Part of my job includes training prospective new boat operators about navigation, collision regulations and buoyage. For visual learners it’s a lot more effective to demonstrate things in real life rather than just drawing on whiteboards, but sea time is expensive and there are certain scenarios I’d rather my trainees have chance to practice in a less dangerous environment first!
You can buy sets of this kind of stuff, either from proper training companies or 3D prints from Etsy sellers, but I thought it would be more fun to build a set in Lego instead.
The models are very basic, but maybe of use to somebody out there. The set includes 6 port (red) cans, 6 starboard (green) cones, four cardinal marks, one special mark, one isolated danger mark and a safe water mark.
I’ve included a couple of basic rigid inflatable boats (and some minifigures to drive them). They include a long antenna-like stalk; I print out vessel names using a Dymo labeller and wrap them around the top of this, so that their names are obvious and can be used in practicing radio procedures. My play set (er, I mean, professional training aid) at work contains models of our own boats, which I can’t make available for download. I also built myself one of these dinghies to use for COLREGs practice, and there are of course plenty of official and community models of boats you can build for yourself.
Download links are below. These files will open in Lego Studio so you can modify them if you want, and you can upload them to Bricklink to order the parts.
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