‘The Impact of Radar on the Rule of the Road’

Extract

Commander Clissold (19, 109) has produced a very well considered argument to demonstrate that the Steering and Sailing Rules are inadequate for present-day use and that in the future they are likely to fall well short of traffic requirements.

I agree entirely with this assessment and I agree in general with his proposed solution. His suggested Rule requires action to be taken by both parties to every encounter where there is risk of collision, and the most important objection to this is that it implies dual responsibility for manœuvre. This is something which many people consider highly undesirable despite the fact that it apparently succeeds in the case of Rule 18, and to proceed directly from the present Rules to Commander Clissold's Rules would, I believe, be too large a step to be generally acceptable.