SUB-COMMITTEE ON SAFETY OF
NAVIGATION
45th session
Agenda item 4
NAV 45/4/3
23 July 1999
Original: ENGLISH
AMENDMENT TO THE COLREGs
Submitted by Japan
SUMMARY
Executive summary: This document contains the proposal to amend the regulations concerning whistles, bells and lights in International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972.
Action to be taken: Paragraph 6
Related documents: MSC 69/20/4, NAV 44/14
1 As the number of yachts and pleasure boats are increasing and many small vessels are being imported from foreign countries, recently Japan came up against serious problems on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972 (COLREGs). Especially, many owners of small vessels who desire to use small and light equipment show strong discontent with whistles and bells conforming with COLREGs because they are too heavy and large for these small vessels. Moreover there are many cases where the owners of imported small vessels are forced to replace existing whistles with new whistles complying with COLREGs since many whistles equipped with imported small vessels do not comply with COLREGs. We think that this replacement must be a kind of barrier to smooth distribution of small vessels in the world. Therefore Japan proposed the consideration on the amendments to the COLREGs in regard to whistles, bells etc. of small vessels at the sixty-ninth session of the Maritime Safety Committee.
2 The sixty-ninth session of the Maritime Safety Committee agreed that Japan's proposal (MSC 69/20/4) should be included in the Sub-Committee's work-programme as a high priority item on "Amendments to the COLREGs", with a target completion date of 2000 and referred the above-mentioned document to NAV 44 for consideration.
