While your boat enjoys a well-earned break over the winter months, the off-season is an excellent time to take a safe boating course offered by the Coast Guard Auxiliary or Power Squadron. One of the highlights of these informative courses is a study of Navigation Rules.

Although the Coast Guard publishes some 212 pages of Navigation Rules, which are intended to prevent accidents and collisions at sea, knowing just a few of these regulations can save you a lot of aggravation.

Many of the 38 international and inland rules, exemptions and annexes are rooted in common sense. Rule 5, for example, requires the posting of a look-out. This includes using sight and hearing to monitor and appraise present conditions surrounding your boat. The rule is simple: look around you and note the traffic flow. Observe the boats near you and those heading your way. Watch your wake and keep an eye on PWC and kayak operators. And don't just look ahead. Glance astern regularly, particularly when operating in slow displacement mode. Some weekend warrior could be getting close enough to climb up your transom. A look-out is equally important offshore, where running over a log could ruin your day along with the boat's props, shafts and struts. Fog is still one more condition where the extra set of eyes a lookout possesses is critical to your safety. It is best to appoint a crew person as the lookout so you can concentrate on minding the helm. But if you are operating solo, you are not relieved of your obligation to comply with the rule. When I boat alone, I cruise at lower speeds so I can perform the double duty.

Rule 6 requires a vessel to proceed at a safe speed. While this sounds vague, it is not. According to the Coast Guard, safe speed means the operator should go along at a speed that leaves sufficient room to maneuver out of harm's way, or allows you to stop making headway in time to avoid a collision. In determining safespeed, consider visibility, traffic density, wind, current, water depth, and at night, background lights on shore that could make it difficult to see another boat's running lights. This rule also implies that boats equipped with radar will be held accountable to a higher level in periods of reduced visibility. In other words, if your boat is equipped with radar, you are expected to use it for safe navigation.

Rule 7 centers around the risk of collision and bluntly states if there is any doubt that present circumstances might lead to a collision, the risk truly exists and you need to do something about it right now. The avoidance action comes under Rule 8 and your response should include an alteration in course and speed of sufficient magnitude to be readily apparent to the other boat causing you to make this change. This also could include using the VHF to get the other skipper's attention. While this rule assumes the other vessel has a lookout to acknowledge your action, there is no guarantee.Never trust another skipper to knowwhat you are thinking,or be lulled into believing the other operator knows what he is doing. In fact, you are always better off thinking that he does not know anything. In all likelihood, he probably doesn't. Perhaps he is running the boat on autopilot and is asleep at the wheel.

Rule 9 concerns steering and sailing in narrow channels. The inland law states you should stay to the starboard side of the channel as long as it is safe and practical, but you must not hinder a larger vessel that may need all available maneuvering room. This includes sailing craft, which must yield to a power vessel constrained by her draft.

In print, this rule makes sense, but on the water you may encounter fishing boats anchored in the fairway, which is not permitted if their presence obstructs traffic. However, if you are forced to maneuver around an anchored or drifting boat because there is a shoal to starboard and you can't safely clear it with your vessel's draft, you could find yourself on the wrong side of the channel as another boat heads your way. That other boater may think you want to pass him on his starboard side making him nervous about your intent and could cause him to steer directly toward you. This is when cool heads and that lookout are so important.

When you are in doubt, remember Rule 8 and do whatever it takes to avoid a collision. If it means pulling the engines out of gear or slamming them into reverse, do it.

Finally, consider Rule 2, which basically states that an operator is accountable and responsible for any consequences that result from failure to abide by the navigation rules discussed above, as well as all remaining rules. You can buy the latest issue of Navigation Rules at most marine supply outlets, such as Boat U.S and West Marine stores for around $11. A copy of the publication is required to be kept aboard boats 12 meters or greater in length. The material is not easy reading and you will be surprised at the quantity of regulations governing lights, day shapes, sound signals in clear and limited visibility, steering and sailing rules. But you also will learn that the 20-meter sailboat coming your way with her main and jib flapping in the breeze has her engine running because she's displaying a conical shape device with the apex downward. And you can learn that a vessel is aground when she displays three black balls in a vertical line.