Alabama Course on Responsible Boating - Lesson Three: Operating Your Boat Safely

Vocabulary flashcards defining key boating terms, navigation lights, sound signals, lateral and non-lateral markers, anchor types, and equipment from Lesson Three.

Give-way boat

A vessel required to take early and substantial action to keep well away from other vessels by stopping, slowing down, or changing course.

Stand-on boat

A vessel which should maintain its course and speed unless it becomes apparent that the give-way boat is not taking appropriate action.

Powerboat

Any vessel operating using engine power.

Sailboat

A vessel operating using wind power.

Port

The left side of a vessel.

Starboard

The right side of a vessel.

Sidelights

Red and green lights (also called combination lights) visible from side or head-on; a red light indicates the vessel's port (left) side and a green light indicates the vessel's starboard (right) side.

Sternlight

A white light seen only from behind the vessel.

Masthead Light

A white light shining forward and to both sides, located on the mast of a sailboat and required on all powerboats when under engine power.

All-Round White Light

A white light seen from any direction that may combine masthead and stern lights on vessels less than $39.4\,\text{ft}$ in length and serves as an anchor light when sidelights are extinguished.

Short blast

A sound signal of about one second in duration.

Prolonged blast

A sound signal of $4$ to $6$ seconds in duration.

Nuns and Cans

Red triangular-shaped (nuns) or green cylindrical-shaped (cans) lateral navigation markers.

Daymarks

Red triangles or green squares attached permanently to structures, which can be lighted.

Red Right Returning

A phrase used to remember that red colors, red lights, and even numbers indicate the right side of the channel as a boater enters from the open sea or heads upstream.

Intracoastal Waterway (ICW)

A chain of local channels linked together along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts marked with yellow symbols on channel buoys and markers.

Western Rivers System

A variation of ATON used on the Mississippi River and tributaries above Baton Rouge, LA, where unnumbered navigation markers indicate distance from a location (usually the river mouth).

Regulatory Markers (Squares)

Orange-marked non-lateral markers that provide information indicating directions, distances, places, food and supplies, repairs, etc.

Regulatory Markers (Diamonds)

Orange-marked non-lateral markers that warn of dangers such as rocks, dams, shoals, construction, or stumps.

Regulatory Markers (Circles)

Orange-marked non-lateral markers that indicate controlled areas such as speed limit, no fishing, or no anchoring.

Regulatory Markers (Crossed Diamonds)

Orange-marked non-lateral markers indicating areas off-limits (exclusion areas) to all vessels, such as swimming areas, dams, and spillways.

Safe Water Marker

A white buoy with red vertical stripes that indicates unobstructed water on all sides, marking mid-channels or fairways.

Inland Waters Obstruction Marker

A white buoy with black vertical stripes indicating an obstruction to navigation that should not be passed between the buoy and the shore.

Mooring Buoy

A white buoy with a blue horizontal stripe found in marinas and anchoring areas, which is the only buoy boaters may legally tie up to.

Plow style anchor

An anchor good for most vessels that holds by digging itself into bottom sediments.

Fluke style anchor (Danforth®)

An anchor similar to a plow style anchor, but more lightweight.

Mushroom anchor

An anchor with little holding power that should not be used to anchor vessels larger than a small canoe, rowboat, sailboat, or inflatable, and never in rough water or weather.

Nautical charts

Charts helpful when boating in bays or large lakes that provide water depths, locations of channels, sand bars, rocks, vegetation, hazards, and direct courses.

Ignition Safety Switch

An emergency switch with a lanyard attaching the operator to the switch, which shuts off the engine if the lanyard is removed.