Sailing

Buoys and Buoyage systems are harmonised for safety purposes. There are two Regions A and B. The regions differ only in the use of green or red for lateral marks. Region A has red port hand markers whilst region B has green for the port hand.

There are five basic types of marks used, for navigation and safety they are;

Lateral marks.

Region A. Port hand marks are red,, can or spar shaped. If a topmark is fitted it is a single red can. Lights are, red any sequence. Starboard are green, conical or spar shaped, a topmark is a single green cone, point upwards. Lights are green, any sequence. Lateral marks may be numbered sequentially along the channel, even to port, odd to starboard.

Cardinal marks

Mark unsafe or dangerous areas. They are pillar or spar shaped painted black and yellow and always carry a double cone topmark, the orientation of the cones indicate the direction of the hazard and which side to pass it. The lights are white and are either quick or very quick.

Isolated danger marks

These marks are black with one or more horizontal red bands, they are pillar or spar shaped, lights are white flashing twice, with a topmark of two black spheres.

Safe water marks

These are spherical, pillar or spar shaped with a red spherical topmark. They are painted with red and white vertical stripes. Any light is white, occulting, isophase, Morse A or single long flash every 10 seconds.

Special marks

Are not primarily to assist navigation but indicate a special area, examples are, water ski area, underwater cables, outfalls, etc. They are yellow, any shape not conflicting with lateral or safe marks, topmark is a yellow X. Any light is yellow and the rhythm not used for white lights. For grave danger the marks may be duplicated.

In addition there are such things as mooring buoys. These are purely local and the authority in charge should ensure they cannot be confused with navigational buoys.

They are many colours and shapes, some of which are of local significance, so it would be important to find this information beforehand. For instance green cones may be private mooring areas.

Answer 1

A buoy is anything that's used to provide flotation (buoyancy) to another object.

Some buoys are tethered and allow navigational aids to float in place, others (sonobuoys, radiobuoys) are free-floating or tethered to objects suspended in the water column (like fishing nets).

More examples are listed below, all of them have the common purpose of providing buoyancy.

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Answer 2

A buoy is a floating object in the water that is anchored to the bottom of the body of water.

Bouys have two main purposes.

The primary purpose is a navigation aid. They mark channels into harbors and deep water channels in rivers as well as mark off hazards and specific areas. "Red, Right, Returning" is a phrase that sailors use to remember that the red bouys should be on the starboard side of the channel and the green ones on the left when coming into the harbor. They may or may not have lights and/or sound devices (a bell being common) on them.

There is also the anchor or mooring bouy that is found in harbors and lakes so that the owner of the bouy's boat can attach a rope for mooring purposes.

A Clipper was the fastest of all sailing ships.

For a sailing ships to be faster draught of that ship must be low.

Other fast-sailing ships are:

• Carrack
• Caravel
• Sloop
• Schooner
• Brig
• Brigandine
• Barque