I tell my motor cruising clients every week that they should display an anchor ball when at anchor, I even go on to explain that you can buy them from any chandlery in Portugal.  Do I see my clients rushing off to buy one? No! - in fact they often then look at me with an expression of disbelief, almost as if I were making it up, but they should - because collision regulations state very clearly that when we are at anchor we should display an anchor ball.

My experience of visiting anchorages in Portugal is that more than 90% of yachts do display an anchor ball when at anchor and much more than 90% of motor boats do not. I hold myself partially to blame for this because a lot of the British people who own motor cruisers and sports boats have completed ICC courses with me and I have not insisted during the course that we use an anchor ball when there isn’t one already on board.

I was at anchor in Ria Formosa a few days ago, a very large motor cruiser anchored in front of us had a lot of children on board who were taking turns to drive both a RIB and a Jet Ski in tight circles quite close to us. A small motor boat with two marine policemen on board stopped them and whilst I could not hear the conversation they clearly asked as to where they came from, the teenagers indicated that they were from the large motor cruiser. The police escorted the two boats over to the large motor cruiser where they began questioning the skipper. Following a lengthy conversation and inspection of documents the police left and the skipper immediately issued buoyancy aids to the young people who were using the jet ski and the RIB. He then walked forward to the bows of his boat where we could see him attaching an anchor ball as can be seen in the photograph below.

Whether or not the skipper was just warned by the Police or whether they will take it further and issue a fine I don’t know and it has nothing to do with me. But what I do know is that if there is a fine it won’t be small one, 500 or 1000 euros is not uncommon.

Watching this scenario has certainly changed my attitude with regard to anchor balls and lifejackets / buoyancy aids. I will in future make certain that children at all times wear lifejackets or buoyancy aids when using a RIB, dinghy or jet ski and I am going to buy my own anchor ball which I will have with me on all power boat and motor cruiser courses so that rather than waste valuable training time insisting that owners go off and buy one on the first day of a course, I can use mine. This is self-preservation because during an ICC course my clients do not yet have an ICC certificate and I am therefore considered to be the skipper and it will be me who will have to pay the fine.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse – we are expected to have a good working knowledge of The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.  The only exception to the anchor ball rule (rule 30) is ‘A vessel of less than 7 metres in length, when at anchor not in or near a narrow channel, fairway or anchorage, or where other vessels normally navigate, shall not be required to exhibit the lights or shape prescribed in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this rule.

Since writing this article I have received several emails from people asking where they can buy an anchor ball.  For a yacht I would recommend the flat plastic type that links together with two slots so that it looks like a ball, you can buy these from any chandlery. For a motor boat I recommend the inflatable type that you can hang from the pulpit as you can see in the photograph above. Not all chandlerys stock them, but in the Algarve you can buy them from Sopromar at Lagos and Constamarina in Vilamoura.