What are the rules for the sailboat setup for leaving the country/open waters?

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by boatman61

The UK has no rules..

Up till now its been a matter of personal responsibility.

Actually, if you are a UK-registered pleasure boat or any pleasure boat in UK waters the following UK legislation applies to you: https://assets.publishing.service.go...re-vessels.pdf

The SOLAS regulations apply to all boats anywhere.

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ure-boat-users

Many sea-faring nations have similar laws in place for their pleasure vessels and any others that are operating in their waters.

Ignorance is not an excuse and your insurance company will care.

[foothillsailor]

I'm sure that others have similar stories but the one that still haunts me is a personal one ...

In the fall of 2005, we were getting set to leave Neah Bay, at the mouth of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, on the start of our voyage to Mexico when another, older, captain approached me and asked if he could 'follow you out' as he was starting his trip to Hawaii.

In the conversation that followed I learned: he was solo, had an older smaller sailboat (about 30-32 feet), had no charts of USA or Canada (but did have a road map of Northern California 'just in case'), didn't have GPS, had only a hand-held VHF, no EPIRB, no weather reporting and no radar (which is why he wanted to follow me out into the pea-soup thick fog).

Despite my advice to the contrary he said it would all be OK and so, when I motored out of the harbour into the thick, heavy morning fog, sure enough, there he was following me about 30 yards behind. Well, it took less than 15 minutes before we lost sight of each other. I followed his course on my radar for as long as I could and it looked like (for at least a little while) that he was somewhat headed in the right direction. The heavy fog continued until mid-afternoon when we were well out into the Pacific. Two days later a storm front blew through in which another well-fitted sailboat was lost (we managed to duck just in time into Coos Bay).

I always wondered what happened to him, whether this was his last sail into the sunset and what, if anything I should have done in the circumstances (I was a newby and this was our maiden voyage so I wasn't sure what to do)... even now I'm not so sure what I would do if faced with a similar situation where my protestations fell on deaf ears..... what would you have done ... or do?

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by foothillsailor

I'm sure that others have similar stories but the one that still haunts me is a personal one ...

In the fall of 2005, we were getting set to leave Neah Bay, at the mouth of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, on the start of our voyage to Mexico when another, older, captain approached me and asked if he could 'follow you out' as he was starting his trip to Hawaii.

In the conversation that followed I learned: he was solo, had an older smaller sailboat (about 30-32 feet), had no charts of USA or Canada (but did have a road map of Northern California 'just in case'), didn't have GPS, had only a hand-held VHF, no EPIRB, no weather reporting and no radar (which is why he wanted to follow me out into the pea-soup thick fog).

Despite my advice to the contrary he said it would all be OK and so, when I motored out of the harbour into the thick, heavy morning fog, sure enough, there he was following me about 30 yards behind. Well, it took less than 15 minutes before we lost sight of each other. I followed his course on my radar for as long as I could and it looked like (for at least a little while) that he was somewhat headed in the right direction. The heavy fog continued until mid-afternoon when we were well out into the Pacific. Two days later a storm front blew through in which another well-fitted sailboat was lost (we managed to duck just in time into Coos Bay).

I always wondered what happened to him, whether this was his last sail into the sunset and what, if anything I should have done in the circumstances (I was a newby and this was our maiden voyage so I wasn't sure what to do)... even now I'm not so sure what I would do if faced with a similar situation where my protestations fell on deaf ears..... what would you have done ... or do?

You’re not responsible for anyone other than yourself, your crew, and your vessel. What else do you think you could have done?

It is interesting to speculate on how he intended to find Hawaii, with no chart. Perhaps he did have a sextant and was planning to run the latitude? Or perhaps he really studied and was proficient navigating as did the Polynesians?