 9, Narrow channels. Keep to the starboard side of a channel or fairway, as close to the edge as is safe. Under sail or under 20 metres, stay clear of vessels that can only navigate inside the channel, such as a ferry on its route. Do not cross where it would force them to alter course.
- Rule 13, Overtaking. Coming up from behind, you keep clear until you are past and clear. Pass wide. Do not count on the boat ahead having seen you.
- Rules 14 to 17, Head-on, crossing, give-way, stand-on. Two powerboats meeting head-on both turn to starboard. Crossing, you give way to the boat on your starboard side. As the give-way boat, act early. As the stand-on boat, hold a steady course that the other skipper can read, until it is clear they are not giving way.
- Rules 19, 20, 23 to 25, Restricted visibility and lights. In poor visibility, slow down and keep the engine ready. Show the correct navigation lights from sunset to sunrise and whenever visibility drops. Test them before you leave the dock, not after dark.
- Rule 34, Sound signals. Use sound signals to show what you intend to do. Five or more short blasts when you do not understand the other boat or doubt it is doing enough. When it is unclear, signal early and slow down.