# Marker Buoy colours



## Rogerfrench (Feb 25, 2010)

I recently went to sea for the first time in many, many years. I went on Queen Mary 2's celebration of Cunard's 175 years, and very pleasant it was.
It was the first time I'd been on the deck of a ship going up the Mersey in 50-odd years, and I noticed that buoys have changed colours.
Port hand buoys are red, with red lights, and starboard hand buoys are green with green lights.
In my seafaring days, starboard hand buoys were black with white lights, and green buoys were Wreck buoys.

When did it change, please?


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## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

Hi, Roger,

The buoyage system was changed in or about 1974, to many howls of anguish, as it seemed obvious that white lights were far more readily visible than green lights (of equal power) could ever be.

The new system was labelled the IALA system, having been introduced by (I think) the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities. Some suggested that the abbreviation stood for "Incredible Aberration of Landbound Admirals."


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## Rogerfrench (Feb 25, 2010)

Thank you Barrie!


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Plain all red is hard to see... compared to red checkered and green is hard to see. In any kind of green colour sea.... grey to Caribbean blue.... hard to see the green.


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## Dartskipper (Jan 16, 2015)

When I went sailing across the Atlantic in 1974, the buoyage system here was still using black conical buoys on the Starboard hand, with red, or red and white checkers, to Port.
In the USA, Starboard Hand buoys were red, which at first I found confusing. My American crew mates used to say "Red, Right, Returning," to remind themselves which side of the buoy to pass.

Roy.


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## Rogerfrench (Feb 25, 2010)

Americans are still reversed. Oh well.


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## Basil (Feb 4, 2006)

IALA-B in all the Americas - weird innit?

Recollect sailing north towards a shoal with clear water to the west.
The chart showed a cardinal westerly to the west of the shoal so I headed just to the left of it.
Having nothing better to do, as we approached, I took a look at it using the bins.
Oh, dear! It was a southerly - so hung a bit more left hand down :sweat:


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

I don't think I've ever looked at a buoy and thought... Ah... there it is. It is red (or green) of can shape (or conical)... then proceed. If I see a buoy... I want to know where in hell I am and where I am going and then look for the buoys. A buoy with out a chart is useless! For those on the coast and know what they are doing all the time... that is a different matter. Deepsea or foreign going... a chart is a good friend!


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## 8575 (Sep 8, 2006)

For years I paid little attention to the yellow DZ buoys when I saw one, which wasn't often as generally the big ships stayed well to seaward. Then I joined the RMAS and realised how important they are since I spent a lot of time laying, recovering and maintaining them around the UK coast.

Roger French would find modern wreck marking buoys a blaze of colour - wide blue and yellow vertical stripes.


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