Where Candidates Go Wrong
The common failure is treating IAMSAR Volume III as a reference book rather than a required operational document, and conflating distress signals with urgency or safety signals — or listing signals by rote without explaining what they communicate and when they are used. Examiners also catch candidates who cannot explain the master's duty when distress is received, or who confuse carriage obligation with content knowledge.
Carriage Obligation
SOLAS V/21 requires IAMSAR Volume III to be carried aboard ships. For yachts under the Red Ensign Group Yacht Code (REG YC Part A, which superseded LY3), this obligation applies. The volume is an operational document — it must be accessible on the bridge, not stowed away.
The Three Urgency Levels
MAYDAY — distress. Grave and imminent danger, requiring immediate assistance. Repeated three times. All distress signals communicate the same state: the vessel is in mortal peril.
PAN PAN — urgency. A serious situation but not yet grave and imminent. Medical emergencies, man overboard in a defined situation, urgent navigation messages.
SÉCURITÉ — safety. Navigation or meteorological warnings. No assistance required; information broadcast.
A frequent oral trap: the examiner asks you to distinguish urgency from distress. The test is imminence: urgent danger that has not yet become grave and imminent is urgency; once it becomes grave and imminent, it is distress.
Distress Signals (Regulation IV/2 / Annex IV SOLAS)
Distress signals include, but are not limited to:
- Continuous sounding of fog signal apparatus
- SOS by any means (Morse)
- MAYDAY by radiotelephony
- Rocket or shell throwing red stars at short intervals
- Orange smoke signal (daytime)
- Red parachute or hand flare
- Flames on the vessel (burning tar, oil barrel)
- Gun or explosive fired at approximately one-minute intervals
- Square flag with a ball above or below it
- Slowly and repeatedly raising and lowering outstretched arms
- Radiotelegraph alarm (two tones)
- EPIRB activation (406 MHz)
- SART activation
- Signals transmitted by DSC (digital selective calling) — distress alert
Candidates must know that these are recognised internationally and that misuse of distress signals is a criminal offence.
The Master's Duty
SOLAS V/33: on receiving information from any source that a vessel or persons are in distress, the master is obliged to proceed with all speed to render assistance unless physically unable, or unless released by the rescue coordination centre (RCC) when another vessel has taken over. If the master does not proceed, reasons must be recorded in the official log.
IAMSAR Vol III in Practice
The volume contains SAR checklists, standard on-scene coordinator (OSC) duties, and communications procedures. In an oral, expect to be asked how you would set up as an OSC, what information you transmit on taking on-scene command, and how you use the volume's own checklists to structure your response.