SAFETY AT SEA SEMINAR

Even in a pool, it's a bit of a challenge

The ’Safety at Sea’ seminar was held on Bainbridge Island the weekend of March 5th and 6th. Sanctioned by US sailing, it was put on by The Sailing Foundation.   The certification resulting from successful completion of the seminar is a requirement for many offshore sailing races.

Before I lose you, if there’s one single takeaway from the seminar, it’s ‘read the instructions and practice with the safety equipment’.  It’s more than that, as it was an entire weekend ( 9 to 5 Saturday, 9 to 5 Sunday), but the essence of the seminar was promoting solid seamanship skills to avoid using the safety equipment, but if you have to use it, know it before you use it.

While there are risks with being on the water, sailing is a fairly safe sport.  Accidents are few and far between.  One of the sessions involved a critical review of accidents between 2011 and 2013.  Fatal accidents are tragic and understanding the events and what could have been done to avoid them is a sobering exercise.  That said, there simply aren’t that many fatal accidents.   Of the fatal sailing accidents many involved high tech boats pushing the envelope in both design and usage.

The seminar brought together regional — and in many cases they are also national — experts on safety equipment, medical issues, weather and weather routing, sail design, and heavy weather sailing.

It’s difficult to create a seminar that addresses all aspects of safety, more difficult when the audience is comprised of a wide scope of sailors.  There were elite sailors in attendance.  Transpac, Vic-Maui, and Sydney-Hobart were mentioned in a casual, understated way.  Quiet competency in a “been-there-done-that” type of crowd.

Others in attendance were cruisers and some were newer to sailing looking to learn more.  Many of the presentations and techniques assumed a fully crewed racing sailboat.  There are adaptations to shorthanded sailing, but no single technique will work for all boats in all conditions.

That was probably the core strength of the seminar — attendance did not result in a transference of knowledge to solve all problems.  The seminar was more a catalyst to get back to your boat, assess what equipment you do or don’t have, then prepare the boat, yourself and the crew to actually use the equipment.

For myself, I’ve had a life sling on the boat for years.  Probably 20 years.  It’s become an accepted accessory on the aft rail.  Last year I thought, I should probably take a look at that, so I took it out of its bag.  Or at least tried to — the plastic sling and more or less welded itself to the bag.  It took several minutes of coaxing to pull the thing out of the bag.  Talk about a teachable moment.  The thought of doing that at night or in ugly conditions just after a worst case scenario leaves me shaking my head.

I also don’t have a block and tackle so my first mate could haul me aboard.  And in truth I’d need mechanical assistance hauling someone else aboard.

And we both need practice at actually doing it.

I’ve also cannabilized my throw bag so carefully prepared for the circumnavigation of Vancouver Island 5 years ago.

And I don't have a field medical guide on board.

The list goes on and on.  While the vessel passed the power squadron safety check, that check, after watching it done a couple of times by two different reviewers, is more regulatory in nature and ensures the vessel meets coast guard requirements.  The thrust of the seminar was to engender a culture of safety that often exceeded CG requirements.

The additional difference is that the power squadron, while welcoming sailboats, is primarily for power boats and ’coastal’ in nature.  This seminar was solely for sailboats and offshore in nature.

Some highlights of the Seminar

Hands on fire extinguisher use with instruction from the assistant chief of the Bainbridge Fire Department.

SOLAS approved smoke device

The flare on the left is GG approved the one on the right is from SOLAS

A couple of examples of SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) products that, to our eye, performed better than the standard issue Coast Guard approved equipment.

Doug Fryer

Ryan Helling gave the LifeSling presentation, backed by Doug Fryer.   Doug is well known on the sound and was part of the team that developed the Lifesling.  It doesn't get much better to have his informed observations heard on how to use the Lifesling.

Brad Baker

Brad Baker held court on weather and weather routing.  With 9 Vic-Maui's under his belt (in 5 of them he won the Navigators award) everyone paid attention.

Carol Hasse

Carol Hasse gave an excellent summary on sail selection and repair.  She also triggered new thoughts on when and how to use a Trys'l.  They may not be all about heavy weather sailing....

There's no elegant way to enter a life raft.  It takes communication and the 'ol "one-two-threeeeeeeee"

Margaret Pommert assists a fellow sailor

Up

And over

And in

The last sequence involves the newly boarded to face plant.  It certainly can be done, we all got in, but you get a full appreciation of the effort involved.....in a calm, heated pool, under controlled circumstances with only peer pressure at play.   In breaking seas at night, (or at any time) this would be the absolute last resort.

When they say "6 Man" they really mean it.  There isn't room for much else.

Was the seminar useful?  For me, unquestionably yes.  Less than 24 hours after the seminar, the block and tackle to support the life sling is now stowed in the cockpit locker.  But that's not enough.  Plans have been made to test the life sling.  Better put, test ourselves using the lifesling.  Are we able to deploy it under sail and get it to a target?  Are we able to retrieve a person out of the water?  Do we have the leads right so that we can get the line effectively to a winch?  

While not centered on cruising, this seminar had plenty for the cruising sailor.  Takeaway tidbits through out the weekend to not only add to the knowledge base, but serve as catalyst for action.

Read the instructions, practice with the gear.  Working out the kinks before something happens.  

It would be silly to think you can anticipate all unforeseen events, but having practice sessions on the most likely events serves as a base from which you can adapt.  While a required course for many offshore races, any sailor -- or for that matter power boater, could take the presented concepts and adapt them for their own style of boating.

For more information, go to www.ussailing.org/safety  and www.thesailingfoundation.org