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Navigation Rules Information - Rules of the Road on the Water

The Navigation Rules, like the rules of the road on the highway, establish a consistent way to navigate safely and avoid collisions when two boats are crossing paths, are on course to meet head-on, or when one boat wishes to overtake another, including all requirements for the use of sound signals and navigation lights.

The U.S. Aids to Navigation System is a system maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard, consisting of visual, audible, and electronic signals which are designed to assist the prudent mariner in the process of navigation. The aids to navigation system is not intended to identify every shoal or obstruction to navigation which exists in the navigable waters of the United States, but rather provides for reasonable marking of marine features as resources permit: Link: Downloadable US Aids to Navigation Pamphlet

Watts Bar Lake is within the Western Rivers jurisdiction of the US Inland Waterways Navigation Rules. There are two Aids To Navigation programs in use - the Federal system and the State of Tennessee system. The Federal aids to navigation mark the channels of the Tennessee River and its major tributaries -- Clinch River, Emory River and Piney River. Other areas may be marked with State of Tennessee buoys. The Federal and State aids are shown on the US Army Corps of Engineers Tennessee River Navigation Charts. Available for purchase as a printed chart book, each page of the chart book is available on-line for viewing and downloadable in PDF format: Link: Tennessee River Navigation Charts

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Navigation Rules Information - Rules of the Road on the Water