Guidelines for Health and Safety on Board Small Fishing Boats

The watch keeper’s main job is to ensure the safe navigation of the vessel and to prevent:

• running aground
• colliding with another vessel or moving object
• hitting a rock or other hazard

The law says that someone must be on watch at all times. In order to avoid collisions with either land or a floating object sound, professional bridge watch-keeping practices and procedures must be put in place on all seagoing vessels regardless of their size!

There is a lot of information and resources to help with watch keeping. While there may still be the odd uncharted rock around the globe, the charts, radars, and other navigational aids are now detailed and very reliable. If a vessel does run aground, the reason will often be because someone made a mistake or had poor seamanship skills.

This section covers

• the watch keeper’s job
• using two methods to check the vessel’s position
• look out duties
• tips for using navigational equipment
• being fit for duty as a watch keeper
• the signals to display when fishing and trawling