COLREGs · Rule 14
Head-on Situation
Last verified: 2026-05-16
TL;DR
When two power-driven vessels meet on reciprocal or nearly reciprocal courses so as to involve risk of collision, each shall alter course to starboard so that they pass on the port side of each other.
Why it shows up on the exam
Two short blasts (Inland) or two long-short signals are wrong here — the rule is one short blast 'I am altering my course to starboard.'
Authoritative source
Source links checked against the current public rule corpus on 2026-05-16.
- 33 CFR §83.14— verbatim Inland Rule text (US Code of Federal Regulations)(retrieved 2026-05-16)
- International COLREGs Rule 14 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 14 — Head-on Situation →More from Part B-II — In Sight of One Another
Related drills
Drill COLREGs Rule 14
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