Military fighter pilots can suffer from a condition called information overload, which can be brought about by overwhelming amounts of technology in the cockpit that distract from the primary mission of flying the aircraft.
This phenomenon has led to placing a second aviator known as a RIO—radar intercept officer—on board to relieve the pilot from monitoring, managing, and operating technologies such as radar, weapons systems, and navigation. If you watched the movie Top Gun (the first and best one, I think), you will recall that Goose, seated behind Maverick in the F-14 Tomcat, served as the RIO.
Information overload also can occur for helmsmen piloting today’s boats. As marine electronics provide increasing amounts of information, there’s a tendency to become preoccupied with electronic displays rather than keeping eyes on the surrounding waters and driving the boat.
This is particularly true in challenging conditions such as in the dark of night or dense fog, when technologies such as radar, AIS, electronic chart plotting and night-vision cameras are relied on heavily for safe navigation.
These are times when I want next to me at the helm the boating equivalent of a RIO—a co-captain whose responsibility is to manage and monitor critical navigational electronics while I man the wheel and maintain a lookout.
In order to trust a crewmember in this role, they need to be someone who possesses the skillset to operate and interpret marine electronics—and remain focused. For me, this includes a handful of fishing buddies, most of whom have honed these skills aboard their own boats.
On one occasion, I had the pleasure of working with a co-captain who had manned far more sophisticated electronics aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. I really trusted him, and I learned a thing or two as we encountered heavy fog on a 35-mile spring return trip from Santa Catalina Island.
Vocal communication between you and your co-captain plays a vital role. The co-captain needs to speak up, for example, at the first indication of a radar return. Like in a scene from the movie Greyhound, they should provide a relative bearing and distance (such as 12 o’clock, 1 mile) and regular updates. They might also offer suggested course corrections as a target grows closer. Hand signals indicating direction can complement verbal communications.
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A co-captain can help boost safety even when conditions are nice. I remember another return trip from Catalina in flat-calm seas with excellent visibility and no other boat in sight. I was focusing my eyes on the waters ahead, cruising at about 24 knots, and feeling relaxed when my co-captain grabbed my shoulder and shouted, “Jim, watch out!” Another boat was closing fast from about 150 feet off our starboard quarter with apparent intentions to cross our bow at a dangerously close distance.
I stabbed the throttle to quickly accelerate and force the reckless boater astern of us. I should note that this occurred during COVID, at a time when a lot of new boaters were on the water with little or no knowledge of what constitutes prudent seamanship, including giving another boat a wide berth on an otherwise vacant ocean. Thank goodness for my co-captain, who kept his eyes up, his head on a swivel, and alerted me to the threat.
