Re: Why boats don't have turn signal?
Hello I was wondering why boats don't have a turn signal? I boat the Potomac river and it can get very busy at times and one time I wanted to turn left into a side stream and the incoming boat kept on going to his port side to keep me on his starboard side so I ended up stopping and wait for hem to pass or we would have crashed
The situation described is on an inland waterway, turn signals would not be much use on an open sea.
Splat said:
They do. It's called your horn.
Two short blows my friend, two short blows.
Indicating ones turn audibly seems crazy to me. Isn't boating primarly a visual task as is the case with driving a (land) vehicle? If two vessels facing each other, then each boat should be visible to the other boater, and so a visual signal, such as a gesture or flashing light would be more intuative. Horn signals might make sense if coming from behind or any other situation where the other boater might not see you.
jay_marril said:
Probably for the same reason that a red light is not placed on the "port" side of your car and a green light is not placed on the "starboard" side of your car.
The lighting system used fits the purpose, and as previously mentiioned, there is a maritime system for signalling passing intentions.
But agian, the system you are reffering to was presumably designed for use in the nautical envirement, with it's all way water traffic scenarios.
Inland waterways and different in that water traffic is two-way. The red and green lights are actually right of way lights, and on an open sea, the person driving/sailing the vessel approaching from the port sees a red lights and knows they are requride to give way. The boater on the starboard sees a green light and keeps heading straight. But the give way to the starboard rul isn't generally relevant on inland waterways, is it?
