Safety Recommendations
Navigation Lights
Each boat should be equipped with a navigation light which is turned on during the hours of darkness. It is up to competitors to decide on their lighting setup and is their responsibility to ensure that their boat meets any legal requirements for lighting in all countries which the boat might visit. Based on informal advice from the Irish and US coastguard we suggest that either a single white light or tri-colour red/white/green light should be used. This should be visible from all directions at a distance of at least 2 nautical miles.
COLREGs Compliance
Boats must take appropriate precautions to avoid collisions and comply with COLREGs (The International Maritime Organisation's Rules for Prevention of Collisions at Sea). This might include the use of obstacle detection sensors such as RADAR, radar reflectors, brightly coloured panels, warning labels/flags, AIS receivers/transponders and avoiding known shipping lanes. Each team must decide the exact precautions they wish to take.
Warning labels
Boats should have clear labelling that it is unmanned and should be left alone. Ideally this should be readable from a distance to reduce the chances of the boat being accidentally retrieved by anyone who is curious about what it is. Owner and contact information should also be written on the boat so that anyone who finds it broken down is able to identify and contact its owners.
Marine Autonomous Surface Ships Code of Practice
Maritime UK have produced a Marine Autonomous Surface Ship code of practice. We recommend all Microtransat competitors read this code of practice and adhere to it.
