Dive flag rules

[Don Burke]

A I have a diver down, keep well clear and at a slow speed.
B I am taking on, carrying or discharging dangerous goods.
C Yes, affirmative.
D Keep clear of me, I am manoeuvring with difficulty.
E I am directing my course to starboard.
F I am disabled, communicate with me.
G I require a pilot; I am hauling nets.
H I have a pilot on board.
I I am directing my course to port.
J I am on fire and have dangerous cargo on board. Keep well clear.
K I wish to communicate with you.
L You should stop. I have something important to communicate.
M My vessel is stopped and making no way through the water.

Sid

Why not just give all of Pub 102?

http://pollux.nss.nima.mil/pubs/pubs_j_show_sections.html?dpath=ICOS&ptid=7&rid=1466

 

[Drew Sailbum]

The last time I was in Wales most people seemed to drive in the middle...

Chris

In Italy, it was on the right. In Malta it was on the left. And the last time I was in Sicily, most people seemed to drive in the shade.


FWIW, Red Right Returning for channel markers in Cayman waters. The A flag is not used, but rather we go with the familiar red & white diver's down flag.

 

[String]

Cayman tends to be north american given its location and so on so its understandable.

Its also within IALA B territory which explains the nav lights.

Fly that red stripey thing here and the jet skiers have every right to mow you down

 

[Bubble Blower 479]

Here is a listing of the Utah Law. I'm looking for a more official site.
www.mermaidscuba.com/laws.html

 

[MikeC]

I may be off base but the way I remember some discussion about the flags in the US is that the international A flag and the the red white dive flag should both be flown at the same time. They mean technically different things. The red/white dive flag means divers below keep a safe distance and the international A flag means that the boat can not navigate or move.

I seem to remember a photo of the "Seeker", or another NY/NJ boat flying both.

Of course, if you are doing a shore dive, you would tow just the red/white dive flag as a marker.

 

[rab]

In Ohio, you could be required to fly both the Alpha and the Diver Down (red w/ stripe). The Ohio Council of Skin and Scuba Divers, Inc. site has a section on Ohio Dive Flag Laws that excerpts the relevant sections of the Ohio Revised Code and the Ohio Administrative Code, Division of Watercraft

-Rob

 

[grazie42]

Sting once bubbled:

Please lets all use gallons, i HATE litres and i measure mileage in miles per gallon, cost per litre means nothing to me !

Some people like to jump off cliffs as well...doesent mean that its a bright idea...

Most divers, myself included, use litres/bar for diving but use gallons, pounds and so on for everything outside it.

Tell me why this makes sense...please...

I recently took a course in Florida and whenever the instructor started talking feet, fahrenheit or some other f-word i´d just as him what that meant in metric...calculating atm from feet is just a PITA...so much simpler in meters...
PSI? or is it PSIG? lets just use BAR...

I told him I thought the red/white thing looked nice and then asked him where he kept the diveflag

 

[String]

Sting once bubbled:

Tell me why this makes sense...please...

It makes sense purely because we've been using the other units for decades, in some case centuries. Most divers have been using them all their life so have a natural feeling for just how fast a mile per hour is or how big a gallon is. Introducing new units like litres or kilometers most people here including me have to mentally convert it to the units we're used to in order to get an approximate idea for what it really means.

100mph means something to me. 150km/h means nothing to me unless i convert it. KM is one metric unit i absolute hate using for some reason.

Just to confuse matters, when im flying, in most of the world feet not meters are the standard measure of altitude (only exception really the old eastern block and russia).

 

[rab]

When I was doing a lot of cycling (bike riding), I had my computer set for km/h since I didn't need to compare with automobiles anyway. I knew from the ground going by how fast I was going anyway.

I've done one dive with my dive computer set to metric (meters, degC). It was initially odd becaue I forgot that it was showing 0.1m resolution and momentarily thought 4.0m was 40ft! That would've been a fast descent! I got the idea for diving when someone (on ScubaBoard, of course) pointed out that in Imperial mode, the depth was in 1ft increments, but in Metric it was 0.1m increments -- that's about 4in or 1/3ft -- allowing for more precise bouyancy checking when trying to hold a certain depth.

I definitely agree with the ease of bar compared to psi for pressure, but my guage is in psi and I can do the math in my head fast enough to convert to cu.ft. With bar (pressure), L (volume), m (depth), I could do RMV calcs in my head, too.

-Rob

 

[Charlie99]

Its still confusing given most of planet earth use IALA A with the exception of the USA. Youd have thought/hoped that someone could have standardised things by now.

IALA B system will be obsoleted as soon as we all agree on what side of the road to drive on.