Navigation and Seamanship

4.3.4. Importance/Significance of buoys

System provides rules which apply to all fixed and floating marks (other than light houses, sector lights, leasing lights and marks, light ships) and they are serving to indicate.

The primary function of buoys is to warn the mariner of some danger, some obstruction, or change in the contours of the sea bottom, and to delineate the channels leading to various points; occasionally, a buoy may be placed offshore merely to assist a navigator in establishing his position before approaching a harbour (sea buoy). Valuable information is obtained from buoys when they are considered as marking definitely identified spots, for if a mariner knows his location at the moment and is properly equipped with charts, he can plot a safe course on which to proceed. Such features as size, shape, colouring, numbering, and signalling equipment of buoys are but means to warn, orient, and guide the navigator