While the COLREGS do apply to us small craft operators, they were not originally written with smaller vessels as their primary concern. It was SHIPPING the authors were concerned with. Now we have the smallest of powered vessels equipped nearly as well as the largest of ships, and many ways, the scaling down from a well-manned ship's bridge to a one-person-on-watch trawler does not work well. I very much agree with the sentiment that running a radar continuously on a small boat AND paying enough attention to it to avoid collisions with nearby objects and vessels will likely result in some unfortunate event due to "head down syndrome." On a minimally-manned small boat, you can't plant your head in a radar scope and expect to stay out of trouble with the COLREGS requirement for a proper lookout - things just happen too fast in the close quarters of small craft. Yes, I am aware that we all know this, but I mention it to go on to say just having your radar uselessly running during a clear-weather collision without meeting the "systematic observation" criteria of Rule 7(b) could be meaningless to an admiralty judge. If the counter argument is, "Well, I systematically plot all approaching radar targets on a plotting sheet or observe the "systematic" MARPA plot of my radar at all times while operating my boat," I'd say your are defeating the primary purpose (pleasure cruising) of even bothering to get your boat underway because approaching targets are there just about every minute you are underway. If you want your radar on for general navigation uses at all times underway (including collision avoidance), go for it, but I reiterate, I would not assume you will necessarily conform to "systematic observations" in Rule 7(b) shown below without a dedicated watch stander doing only that. Look closely at the two first paragraphs of Rule 7. "RULE 7 Risk of Collision (a) Every vessel shall use all available means APPROPRIATE TO THE PREVAILING CIRCUMSTANCES AND CONDITIONS to determine if risk of collision exists. If there is any doubt such risk shall be deemed to exist." To me and many of my fellow professional mariners, this part of the rule says, "If the sea state and/or visibility conditions could obscure other vessels from your view, radar should be used to determine if there are even any vessels or objects out there and if risk of collision exists." Nowhere does it say I must have my radar on continuously in clear or even crummy weather. I have steamed many a military and civilian ship in clear daylight weather at sea with the radar routinely turned on but using only a visual bearing and a pair of binoculars to tell me about the risk of collision. In foul weather or darkness, we relied more on the radar but never neglected the pelorus, if the vessel was visible to the naked eye. I have also steamed those same ships without the radar operating in good weather. One destroyer captain even dictated the radar was to remain off unless we had a darned good reason to turn it on. "(b) Proper use shall be made of radar equipment if fitted and operational, including long-range scanning to obtain early warning of risk of collision and RADAR PLOTTING OR EQUIVALENT SYSTEMATIC OBSERVATIONS OF DETECTED OBJECTS." It says for "detected objects," but guess what? It does NOT say the targets are to have been originally detected by a radar. Detection could be by electronic countermeasure systems of a warship, direction finding VHF radio on your own boat, AIS radio, by hearing, eyesight, you name it, but nowhere does it say my radar must be on continuously for the initial detection. Further, "Proper use..." can be interpreted to mean any number of things. Given the language of 7(a), it could mean it is NOT proper to try to use radar on a clear day when the naked eye and good seamanship can make a difference faster than a look at the radar blip only every ten seconds or so. I am NOT against proper use of radar. I went so far as to ditch mine and buy a new one a week after departing on a month-long cruise because the old one suddenly would not work below a 12-mile scale. This was far to small a scale (large area) for use in the foggy ICW of SW Florida and during Gulf of Mexico crossings. I like to run my scale at about a mile and a half in really foggy weather (with regular excursions to longer ranges) and even less as I enter a channel. However, I do not and will never run the thing based upon a misinterpretation of the COLREGS on a fine clear day other than for checkout and a bit of training/practice . Rich Gano Calypso (GB42 Hull # 295) Panama City area, FL