Patente Nautica Entro 12 Miglia common mistakes
Patente Nautica Entro 12 Miglia · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
In a crossing situation, the candidate applies the 'give way to the boat on the right' rule even when the other vessel is approaching from the port side of a power-driven vessel, or applies it to a crossing with a sailing vessel without checking whether COLREG Rule 18 gives the sailing vessel right of way.
The mnemonic 'whoever is on the right has right of way' is learned for car driving and for the simplest Rule 15 case, then over-generalised. Candidates forget that Rule 15 applies only to two power-driven vessels in sight of one another, and that Rules 18 and 13 (overtaking) override it. The result is a wrong decision in the very situations the examiner draws on the chart plotter.
What to do instead
Work every crossing question through a fixed three-step filter: (1) what type is each vessel and is one overtaking, (2) if both are power-driven and crossing, apply Rule 15 (the vessel with the other on her starboard side gives way), (3) check Rule 18 exceptions for sail, fishing, NUC, RAM. Practise with a sketch of own ship in the centre and bearings marked at 045, 090, 135, 225, 270, 315 relative, and state for each whether you are stand-on or give-way.
When asked what action to take as give-way vessel, the candidate answers only 'alter course to starboard' or only 'reduce speed', and does not state that the alteration must be large enough to be readily apparent, made in good time, and that the give-way vessel must keep clear until finally past and clear.
Textbook phrases are memorised without the quantitative and temporal conditions attached to them. Candidates also confuse 'substantial alteration' with a token 10-degree turn, or believe the duty ends once the other vessel has seen them.
What to do instead
Memorise the Rule 8 checklist as a sentence you can recite: early, substantial (typically at least 30 degrees, and never a series of small successive alterations), readily apparent on radar and visually, and continued until finally past and clear. For a power-driven give-way vessel also state the alternative of reducing speed or stopping if course alteration alone is insufficient, and note that Rule 16 requires the action be positive and made in ample time.
In a coastal position-fixing question, the candidate plots a bearing or a running fix without applying compass deviation and variation correctly, or applies variation with the wrong sign, so the plotted position is systematically offset by several degrees.
The candidate learns 'true virgins make dull company' as a rhyme but never drills the direction of the correction. Variation east is subtracted when going from true to magnetic, and the candidate reverses it. Deviation is then forgotten entirely because on a small pleasure craft the hand-bearing compass is handheld and the deviation card in the folder is ignored.
What to do instead
Write the ladder out every time: True, Variation, Magnetic, Deviation, Compass, with 'east is least' (subtract going T to C) and 'west is best' (add). Do ten conversions in each direction before the exam, and for every chart-work exercise state explicitly which datum the plotted line uses. Remember that a hand-bearing compass used away from the boat's own magnetic field has negligible deviation, but the boat's steering compass does not.
The candidate computes a course to steer or an ETA using speed through the water and distance measured with dividers, then ignores current and leeway, or adds current as a simple arithmetic addition rather than as a vector.
Estimated-position calculations are taught first in still water, and the candidate treats drift as a correction applied to the answer rather than as a separate velocity vector. The set and drift triangle is drawn wrongly, with the current vector placed on the course line instead of on the ground track.
What to do instead
Always draw the vector triangle on the plotting sheet: water track and speed through water from own ship, current set and drift from the end of that vector, and the resulting ground track to the destination. Then read the course to steer from the water-track vector, not from the ground track. Solve three or four such triangles with a known answer (for example 6 knots boat speed, 2 knots current on the beam) until the geometry is automatic.
Given a tidal height or charted depth question, the candidate uses chart datum as if it were sea level, or reads the tide table for the wrong standard port or the wrong time zone, and reports a depth that would put the boat aground.
Charted depths are below chart datum, which is approximately lowest astronomical tide, and the candidate mentally treats the printed number as water depth at any time. Secondary port differences and the difference between UTC and local time in the tide table are also skipped under time pressure.
What to do instead
Use the fixed routine: predicted height of tide above chart datum from the standard port, apply secondary port time and height differences, then actual depth = charted depth + height of tide. Write 'CD' next to every charted sounding you use. Practise one full secondary-port calculation and one 'will I float at 14:00' calculation with the tide curve, and check whether the table times are UTC or local before interpolating.
The candidate answers a man-overboard question with 'turn around and go back' or a single turn without specifying the Williamson turn or the quick stop, and without saying to post a lookout, throw buoyancy, or press the MOB button on the GPS.
MOB is learned as a boat-handling manoeuvre rather than as a drill with a sequence. Candidates also forget that the return must be made on a reciprocal course to retrace the track, and that in darkness or rough water the victim will not be visible without a marker.
What to do instead
Recite the drill in order: shout 'man overboard' and press MOB on the plotter, throw a lifebuoy with light and smoke if available, post a dedicated lookout who points continuously, execute the Williamson turn (hard to starboard, then hard to port onto the reciprocal, or the reverse to keep the propellers away from the person), approach into wind and sea, engine in neutral near the person, recover over the lowest freeboard. Be able to sketch the Williamson and quick-stop tracks.
The candidate confuses the categories of fire extinguisher and their use, for example choosing a water extinguisher for a fuel fire or a CO2 extinguisher for a deep-seated Class A fire, and does not know the minimum number and type required on a pleasure craft of a given length.
Fire classes and extinguisher ratings are memorised as a list without the fuel-to-agent mapping. Candidates also assume the number of extinguishers depends only on length, ignoring the presence of a galley, an inboard engine or a fixed system, and forget that the extinguisher must be serviced and within its inspection date.
What to do instead
Learn the mapping as a table: Class A solids with water or foam, Class B liquids with foam, dry powder or CO2, Class C gases by isolating the supply, and electrical fires with CO2 or dry powder, never water. Then learn the Italian requirement for recreational craft in the 6 to 12 mile range, including the number of extinguishers by length and the fixed system credit, and check the service label date as part of your pre-departure checklist.
The candidate gives a distress call that omits the position or gives it in the wrong format, transmits on channel 16 without the MAYDAY RELAY structure, or cannot state the difference between MAYDAY, PAN PAN and SECURITE.
The DSC and VHF procedures are studied as text and never spoken aloud, so under pressure the candidate freezes or invents an order. Position is given as a place name or as a latitude with no minutes, and the candidate forgets that a MAYDAY must include nature of distress and number of persons on board.
What to do instead
Practise the spoken MAYDAY out loud until it is fluent: MAYDAY three times, vessel name and call sign three times, MAYDAY plus name once, position in latitude and longitude or bearing and distance from a charted landmark, nature of distress, assistance required, persons on board, any other information, OVER. Then do the same for PAN PAN (urgency) and SECURITE (safety), and rehearse the DSC distress alert button and the follow-up voice call on channel 16.
The candidate answers a legal question about documents and safety equipment by listing what they carry on their own boat rather than what the licence and the applicable distance category require, or confuses the 6-mile, 12-mile and unlimited categories.
The candidate's own experience is with a small craft inside sheltered waters, so the equipment list for the 12-mile category feels theoretical. Categories are also confused because some items scale with distance from the coast and others scale with boat length or with the number of persons on board.
What to do instead
Build a one-page matrix with rows for the equipment items (life jackets, liferaft, flares, extinguishers, first aid kit, VHF, EPIRB, navigation lights, anchor and cable) and columns for the distance categories, and fill it from the current regulation. For each item note whether the trigger is distance, length or persons. Then answer every legal question by naming the category first and reading across the row.
The candidate describes hull and rig terms loosely, for example calling the freeboard the depth of the hull, confusing draught with depth, or mixing up bow and stern spring lines when describing a mooring, and cannot name the parts of an anchor and its cable.
Nomenclature is treated as vocabulary to be recognised rather than defined precisely, and the Italian terms (pescaggio, bordo libero, opera viva, opera morta) are learned by sight without a clear mental picture. Mooring line names are memorised by position on the diagram rather than by function.
What to do instead
Draw a midship section and a profile of a generic motorboat and label length overall, length at waterline, beam, draught, freeboard, depth, sheer, camber, and the parts of the anchor (shank, crown, flukes, stock). Then draw a plan view alongside a quay with bow line, stern line, forward and aft spring, and breast lines, and state what each line prevents the boat from doing. Redraw both from memory twice a week.