Yachtsmen who suffer near collisions with commercial ships can now report them to an RYA website.

Once logged on the yachtsman will be asked: * Details of their boat, course,speed and position and whether they were showing navigation lights and had a radar reflector fitted. * Details of the other vessel’s course, speed and estimated position what navigation lights were showing and whether any sound signals were made. * A description of the incident: time, weather, wind, seastate, visibility, barometric pressure and tendency. * Whether any lessons can be learnt from the incident. The information will be fed into the Nautical Institute’s International Marine Accident Reporting Scheme.

The website is www.rya.org.uk/cruising/mars.