Learning Collision Regulations

I've been doing quite a bit of learning here in South Africa, and studying has become a full time job. Right now I am taking the MCA Navigation and Radar module for the officer of the watch (OOW) ticket, and learning all the collision regulations (colregs) has been a big part of the course.

Sure, any sailor worth his salt knows the basics, but knowing the intricacies in the wording of the rules is what I will be tested on. The rules are written like law, as an example it's important to know the difference between "should" and "shall." It's also important to know each rule by number. Sure, any mariner knows that when in a head-on situation with a vessel you shall alter course to starboard, but did you know that was Rule 14? I need to.

In order to help myself learn the rules I have written up flash cards for the first 19 rules, which are the ones an officer of the watch is meant to know by number. To aid in learning, nearly every rule is associated with an easily remembered rhyme, and rules that include lists are displayed with an associated mnemonic learning aid. They are available here for anyone that might want to use them to help study for their OOW, Yachtmaster, USCG, or any other maritime license.

I wrote them on Open Office. If you don't have open office, you should grab a free copy. It's a fully featured office suite made available for free by an awesome open source community. It

also works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The flash cards will also be in their intended format on open office, but not in the .doc format. All the information is there in the .doc format, it is just not in the handy flash card format. Get open office by clicking here. Here they are:

COLREG Flash Cards

.odt file for Open Office HERE.

.doc file HERE

Since I wanted to keep the size of the cards to a standard size, some of the longer rules are only stated with a mnemonic or abbreviation due to the lack of space. In order to research the rules in detail and take free knowledge tests refer to the Sailtrain site.