Sailing right of way rules, colregs & IRPCS explained

Sailing right of way rules are also called the COLREGs or IRPCS, short for International Regulations for preventing collisions at sea. These rules apply to all boats on the sea, and navigable water connected to the sea.
The Racing Rules of Sailing are also commonly talked about amongst sailors, and apply when boats are racing.
This video covers the basic sailing rules of the road, as they are sometimes called, focusing on sailing boats interacting with other sailing boats. The COLREGs and the RRS (Racing Rules of Sailing) are explained side by side, because they are very similar, but there are a few occasions where they differ, so it’s important to understand what to do.
It is the responsibility of the skipper to check which rules are applicable for their location – for example, if you’re inland, you may fall under the US Inland Navigation rules or CEVNI in European inland waters.

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Chapters
0:00 sailing right of way rules
0:49 colregs
1:02 racing rules of sailing
1:15 port starboard rule
4:39 windward leeward sailing rules
6:32 racing overlap rules
8:20 racing rules overtaking
9:05 colreg overtaking
10:00 sailing crash upwind
11:21 windward leeward sailing rules
11:47 sailing racing rules downwind
12:46 sailing crash at mark

[philswatersports]

Do you find it confusing that the racing rules are different to the colregs?

[Poundforce]

Your examples and explanations are the clearest around! Thank you for another great video!

[martineyer]

Simple and nice little refresher just for the start of the sailing season.

[ninaclarke]

Great explanation. I'm a hobby sailor and familiar with colregs but I sail in the Solent and summer weekends are great fun attempting to dodge any number of races with all size of boats, from many clubs. Add in the restricted area and the regular ferries and even though I'm not racing and try to stay out the way it's not always possible. Although racing rules don't apply to me it is useful to understand the differences when you end up in the middle of the race unintentionally.😮

[Palundrium]

After seeing the port and starboard sticker, the red and green lights on boats now make a lot more sense as to why they’re on which side. 🤣 Something I’ve wondered for quite some time now, despite being familiar with right-of-way!

[elwhagen]

Very clear an concise explanations. I'm not a sailer, so I'll just give way to you, unless my fishing gear is out of course (an it's almost always is)! 🙂

[madmaveric]

I always remember "port and starboard" as they map to "left and right" as I would naturally say them. This only works for people that, when asked what directions can you turn at a T junction, would naturally answer "left and right" rather than "right and left". Hope that makes sense.
Another trick is to look at your hands in order that you say them (as we read left to right in English), then port is the first hand (the left one) and starboard is the next hand (the right one).
There is also the standard "no port left in the bottle" as another memory trick to learning them. (I found it easier to to map the speech order than remember the phrase though but every one learns differently).
Nice video. 👍

[eutha]

Laser's bumping into each other is how you control your speed in a race :D

[oldshipmatesadventures]

thx, that was helpful! did some screenshots and will create a A4 laminated go-to paper, which I will place in the cockpit. ;-)

[mitchahbw]

14:50 - Did you get a chance to include some information about cameras and mounting positions?

[amorestperpe]

That dude was like I'm on port tack and going to sail into everyone on starboard with a smile on my face.

[husse]

A simple way of remembering some of this, if seating or standing on a sailboat/board facing the middle of it, righ hand closest to the Bow has the right of way.

[adamatch]

0:27 that bloody man is crazy he just killed somone and is smiling

[matt]

at 1:17 anyone know what that is that they are sailing like make model type thing lol

[stevec-b]

Crystal clear as usual! - Are lasers designed to slide over the top of each other when they crash?

[Name-otxw]

LMAO at those guys in the intro.

I sail in close proximity to float planes, it's an exercise in trust when one decides to takeoff over me.

[timseytiger]

What if you are downwind, but sailing by the lee? Is it the wind or the sail that counts? Sorry answered nicely in the video, good work.

[taylorjs]

On the same tack, a leeward boat comes up on a windward boat at the start line (overlap). Slowing down and tacking away are options for the windward boat. If they choose the first (luffing main or pointing too high for a few moments), they might still impede the leeward boat, but they avoid tacking on the line. Has the windward boat broken a racing rule? Also, if, next time, the windward boat sees this scenario developing, can they bear off briefly into the path of the clear astern boat to prevent them from overlapping?

[PennWolfsSailingAdventures]

Pretty simple to understand the rules of the water, if your on a race course with other racers you are able to do much more without consequences than if your just skippering your pleasure boat. Sailing the same as in close racing in general in the US can get you removed from the water for unsafe vessel operation, and often unsafe operation around anchored vessels and vessels engaged in fishing.

[megr]

I think 'Stand-on vessel' is not used for racing. It's right-of-way and has a totally different requirement compared to Stand-on as defined in the ColRegs.