UNDERWAY OR MAKING WAY                      RYA Yachtmaster Books                        Home Page

 

Underway: not anchored, or made fast to the shore, or aground. 

Making way: being propelled through the water by sail, machinery, or oar.

This is easy to distinguish by day, at night you can only look at the lights displayed for information.

Navigation Lights – side, stern and masthead (steaming) lights.

Special Lights – indicate the type of vessel eg fishing, NUC, CBD, RAM

Fishing, Trawling, NUC, and RAM vessels are underway when show their special lights, AND making way if they also show navigation lights. Not under command vessels do not show masthead steaming lights when making way.

Any boat fishing  and making way is a trawler.

Tugs can be defined as towing when they show towing lights.

Motor, sail, tugs, Constrained by Draught, pilot, can only be determined as under way at night and always show navigation lights. For 99.9% of the time they will actually be making way, but you cannot assume that.

The reason for the different treatment is that certain vessels may or may not be moving through the water by virtue of the work they do – such as dredgers, survey vessels and cable layers. Also fishing boats may drift with nets out, or tow nets or trawls. Vessels not under command may have operational engines – or not. It is important to separate all these situations because it would otherwise be uncertain what the vessels may do and you need to decide on appropriate actions.

In fog, a motor vessel will make different fog signals:

All other vessels make fog signals (1 long and 2 short) when making way

posted 5th November 2009