RYA Yachtmaster COLREGs Revision: The Corners Everyone Skips (Lights, Shapes, Sound Signals, Buoyage)

Revision card for RYA Yachtmaster Coastal/Offshore candidates. The RYA's own exam scope confirms examiners assess "knowledge of the IRPCS" alongside skippering, boat handling, seamanship, navigation, safety awareness, meteorology and signals, drawn from the full G158 Yachtmaster Scheme Syllabus (rya.org.uk). This card focuses on the bit of that syllabus most candidates quietly stop revising once they can recognise a red-over-green at a glance.

Why This Is the Bit That Bites

One examiner-preparation writeup for Yachting Monthly put it bluntly: after years of sailing and holding a Coastal Skipper ticket, the author "quickly found I'd had significant 'skills fade' in my detailed knowledge of the Collision Regulations, particularly lights, shapes and sounds, and buoyage light characteristics" (Yachting Monthly). This is a genuinely common pattern, not a one-off. You drill collision avoidance and give-way situations constantly because that's what you actually do on the water. Lights, shapes, sound signals and buoyage light characteristics you mostly don't — until an examiner asks.

The Bar Is Higher Than You Think

This isn't a "know the basics and you'll scrape through" topic. The same source is explicit about the standard examiners actually apply: "Yachtmasters need to be getting at least 80% of the lights and shapes right, and importantly be able to demonstrate that they understand them, to pass." The margin for error is roughly two wrong answers in ten — get more than that wrong and the examiner will not be able to pass you on this element, however good your boat handling was that day.

What "Everyone Skips" Actually Means

It's rarely Rule 15 crossing situations or a basic red/green/white power-driven vessel picture that trips candidates up — most sailors have that cold. The gaps sit in the corners of the rulebook that don't come up on an ordinary afternoon sail:

• Vessels engaged in unusual work — trawlers actually shooting or hauling gear (as opposed to just "a fishing boat"), vessels engaged in dredging or underwater operations, vessels constrained by their draught
• Towing combinations — the Yachting Monthly piece specifically flags "towed vessels of the bizarest dimensions and sizes" as an examiner favourite, because the lights/shapes change with tow length and there's a lot to get wrong
• Sound signals for vessels "in all sorts of pickles" — not just the standard manoeuvring signals, but restricted visibility signals for vessels not under command, restricted in ability to manoeuvre, at anchor, or aground
• Buoyage light characteristics — not just red-left/green-right in the IALA A region, but the actual rhythm and colour of cardinal, isolated danger, safe water and special marks after dark

How Examiners Actually Test This

You won't usually get a formal written test on lights and shapes. The same Yachting Monthly account describes the real method: "many examiners will use packs of flip cards to test your knowledge of lights, shapes, buoyage and collision avoidance during a quiet moment on exam day. It's not meant to be an interrogation" — but it is a pass/fail moment dressed up as a casual chat over a cup of tea in the cockpit. Treat it accordingly.

A Better Way to Revise Sound Signals

Trying to rote-learn every individual sound signal combination is the wrong approach and the reason skills fade so fast after a course ends. The better method, per the same source, is to learn the basic building-block meanings first (short blast = turning to starboard, prolonged blast = warning/making way, etc.) and then understand how they combine for more complex situations — rather than memorising dozens of signals as unrelated facts you'll forget within a month.

Quick Self-Check

• What lights and shapes does a vessel restricted in her ability to manoeuvre show, both underway and when she has way off her?
• Can you correctly read the buoyage light characteristics for a cardinal mark without hesitating — all four cardinals, not just the one nearest your home waters?
• What's the sound signal difference between a vessel aground and a vessel at anchor, and could you explain why the distinction matters?
• If an examiner showed you a flip card with an unusual towing light combination right now, would you get it — or would you be guessing?

Test yourself: COLREGs · Navigation Knowledge Checks.

Related Reading

• The Jabal Hafit Collision — what happens when COLREGs knowledge exists on paper but breaks down under real watchkeeping pressure
• Gard's "AIS-Assisted Collisions" cases — real collisions where the screen was trusted over the lookout, the same discipline this revision card is testing
• Boatmasters Licence Revision: Bridge Watchkeeping & Navigation — the equivalent commercial small-craft syllabus, useful if you're weighing Yachtmaster against a BML route