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USCG cooperation ensuring mariner safety

Across the nation, more than 48,000 Coast Guard aids to navigation, commonly known as ATON, mark every navigable waterway, identifying navigational hazards and ensuring mariner safety. But what happens when navigational aids are knocked off course by a natural disaster like a hurricane or flood? This recently happened during flooding on the Mississippi River. In mid-December, a tow vessel William Strait sank in 20 feet of water on the lower Mississippi River following a collision with the tow vessel Margaret Ann.

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USCG warns of unapproved navigation lights

What recreational boaters should ensure when buying navigation lights for their vessels The U.S. Coast Guard has issued Marine Safety Alert to warn about the sale and availability of unapproved recreational and commercial vessel navigation lights.Purchasers of such recreational and commercial vesselnavigation lighting should be aware that replacement lighting may be improper for its application due to the failure by manufacturers to meet technical certification requirements. Furthermore, technical advances in marine lighting, such as the use of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), rope lighting, underwater lighting, and other various types of decorative lighting, may violate navigation light provisions of the Nautical Rules of the Road.The requirements for all navigation lights aboard vessels are prescribed in Rules 20, 21, 22 and Annex I of the Rules of the Road, which is the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (72 COLREGS) or the Inland Navigation Rules (33 CFR Subchapter E).Specifications for lights vary depending upon the type of vessel but regardless of the light source (i.e., incandescent filament or LED):Recreational vessel and uninspected commercial vessel navigation lights must meet American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC) standard A-16, in accordance with specifications within 33 CFR 183.810 and 46 CFR 25.10-3, ...

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Lessons learnt: Avoid over- reliance on ECDIS for route monitoring

Lessons from UK MAIB's Marine Accident Reports The UK MAIB has recently issued the first Safety Digest for this year which includes lessons learnt from maritime accidents.One case draws the attention on checking the passage plan without rely only on ECDIS and ensuring that navigational equipment is effectiveThe AccidentOn a calm and clear night a modern, well equipped tanker was heading through a busy coastal traffic separation scheme. To the OOW and lookout, everything on the bridge seemed normal. The OOW was sitting in the bridge chair, where he could see the radar display and the ship's ECDIS. He was following the route shown on the ECDIS display and he adjusted the ship's heading whenever necessary to keep on track.Unexpectedly, the ship's speed reduced to zero and soon afterwards an engineering alarm sounded. Assessing that there was a problem with propulsion, the OOW phoned the second engineer and asked him to check the engines.The second engineer called the bridge back and confirmed that power was available on the starboard engine, so the OOW applied power using the starboard control lever. But the ship still did not move. The OOW also called the captain to explain that propulsion had failed in ...

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