Marine autopilot rules Australia

The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea apply on all Australian waters, through the Navigation Act 2012 for vessels under Commonwealth jurisdiction and through each state and territory's marine safety legislation for recreational vessels. Rule 5 — definition requires every vessel to maintain a proper lookout by sight and hearing and by all available means at all times. Rule 6 requires a safe speed, Rule 7 a full appraisal of collision risk, and Rules 8 and 16 to 17 govern who gives way and how.

An autopilot does not keep a lookout, does not judge speed and does not give way. Everything in Part B of the rules remains the skipper's job while the pilot is engaged, and investigations into collisions involving recreational vessels repeatedly cite an engaged pilot and no effective lookout.

Domestic commercial vessels, including charter yachts, fishing vessels and work boats, are regulated by AMSA under the National Standard for Commercial Vessels. The NSCV — definition sets steering system standards and the vessel's safety management system sets operational procedures. Surveyors assess the autopilot installation for override, alarms and integration with the steering gear; the autopilot product itself is not certified. Operators should write autopilot use into the SMS: who may engage it, when it must be disengaged (bars, harbours, restricted visibility), and how the watch is kept.

No regulation names autopilots on bars, but every state's guidance on bar crossings assumes a skipper at the helm with the throttle in hand, and the volunteer marine rescue services that publish bar waypoints say the same. Hand-steer every bar. In harbours with ferry and commercial traffic, and in fog, the lookout and safe-speed rules make an engaged pilot a liability unless a watch is kept continuously.