Coast Guard Auxiliary Reports
Over the past few years in the Eighth Coast Guard District, there have been a number of fatal boating crashes, and even more non-fatal ones, involving recreational boats and tugs and barges. Overwhelmingly, these collisions are occurring at night. In this article, we’ll explore some important navigation rules, navigation light requirements, operational constraints of tugs pushing barges and some nighttime best safe boating practices.
On inland waters, a “push” boat usually pushes the barges ahead. Some of these tug and barge configurations can be over 1000 feet long by 200 feet wide. They cannot turn or stop quickly. Push boats typically operate in the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), channels and river systems where recreational vessels less than 65 feet in length are prohibited by law from impeding their safe passage.
Tugs pushing barges can move deceptively fast, and they are very quiet too, almost dead silent at the lead barge. At night our depth perception and speed perception are not as good as they are during the day. Confounding things further is that shore-based background lights are often a factor where these tugs and barges operate, making it more difficult yet to understand what we are looking at, how far away it is and which way it is moving. As recreational boaters we must understand the lights we see at night and be ever vigilant for their presence. As a good rule of thumb, multiple lights in a vertical line mean recreational boaters should keep out of the way, and the more lights in a vertical line, the more burdened the vessel is.
The Navigation Rules generally require recreational boaters to take early and obvious action to keep out of the way of tugs pushing barges. The Navigation Rules also require all vessels to stay as far to the right as is practicable in narrow channels. Our inland rivers are essentially narrow channels, so as a matter of routine, recreational vessels should stay as far right as they reasonably can while operating on inland rivers. Be mindful that in some cases, tugs and barges need nearly the full width of a river to navigate around a bend. Recreational boaters should also avoid anchoring in narrow channels and in the middle of rivers. Something else to consider about tugs and barges is that there is often a blind spot for the push boat operator spanning several hundred feet in front of the lead barges.
Check back next week to learn more about how to apply this to avoiding a collision.
Thanks to Sherrie, we will always remember safe boating is no accident!
If you would like to learn more about vessel safety checks, please contact Steve Hults, Staff Officer for Vessel Examinations at steve.hults@uscgaux.net.
Please contact us for more information about our safe boating classes or learning more about getting involved in the Auxiliary, check out our website at www.uscgaux.net follow us on FaceBook @ Apalachee Bay Flotilla 12 or contact our Flotilla Commander Phil Hill at pnkkhill2000@yahoo.com.
Please contact us to learn more about getting involved in the Auxiliary, check out our website at www.uscgaux.net follow us on FaceBook @ Apalachee Bay Flotilla 12 or contact our Flotilla Commander Phil Hill at pnkkhill2000@yahoo.com
The Coast Guard Auxiliary is the uniformed civilian volunteer component of the U.S. Coast Guard and supports the Coast Guard in nearly all mission areas. The Auxiliary was created by Congress in 1939. For more information, please visit www.cgaux.org.