COLREGs · Rule 12
Sailing Vessels
Last verified: 2026-05-16
TL;DR
When two sailing vessels are approaching, the vessel with wind on her port side keeps out of the way; if both have wind on the same side, the windward vessel keeps out of the way of the leeward vessel.
Authoritative source
Source links checked against the current public rule corpus on 2026-05-16.
- 33 CFR §83.12— verbatim Inland Rule text (US Code of Federal Regulations)(retrieved 2026-05-16)
- International COLREGs Rule 12 verbatim text is published by the IMO. The Inland counterpart 33 CFR §83 chunk above mirrors the international wording almost verbatim.
Inland parallel
Inland Rule 12 — Sailing Vessels →More from Part B-II — In Sight of One Another
Related drills
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