Marine NavigationAustralia · 2026

Seamanship & Safety

Using the system well: collision avoidance, night passages, passage planning, tides, weather and what survives a failure.

12 guides68 min of reading
A diagram of primary, secondary and non-electronic navigation layers, with a single failure line crossing out the primary layer while the other two survive. PRIMARY MFD · network SECONDARY tablet NON-ELEC compass SINGLE FAILURE FAILURE DOMAINS
Three layers, one failure. Redundancy means independence, not duplication.
A diagram of primary, secondary and non-electronic navigation layers, with a single failure line crossing out the primary layer while the other two survive. PRIMARY MFD · network SECONDARY tablet NON-ELEC compass SINGLE FAILURE FAILURE DOMAINS

redundancy

Navigation redundancy that actually works

Redundancy is not buying two of everything. It is preventing one failure from removing several critical capabilities at once — which means the best backup usually looks nothing like the primary.

Seamanship & Safety7 min read

Read the guide A four-waypoint route plotted across charted water with depth contours and soundings, a compass rose, and the cross-track error limit marked at one waypoint. WP1WP2WP3WP4 XTE 0.2 814221131 N ROUTE · XTE

checklist

Pre-departure checklist

The decisions you make at the dock are the ones you will not have to make at 0300. Work the list in order, and be willing to use the go / no-go criteria you wrote.

Seamanship & Safety4 min read

Read the guide A plot of two AIS targets on converging courses, with the closest point of approach circled and CPA and TCPA values labelled. CPA 0.2 NM TCPA 8 min CLASS B · SOTDMA

collision avoidance

Collision avoidance with radar and AIS

Electronics tell you a target exists. The collision regulations tell you what to do about it. This guide connects the two, and explains where automated vectors quietly mislead.

Seamanship & Safety7 min read

Read the guide A radar display showing range rings, a rotating sweep, a coastline return, an approaching vessel with a velocity vector, a receding vessel and a rain cell. 6 NM · DOPPLER

radar

How to tune marine radar

Radar is a fog instrument that must be learned in clear weather. This is the order to set it up in, and the targets to practise identifying.

Seamanship & Safety4 min read

Read the guide Two vessels seen at night, the nearer one showing a red port sidelight, a green starboard sidelight and a masthead light, with stars above a dark horizon. SIDELIGHTS · MASTHEAD

night navigation

Night and poor-visibility navigation

After dark the boat has not changed, but almost everything about how you navigate it has. Screen brightness, watch discipline and radar habits decide how safe the night is.

Seamanship & Safety7 min read

Read the guide A vessel transmitting a 406 megahertz distress alert to a satellite, which relays it to a shore-based rescue coordination centre. 406 MHz JRCC EPIRB · COSPAS-SARSAT

man overboard

Man overboard procedure

The person who does not fall overboard has to do all the work. This is the drill, and what each piece of electronics genuinely contributes.

Seamanship & Safety4 min read

Read the guide A four-waypoint route plotted across charted water with depth contours and soundings, a compass rose, and the cross-track error limit marked at one waypoint. WP1WP2WP3WP4 XTE 0.2 814221131 N ROUTE · XTE

passage planning

Passage planning, end to end

Route autogeneration is a planning assistant, not a plan. This is the four-stage method that turns a proposed track into a passage you can actually monitor and abort.

Seamanship & Safety6 min read

Read the guide A trailer boat with an outboard crossing breaking water over a sandbar, with a sounder reading of 2.1 metres to the shifting sand below. 2.1 m SHIFTING BAR TRAILER BOAT

bar crossing

Crossing a coastal bar

A bar is the one place where the chart is least useful and the decision is most consequential. Electronics support the judgement; they do not make it.

Seamanship & Safety4 min read

Read the guide A weather prognosis chart showing closed isobars around a 994 hectopascal low, a cold front with triangular barbs, and a wind barb indicating 25 knots. L 994 25 kn GRIB · 24 H PROG

weather

Weather data and routing offshore

Offshore connectivity has made professional weather data available to recreational boats. Understanding model uncertainty is what turns that data into good decisions.

Seamanship & Safety7 min read

Read the guide A vessel transmitting a 406 megahertz distress alert to a satellite, which relays it to a shore-based rescue coordination centre. 406 MHz JRCC EPIRB · COSPAS-SARSAT

EPIRB

EPIRBs, beacons and safety equipment

A beacon is the one piece of equipment whose entire value is realised in the worst moment. Registration, accessibility and crew knowledge matter as much as the hardware.

Seamanship & Safety7 min read

Read the guide A vessel transmitting a 406 megahertz distress alert to a satellite, which relays it to a shore-based rescue coordination centre. 406 MHz JRCC EPIRB · COSPAS-SARSAT

safety equipment

Safety equipment by state

Requirements are set by each state and territory and scale with distance offshore. This page tells you where the current rules live and what pattern they follow.

Seamanship & Safety5 min read

Read the guide An anchored vessel with its rode running to the seabed, the full swing circle drawn around the anchor, and the depth at high water dimensioned. HW depth SWING CIRCLE

anchoring

Anchoring and anchor-watch electronics

Anchoring is where a navigation system gets used at its most precise and its most tired. Set the alarm for the swing circle you will actually have, not the depth you arrived in.

Seamanship & Safety6 min read

Read the guide

Other topics

The library is organised so each shelf answers a different kind of question.

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