Rule 29: a pilot vessel on duty.

What does COLREGs Rule 29 say?

Rule 29(a): a vessel 'engaged on pilotage duty' exhibits, at or near the masthead, two all-round lights in a vertical line, 'the upper being white and the lower red'. When underway she adds sidelights and a sternlight. When at anchor she adds the anchor light, lights or shape of Rule 30 to her white over red.

Rule 29(b): when not engaged on pilotage duty, a pilot vessel shows the lights or shapes prescribed for 'a similar vessel of her length' — the same as any other vessel of her kind and size.

Does a pilot vessel on duty show a masthead light?

Rule 29(a) lists none. Compare Rule 28 and Rule 27(f), which add their signals to the Rule 23 lights of a power-driven vessel: Rule 29 does not. On duty and underway, she shows the white over red, sidelights and a sternlight.

Why underway, and not making way?

Rule 29(a)(ii) ties the sidelights and sternlight to being underway, which Rule 3(i) defines as not at anchor, made fast to the shore or aground. So a pilot vessel lying stopped on station, drifting while she waits for a ship, still shows her sidelights and sternlight.

Contrast a vessel not under command, whose sidelights and sternlight come on only when she is making way through the water (Rule 27(a)(iii)).

What does a pilot vessel show by day?

Rule 29 prescribes no day shape for a pilot vessel on duty and underway. On duty at anchor, 29(a)(iii) brings in the Rule 30 shape — one ball in the fore part. Off duty, 29(b) gives her the shapes, if any, of a similar vessel of her length.

How do I tell a pilot vessel from a fishing vessel at night?

By the order of the colours. A pilot vessel on duty: white over red (Rule 29(a)(i)). A vessel engaged in fishing other than trawling: red over white (Rule 26(c)(i)). A vessel engaged in trawling: green over white (Rule 26(b)(i)). The memory aid 'white over red, pilot ahead' is a shorthand, not the rule's wording.

The sidelights help too. A vessel engaged in fishing shows sidelights and a sternlight only when making way through the water (Rule 26(b)(iii) and (c)(iii)); a pilot vessel on duty shows them whenever she is underway.

Is there a sound signal for a pilot vessel?

Yes, as an option. Under Rule 35(k), while on pilotage duty she may identify herself with four short blasts, sounded on top of her ordinary fog signal under Rule 35(a), (b) or (g).

For a power-driven pilot vessel in restricted visibility, that means one prolonged blast at intervals of not more than two minutes when making way through the water (35(a)), or two prolonged blasts at the same interval when underway but stopped and making no way (35(b)). At anchor, it means the bell rung rapidly for about five seconds at intervals of not more than one minute (35(g)). To any of these she may add the four short blasts.

Do other vessels have to keep out of the way of a pilot vessel?

Not because she is a pilot vessel. Rule 18 gives a vessel engaged on pilotage duty no place of her own in the order of responsibility, and Rule 29 is a lights rule. She takes the steering and sailing rules as any vessel of her kind would.

In practice, give her room. A pilot boat on station may stop, turn or run alongside a ship with little warning, and the ship she is serving may be slowing or turning to make a lee for the transfer. White over red is a cue to expect a pilot transfer nearby and to watch both vessels.

How might Rule 29 come up in an MCA oral?

It may come up as a lights question set in the approaches to a port. Examples of the kind of question to be ready for:

“At night you see an all-round white light over an all-round red light, and a red sidelight. What is she, and what is she doing?”

“How does that differ from red over white?”

“She is stopped on station, drifting. Does she still show her sidelights?”

“What does she show when she anchors on duty?”

“What might you hear from her in fog?”

Where do candidates go wrong on Rule 29?

The common slips: reversing the colours and calling white over red a fishing vessel; giving her a masthead light; switching off her sidelights when she is stopped but still underway; forgetting the anchor lights when she is on duty at anchor; and expecting other vessels to keep out of her way because she is a pilot vessel.