[Rich]

I agree, but they have a long history and probably will never change.

It's too bad that they didn't also have a different shape to help distinguish between red and black tops, similar to the ocean red nun (cone top) shape and green (used to be black) can shape. The different shapes help you to distinguish between the two in poor lighting conditions as well has to help those that are color blind.

I suppose they could morph to new shapes and still keep the same colors, as this would be backwards compatible and not cause confusion with long term boaters.

How would the red tops be shaped differently to help in this regard?

A new shape or top placed on the red tops should be easy to do, easy to see and inexpensive to implement.

But my guess is that it would never happen.