[WHOOSH]

Nick, you are asking about the dirty little detail related to singlehanding: it''s very difficult to ASSURE a good watch per the ROR and common sense. There are a variety of tools available to help detect the presence of other ships, and which can be useful to singlehanders: radar transponders, radars with guard zones & alarms, and the new line of AIS receivers made possible by the GMDSS rules. Unfortunately, all these devices are electronic (aka: mortal), alarms may but may not wake one from a deep sleep, two of them rely on the other vessel using their radar, none of them necessarily protect a singlehander from a fishing vessel or other, smaller vessel (especially in rough conditions), and each of them costs money whereas singlehanders are often on smaller boats with smaller budgets.

Jack