General Information on the COLREGS100 Course

Before taking this course, you should be familiar with the parts of the Safe Boating Guide that deal with collision regulations, pages 44, 45, and 46. The Safe Boating Guide covers material boaters need to know before applying for a Pleasure Craft Operator Card (PCOC). Since you have a PCOC you should have seen this at some point. But, of course, our skills can get rusty if not used. 

This course is intended to supplement and reinforce material that you will find in:

Section 7.5 goes beyond material for the PCOC and you should read that section of your manual as preparation for this course. 

You should read, at least once, the Canadian implementation of the International Collision Regulations. These apply to Canadian waters and have been implemented through federal legislation under the Canada Shipping Act. The international regulations themselves are in Schedule I following the main text for the Canadian regulations. The main text contains some Canadian unique aspects including the federal legislation that implements the COLREGS for Canadian waters. 

Also under the authority of the Canada Shipping Act, regulatory control of small vessels falls under the Small Vessel Regulations. "These Regulations apply in respect of

This course will not cover the Small Vessel Regulations. However you should know that many of the vessels encountered in our area will be governed by these regulations, even if they may not be explicitly covered by the COLREGS, e.g., kayaks, canoes, rowing dinghies and smaller pleasure craft and workboats. A good interpretation of these regulations can be found in the Safe Boating Guide. The material in the Safe Boating Guide is consistent with the COLREGS but does not cover the material to the same extent.

The Safe Boating Guide is not as precise as the COLREGS in manoeuvring and use of lights and shapes, but it does have the admonition: "No person shall operate a vessel in a careless manner, without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for other persons."

Upon completion of this course you are not expected to be an expert about all aspects of the Collision Regulations. However you will become knowledgeable about those parts that are relevant to SAR operations in the Comox area and have appropriate judgement to apply them during operations. Some material goes beyond what is expected of regular crew in the Station 60; this material is intended to prepare you for a learning journey for future activity on the water and for more advanced SAR training for which you might want to apply. 

If you want to take issue with any of the material or just to submit a comment for the class, including when you feel that you have a right answer that has been marked wrong, feel free to raise a point in the course forum. See the link below. Or you can contact me directly using email or the Moodle messaging function (click the talk bubble at the upper right corner of this page). Debate on the COLREGS is always a GOOD THING. 

Results of any of the quizzes in this web package will not be used for grading. Results from the quizzes are intended to help you by indicating your strengths... and spots where you might want to review the material. OK, OK: think positive! 

In the quizzes most questions have only one best answer. For some questions you may feel that more than one answer seems acceptable. If this seems to be the case, you should choose the answer you feel is BEST.  

For those members taking the Crew Course, there will be a written exam once you have reviewed the material. You may take the online quizzes as many times as you please... say, to get the answers all correct and a perfect score. Feel free! Your answers to the online quizzes will not count towards a pass/fail in the Crew Course; only the written exam counts for passing the course. 

[Timing: Approximate timings are provided for reading or watching material within this course package. This excludes the time you may take to review this material after initial reading or watching, or to pursue links to outside websites or to complete quizzes, since this will be up to you.]

At the conclusion of this part of the Crew Course, you will be given an in-person closed-book written exam on the COLREGS. This will consist of 40 to 50 questions, most with multiple-choice responses. You are expected to get a mark of 70% or better to complete this part of the Crew Course. If you cannot achieve the necessary mark, you will be allowed additional study (including in-person tutoring, if requested) before a re-examination.

Remember: Everyone in this unit WANTS you to pass! But you need to know your stuff, and we are here to help with that. We all want you to be safe on the water, to keep your crewmates safe, and to keep our boats and the boating public safe. Knowing the COLREGS is one important step towards those goals.