Inland · Rule 7
Risk of Collision
Last verified: 2026-05-16
TL;DR
Every vessel shall use all available means to determine if risk of collision exists. If there is any doubt, such risk shall be deemed to exist. Compass bearings of an approaching vessel are the canonical method.
Why it shows up on the exam
Rule 7 is the source of the 'constant bearing, decreasing range' (CBDR) test. Watch for questions where the bearing is changing slowly toward the bow — still risk of collision for very large vessels at close range.
Authoritative source
Source links checked against the current public rule corpus on 2026-05-16.
International parallel
COLREGs Rule 7 — Risk of Collision →More from Part B-I — Conduct in Any Visibility
Related drills
Drill Inland Rule 7
Try the free Rules of the Road practice questions (no sign-in), or sign in to drill citation-backed questions on this rule with immediate feedback and the source chunk in a popover.