[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 33, Volume 1]

[Revised as of July 1, 2005]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 33CFR62.23]



[Page 147]

 

                TITLE 33--NAVIGATION AND NAVIGABLE WATERS

 

         CHAPTER I--COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

 

PART 62_UNITED STATES AIDS TO NAVIGATION SYSTEM--Table of Contents

 

              Subpart B_The U.S. Aids to Navigation System

 

Sec. 62.23  Beacons and buoys.



    (a) Aids to navigation are placed on shore or on marine sites to 

assist a navigator to determine his position or safe course. They may 

mark limits of navigable channels, or warn of dangers or obstructions to 

navigation. The primary components of the U.S. Aids to Navigation System 

are beacons and buoys.

    (b) Beacons are aids to navigation structures which are permanently 

fixed to the earth's surface. They range from large lighthouses to 

small, single-pile structures and may be located on land or in the 

water. Lighted beacons are called lights; unlighted beacons are called 

daybeacons.

    (1) Beacons exhibit a daymark. For small structures these are 

colored geometric shapes which make an aid to navigation readily visible 

and easily identifiable against background conditions. Generally, the 

daymark conveys to the mariner, during daylight hours, the same 

significance as does the aid's light or reflector at night. The daymark 

of large lighthouses and towers, however, consists of the structure 

itself. As a result, these daymarks do not infer lateral significance.

    (2) Vessels should not pass beacons close aboard due to the danger 

of collision with rip-rap or structure foundations, or the obstruction 

or danger that the aid marks.

    (c) Buoys are floating aids to navigation used extensively 

throughout U.S. waters. They are moored to the seabed by sinkers with 

chain or other moorings of various lengths.

    (1) The daymark of a buoy is the color and shape of the buoy and, if 

so equipped, of the topmark.

    (i) Can buoys have a cylindrical shape.

    (ii) Nun buoys have a tapered, conical shape.

    (iii) Pillar buoys have a wide cylindrical base supporting a 

narrower superstructure. They may be surmounted by colored shapes called 

topmarks.

    (iv) Spherical buoys have a round shape.

    (2) Mariners attempting to pass a buoy close aboard risk collision 

with a yawing buoy, the buoy's mooring, or with the obstruction which 

the buoy marks.

    (3) Mariners should not rely on buoys alone for determining their 

positions due to factors limiting their reliability. Prudent mariners 

will use bearings or angles from beacons or other landmarks, soundings, 

and various methods of electronic navigation. Buoys vary in reliability 

because:

    (i) Buoy positions represented on nautical charts are approximate 

positions only, due to practical limitations in positioning and 

maintaining buoys and their sinkers in precise geographical locations.

    (ii) Buoy moorings vary in length. The mooring lengths define a 

``watch circle'', and buoys can be expected to move within this circle. 

Actual watch circles do not coincide with the dots or circles 

representing them on charts.

    (iii) Buoy positions are normally verified during periodic 

maintenance visits. Between visits, environmental conditions, including 

atmospheric and sea conditions, and seabed slope and composition, may 

shift buoys off their charted positions. Also buoys may be dragged off 

station, sunk, or capsized by a collision with a vessel.



[CGD 86-031, 52 FR 42640, Nov. 6, 1987; CGD 86-031, 52 FR 46351, Dec. 5, 

1987]