Do you use a Daytime Black ball at Anchor?

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by IslandHopper

No need to ask, an Anchor light is a navigation light.....



Definition of a Navigational light is a set of lights on a ship or aircraft used at night to show its position and/or orientation, also known as running or position lights <<<< that was straight from one of my oral exams......

If we are going to argue about whether a moored boat is by definition anchored then that opens up questioning other definitions.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

I was asking about colregs, not local rules specific to the US. We'll look up local rules if we ever end up sailing there. It seems pretty clear to me - anchor ball when anchored, not when moored.

The distinction is not addressed in the COLREGS which leaves it to local interpretation.

And it is the local or flag admiralties you will have to deal with. There is no appealing to some international court about this.

[Montanan]

In the USA, a moored vessel is one and the same as an "anchored" vessel as the words have mutual relationship.

United States Code of Federal Regulations.

§ 83.30 Vessels anchored, aground and moored barges (Rule 30).
(a) A vessel at anchor shall exhibit where it can best be seen:

(i) In the fore part, an all-round white light or one ball;

(ii) At or near the stern and at a lower level than the light prescribed in paragraph (i) of this Rule, an all-round white light.

(b) A vessel of less than 50 meters in length may exhibit an all-round white light where it can best be seen instead of the lights prescribed in paragraph (a) of this Rule.

(c) A vessel at anchor may, and a vessel of 100 meters or more in length shall, also use the available working or equivalent lights to illuminate her decks.

(d) A vessel aground shall exhibit the lights prescribed in paragraph (a) or (b) of this Rule and in addition, if practicable, where they can best be seen:

(i) Two all-round red lights in a vertical line; and

(ii) Three balls in a vertical line.

(e) A vessel of less than 7 meters in length, when at anchor, not in or near a narrow channel, fairway, anchorage, or where other vessels normally navigate, shall not be required to exhibit the lights or shape prescribed in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this Rule.

(f) A vessel of less than 12 meters in length when aground shall not be required to exhibit the lights or shapes prescribed in paragraphs (d)(i) and (ii) of this Rule. I'm figuring they are cutting small boaters some slack as to not deploying a black ball day signal when run aground figuring they likely have more important issues to deal with and may be in MAY DAY operating mode, but I did see a picture of a Canadian Coast Guard cutter that had run aground and was taking on water which did not have a black ball at anchor or aground signal deployed, again they were probably more focussed on dealing with the inrushing waters and who was going to venture close enough to ticket them.

(g) A vessel of less than 20 meters in length, when at anchor in a special anchorage area designated by the Coast Guard, shall not be required to exhibit the anchor lights and shapes required by this Rule.

(h) The following barges shall display at night and if practicable in periods of restricted visibility the lights described in paragraph (i) of this Rule:

(i) Every barge projecting into a buoyed or restricted channel.

(ii) Every barge so moored that it reduces the available navigable width of any channel to less than 80 meters.

(iii)Barges moored in groups more than two barges wide or to a maximum width of over 25 meters.

(iv) Every barge not moored parallel to the bank or dock.

(i)Barges described in paragraph (h) of this Rule shall carry two unobstructed all-round white lights of an intensity to be visible for at least 1 nautical mile and meeting the technical requirements as prescribed in Annex I (33 CFR part 84).

(j) A barge or group of barges at anchor or made fast to one or more mooring buoys or other similar device, in lieu of the provisions of this Rule, may carry unobstructed all-round white lights of an intensity to be visible for at least 1 nautical mile that meet the requirements of Annex I (33 CFR part 84) and shall be arranged as follows:

(i) Any barge that projects from a group formation, shall be lighted on its outboard corners.

(ii) On a single barge moored in water where other vessels normally navigate on both sides of the barge, lights shall be placed to mark the corner extremities of the barge.

(iii) On barges moored in group formation, moored in water where other vessels normally navigate on both sides of the group, lights shall be placed to mark the corner extremities of the group.

(k) The following are exempt from the requirements of this Rule:

(i) A barge or group of barges moored in a slip or slough used primarily for mooring purposes.

(ii) A barge or group of barges moored behind a pierhead.

(iii) A barge less than 20 meters in length when moored in a special anchorage area designated in accordance with § 109.10 of this chapter.

(l)Barges moored in well-illuminated areas are exempt from the lighting requirements of this Rule. These areas are as follows: Reference link to specific miles on various rivers. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/33/83.30



I will copy and paste the relevant Section 110 parts listing the Special Anchorage Areas on a following post to this thread.

You can find the specific coordinates and further listing of separate Anchorage Grounds [not to be confused with the Special Anchorage Areas] at this link: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...l1-part110.xml

[Tillsbury]

Originally Posted by Montanan

§ 90.5 Lights for moored vessels
A vessel at anchor includes a vessel made fast to one or more mooring
buoys or other similar device attached to the ocean floor.

Well that seems fairly clear. The US regulations add this additional paragraph 90.5 stating that mooring requires lights of one sort or another, which shows that they agree that anchoring and mooring are different things according to the COLREGs, and thus mooring is not anchoring unless otherwise stated in the local rules.

This agrees with the US rule 83.30, which lumps "vessels anchored, aground, and moored barges" together (i.e. not assuming that a moored barge would be considered anchored).

Colregs refers to "at anchor", not "moored".

[Tillsbury]

Originally Posted by Adelie

If we are going to argue about whether a moored boat is by definition anchored then that opens up questioning other definitions.

That's precisely the point. Colregs defines what you have to do when "at anchor". I don't believe that a moored boat is "at anchor", and neither does the dictionary.

[Montanan]

Reference copied Part A listing of the Special Anchorage Areas designated by the US Coast Guard wherein vessels of less than 20 meters are NOT required to anchor lights or shapes required by Rule 30 of the Inland Navigation Rules.

Each and every Special Anchorage Area is explicitly defined in a detail subsection with lats longs and measures in yards and bearing between marks. I have copied the subsection that relates to Penobscot Bay, Maine below as an example. Please follow the link here to find the details for subsections for each of the Special Anchorage Areas, listed in the other images. The Special Anchorage Areas are a portion or portions of the titled Bay, Lake, Harbor, etc and are not the entire titled water area. http://https://www.govinfo.gov/conte...l1-part110.xml

Okay, two things with this Section 110 I have issues with.
1) This pertains to the USA, the home of the brave and the land of the free where people have feet and triple them to yards [no, not referring to the gardens] but don't know what a meter is. FYI: 12 meters is about 26.5 cubits or 65% of the distance between the pitcher's mound and home plate.
2) During the day with clear visibility other boaters should be able to readily spot an anchored boat and avoid colliding with the object; if you can't do that that simple task you should not be skippering a boat. Balls do communicate whether a vessel is "underway" or not "underway" so they serve a purpose. But at night, an unlighted object is an object that is going to absolutely be a collision hazard, yet per the law of the nation within these busy anchorages one can go unlighted. So not brilliant! [Borrowing a British term there].

I've got much more concern about unlighted vessels than boats lacking balls.

Stay safe out there.

[Kelkara]

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

That's precisely the point. Colregs defines what you have to do when "at anchor". I don't believe that a moored boat is "at anchor", and neither does the dictionary.

It was posted earlier what the COLREGS define:

The word “underway” means that a vessel is not at anchor, or made fast to the shore, or aground.

So you have a choice, you can be either:

1) At anchor
2) Made fast to the shore
3) Aground
4) Underway

That's it. If you consider your boat "moored" then you have to choose which of these four categories fits best ... for a swinging mooring that will probably be "at anchor"

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by Kelkara

It was posted earlier what the COLREGS define:
So you have a choice, you can be either:

1) At anchor
2) Made fast to the shore
3) Aground
4) Underway

That's it. If you consider your boat "moored" then you have to choose which of these four categories fits best ... for a swinging mooring that will probably be "at anchor"

Perhaps COLREGs should include in the negative definition of a boat as being underway as also not being sunk.

anchor
noun
1. a heavy object attached to a rope or chain and used to moor a vessel to the sea bottom

moor
verb
​
to attach a boat or ship to something on land or to the surface under the water to keep it in place.

A swinging moor of the type cruisers are accustomed to attaching uses a permanent anchor, whereas when one "drops" your vessel's anchor one is using a temporary anchor. When a boat is attached to an anchor be it permanent or temporary it is not underway and is at anchor.
There are many types of anchors, temporary and permanent, [and the subject of keen discussion on forums, and yacht club bars]. They all have something in common: If they drag or break their bad, when the hold they are great. Trust once broken is hard is hard to regain.

Per wikipedia:

Permanent anchor mooring

These moorings are used instead of temporary anchors because they have considerably more holding power, cause less damage to the marine environment, and are convenient. Where there is a row of moorings they are termed a tier.[2] They are also occasionally used to hold floating docks in place.

There are several kinds of moorings:

Swing moorings

Swing moorings also known as simple or single-point moorings, are the simplest and most common kind of mooring. A swing mooring consists of a single anchor at the bottom of a waterway with a rode (a rope, cable, or chain) running to a float on the surface. The float allows a vessel to find the rode and connect to the anchor. These anchors are known as swing moorings because a vessel attached to this kind of mooring swings in a circle when the direction of wind or tide changes.

For a small boat (e.g. 22' / 6.7 m sailing yacht), this might consist of a heavy weight on the seabed, a 12 mm or 14 mm rising chain attached to the "anchor", and a bridle made from 20 mm nylon rope, steel cable, or a 16 mm combination steel wire material. The heavy weight (anchor) should be a dense material. Old rail wagon wheels are used in some places (e.g. Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland) for this purpose. In some harbours (e.g. Dun Laoghaire, Ireland), very heavy chain (e.g. old ship anchor chain) may be placed in a grid pattern on the sea bed to ensure orderly positioning of moorings. Ropes (particularly for marker buoys and messenger lines) should be "non floating" to reduce likelihood of a boat's prop being fouled by one.

Pile moorings

Pile moorings are poles anchored [typically driven] into the bottom of the waterway with their tops above the water. Vessels then tie mooring lines to two or four piles to fix their position between those piles. Pile moorings are common in New Zealand but rare elsewhere.

While many mooring buoys are privately owned, some are available for public use. For example, on the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast, a vast number of public moorings are set out in popular areas where boats can moor. This is to avoid the massive damage that would be caused by many vessels anchoring.

There are four basic types of permanent anchors used in moorings:

Dead weights are the simplest type of anchor. They are generally made as a large concrete block with a rode attached which resists movement with sheer weight; and, to a small degree, by settling into the substrate. In New Zealand old railway wheels are sometimes used. The advantages are that they are simple and cheap. A dead weight mooring that drags in a storm still holds well in its new position. Such moorings are better suited to rocky bottoms where other mooring systems do not hold well. The disadvantages are that they are heavy, bulky, and awkward.

Mushroom anchors are the most common anchors and work best for softer seabeds such as mud, sand, or silt. They are shaped like an upside-down mushroom which can be easily buried in mud or silt. The advantage is that it has up to ten times the holding-power-to-weight ratio compared to a dead weight mooring; disadvantages include high cost, limited success on rocky or pebbly substrates, and the long time it takes to reach full holding capacity.

Pyramid anchors are pyramid-shaped anchors, also known as Dor-Mor anchors. They work in the upside-down position with the apex pointing down at the bottom such that when they are deployed, the weight of wider base pushes the pyramid down digging into the floor. As the anchors are encountered with lateral pulls, the side edges or corners of the pyramids will dig deeper under the floor, making them more stable.

Screw-in moorings are a modern method. The anchor in a screw-in mooring is a shaft with wide blades spiraling around it so that it can be screwed into the substrate. The advantages include high holding-power-to-weight ratio and small size (and thus relative cheapness). The disadvantage is that a diver is usually needed to install, inspect, and maintain these moorings.
Multiple anchor mooring systems use two or more (often three) light weight temporary-style anchors set in an equilateral arrangement and all chained to a common center from which a conventional rode extends to a mooring buoy. The advantages are minimized mass, ease of deployment, high holding-power-to-weight ratio, and availability of temporary-style anchors.

[Tillsbury]

Originally Posted by Kelkara

It was posted earlier what the COLREGS define:
So you have a choice, you can be either:

1) At anchor
2) Made fast to the shore
3) Aground
4) Underway

That's it. If you consider your boat "moored" then you have to choose which of these four categories fits best ... for a swinging mooring that will probably be "at anchor"

Defining "underway" in no way helps us to define anything else, particularly when in a completely unrelated section. You're assuming that the definitions given include every possible status of a boat, but that doesn't have to be the case at all.

If it were to be the case, then what would you call being tied to a mooring pile? Is that "fast to the shore"? In which case why isn't a mooring buoy the same? Are you suggesting that being tied between mooring piles is "at anchor"? Where's the definition for that? Would you use an anchor ball then?

[Simi 60]

[Kelkara]

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

Defining "underway" in no way helps us to define anything else, particularly when in a completely unrelated section. You're assuming that the definitions given include every possible status of a boat, but that doesn't have to be the case at all.

If it were to be the case, then what would you call being tied to a mooring pile? Is that "fast to the shore"? In which case why isn't a mooring buoy the same? Are you suggesting that being tied between mooring piles is "at anchor"? Where's the definition for that? Would you use an anchor ball then?

Defining underway doesn't define anything else ... but, unless it is a drying mooring it clearly isn't aground either, it does give you a choice of just two options: "at anchor" and "made fast to the shore"


Is a vessel swinging at a mooring buoy "made fast to the shore"? If not, then it is "at anchor".

[Jim Cate]

Ahaa!!!

A situation to warm Dockhead's heart!

An enormous superyacht called Aquijo, 87 m in length, Cayman I rego, has appeared in Hobart. Today she is anchored in the Derwent, only a half mile from us, so off we went to stickybeak.

And guess what? A proper anchor ball displayed, but no sign of an anchor chain to be seen... no bow roller, no sign that she's not underway, except for the ball. Thank God for the ball, for otherwise we might have rammed her with our dinghy... and I sure wouldn't want to have to pop for a new paint job for her!

Photo attached...

Jim

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

Well that seems fairly clear. The US regulations add this additional paragraph 90.5 stating that mooring requires lights of one sort or another, which shows that they agree that anchoring and mooring are different things according to the COLREGs, and thus mooring is not anchoring unless otherwise stated in the local rules.



This agrees with the US rule 83.30, which lumps "vessels anchored, aground, and moored barges" together (i.e. not assuming that a moored barge would be considered anchored).



Colregs refers to "at anchor", not "moored".

The wording of US regulations does not imply a preference on how to read the COLREGS. They were written by different groups.

Since the COLREGS were written to cover as many situations as possible on the water the fact that the difference between anchoring and mooring is not discussed implies there is no distinction Is seen by the COLREGS.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

That's precisely the point. Colregs defines what you have to do when "at anchor". I don't believe that a moored boat is "at anchor", and neither does the dictionary.

I disagree, the dictionaries I reviewed used the terms interchangeably for the most part.

[fxykty]

This is rule 30 of the international colregs.

***********

Rule 30 (Anchored vessels and vessels aground)
(a) A vessel at anchor shall exhibit where it can best be seen:

(i) in the fore part, an all-round white light or one ball;

(ii) at or near the stern and at a lower level that the light prescribed in subparagraph (i), an all-round white light.

(b) A vessel of less than 50 m in length may exhibit an all-round white light where it can best be seen instead of the lights prescribed in paragraph (a) of this Rule.

(c) A vessel at anchor may, and a vessel of 100 m and more in length shall, also use the available working or equivalent lights to illuminate her decks.

(d) A vessel aground shall exhibit the lights prescribed in paragraph (a) or (b) of this Rule and in addition, where they can best be seen:

(i) two all-round red lights in a vertical line;

(ii) three balls in a vertical line.

(e) A vessel of less than 7 m in length, when at anchor, not in or near a narrow channel, fairway or anchorage, or where other vessels normally navigate, shall not be required to exhibit the lights or shape prescribed in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this Rule.

(f) A vessel of less than 12 m in length, when aground, shall not be required to exhibit the lights or shapes prescribed in subparagraphs (d)(i) and (ii) of this Rule.

**************

Bottom line seems to be that a vessel less than 50m does not need to display a ball when anchored. But if over 12m will have to show the additional aground signals.

So show a ball if you want, but no requirement to do so.