The One-Minute Guide to the Nautical Rules of the Road (United States Power Squadrons Guides) Paperback – Illustrated, August 29, 2006

Anyone operating a boat must memorize the COLREGS which mariners depend on for knowing which vessel is the give-way-vessel and which is the stand-on-vessel and what their respective DUTIES are to each other. Whoever writes comments about "right-of-way" does not understand COLREG rules 16 and 17 and needs to read all of this book. The book gives the rules as written with good explanations and good pictures and it provides helpful examples of court cases where mariners are found liable for not following the rules. Unlike a different useless book on Amazon which is merely a black and white low quality reprinting of the rules, this book has color pictures of the red, green, yellow, and white lights. The comment complaining that this book does not discuss buoys has missed the point entirely. This book is for rules of the road only. It is not a course in navigation or other nautical matters that a mariner must know. There are excellent books and courses for those; but, when one is ready to sit down and learn the COLREGS, this is as good as any book I know for that dedicated purpose - Except, WARNING: This book was published in 2006 and many changes have been made to the rules up to and including June 2019, so you still must get the current rules from the internet such as the PDF of the rules published there by NOAA.

After a recommendation by an old sea captain, I bought this book + the official Nav ROR handbook from the CG for my upcoming ROR test. I've read this book from cover to cover and will endorse from here on out that if you only buy this book, you'll be doing GREAT at getting the overall basic knowledge of ROR in a down-to-earth language away from the technical, tricky, lawyer talk that is in the Coast Guard handbook. This book lists what each of the rules say, both in International and Inland, word for word as stated in the CG handbook, and then in a non-lawyer dialect breaks down the actual meaning of what the rule means to make it easy to understand. This book is by far an EXCELLENT MUST read for those trying to learn ROR and learn well with imagery, visually seeing what the concept/rule is talking about, and have trouble deciphering lawyer talk or just want what they just read explained to them in a different manner.Although, I don't believe the book is updated with the latest 2015 changes in the CG handbook (I never attempted to compare the two books for this purpose), I urge anyone considering this book to not let those changes be the reason for not reading this book. It still contains the other 99% of the information in the CG handbook and will really help you go from struggling to understanding the Nautical Rules of the Road.

This is a well written guide to the "Rules of the Road. The book not only gives you the rules as written, but explains them in a narrative way and also provides pictures to help better understand the rule being discussed. This book also satisfies the requirement for vessels over 12 meters in length to carry a copy of the Rules on board. It's a great teaching aid and every boater should take the time to learn the "Rules of the Road", this book makes it painless.

This is an excellent book and I have the print version which I provide to any new crew on my boat. Most Rules books just recite the rules. Mr. Wing has provided an explanation of what the rules really mean, not just what they say. Invaluable. I purchased the Kindle version to allow me to keep my rules knowledge refreshed.One of best features in the printed book is the "One-Minute Guide" Decision Tree located inside the front cover. Alas, this decision tree did not make the Kindle Version. Mr. Wing, please fix this. I would give the printed version 5 stars, but only 4 stars to this version because of this omission.

This is a seriously helpful book. If you are in the Navy, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, or are a professional mariner, this book GREATLY simplifies the RoR, which are written in the least clear, most confusing possible language. Seriously, buy this book. The diagrams are particularly useful.For example, the lighting requirements for an unmanned vessel being towed astern are depicted in a clear way, unlike the awkward paragraph describing this in RoR.I qualified OOD with the help of this book.

This is a great book that any boater should read. This covers the rules of the road for boaters.

The author references a one-minute section tree that is supposed to be inside the front cover of the book. There is no decision tree in the Kindle version.

As great as this book is, the latest edition is from 2007. Coast Guard rules have been updated several times since then and this book no longer satisfies the CG requirement that vessels over 12 meters in length carry a copy of the rules on board. The USCG rule book was published in 2021 and needs to be on board. Pity Charlie Wing has not published an update since his book is infinitely easier to understand than the USCG book.