Rule 14 addresses head-on situations between power-driven vessels.
IMO COLREG 1972Official text
(a) When two power-driven vessels are meeting on reciprocal or nearly reciprocal courses so as to involve risk of collision each shall alter her course to starboard so that each shall pass on the port side of the other.
(b) Such a situation shall be deemed to exist when a vessel sees the other ahead or nearly ahead and by night she could see the masthead lights of the other in a line or nearly in a line and/or both sidelights and by day she observes the corresponding aspect of the other vessel.
(c) When a vessel is in any doubt as to whether such a situation exists she shall assume that it does exist and act accordingly.Reproduced verbatim from the IMO COLREG 1972 Convention (as amended).
STCW Bridge Watch Lens
Decide applicability before manoeuvring: Rules 4-10 apply in any visibility, Rules 11-18 only when vessels are in sight, and Rule 19 governs radar-only encounters in restricted visibility.
Build the traffic picture with sight, hearing, radar/ARPA and chart context.
Do not let AIS or one isolated bearing replace systematic observation.
After manoeuvring, keep monitoring bearing, range, CPA/TCPA and passing distance until the other vessel is finally past and clear.
Exam Focus
Identify the vessel types first, then the relative bearing, then whether one vessel is overtaking.
Misclassifying the encounter is the usual exam failure.
If two rules seem to conflict, check the order carefully: overtaking duties still apply, and Rule 2 still requires ordinary seamanship.
Punti chiave
Both vessels alter to starboard — pass port to port
Head-on is when you see both sidelights or masthead lights in line
If in doubt, assume it is a head-on situation
Only applies to power-driven vessels
Errori comuni
Altering to port in a head-on situation
Not recognizing a nearly head-on situation as head-on
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