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