Sailing safety course

Safety on board!

Here is something particularly relevant to the practice of sailing! But what is it really, and why does it change so often? I am often asked this question on board during courses dedicated to sailing safety,

“And if you fall overboard, what should be done?”

Just imagine for a moment: the skipper on board a sailing yacht falls into the sea, with a crew made up of tourists who have no sailing knowledge, nor sufficient understanding of how to use the VHF. In addition, the skipper who fell overboard was not wearing a life jacket!!! This scenario could happen hundreds of times along our coasts, our islands, our overseas territories… and would very clearly end tragically. Add to this crime scene: night-time, strong winds, powerful waves… stress! You can imagine that it would be a lost cause.

Cruising sailing schools aim to train future sailors in search of sensations, escape and freedom. In this training, we learn how to rig, tack, luff, navigate… It is absolutely essential to know how to analyze the risks related to navigation. I would like to talk to you about prevention and anticipation, therefore about passive safety and active safety… In passive safety, risks must be anticipated by taking precautions before anything happens. In active safety, action must be taken once the risk has occurred, using preventive means adapted to all situations (water ingress, fire, man overboard…).

Passive safety

This refers to all the measures taken to prevent a risk from arising. These measures mainly concern the following areas:

• Weather and tide
• Onboard equipment
• Harbor maneuvers
• Rules of the road and steering
• Maritime buoyage
• Anchoring

In 2015 on the Atlantic coast, there were 9 fatalities, including 5 leisure sailors, as well as:

• 77 injured with diversion
• 10 injured treated on board without diversion
• 20 medical evacuations
• 34 health evacuations

Weather

Weather and tides inevitably have an impact on navigation. As a volunteer with the SNSM as well, it happens far too often that sailors of varying experience run aground in places where special attention should have been paid due to the falling tide. During the summer period, this occurs almost every day. It is very important to understand tidal calculations, especially when tidal ranges exceed 5 meters.

Weather can also warn of complex situations. Before going sailing, and as a preventive measure, take care to check the weather sufficiently in advance. There are now many websites that allow you to prepare your navigation safely. The best approach is to compare at least two sources to validate the information provided. And of course, do not forget to check the accuracy of the information on the day of departure so that it matches reality.

Equipment

The equipment carried on board must comply with nautical regulations. Be careful, these regulations evolve constantly for the benefit of leisure sailors and professionals alike. The list of equipment is not exhaustive; it is advisable, with common sense, to improve it as you see fit. For example, the signaling mirror, which has disappeared from regulatory requirements, is still part of my onboard safety equipment—and not because of the space it takes up!!!

I am firmly convinced that many leisure sailors are hesitant to leave the harbor in force 5 to 6 Beaufort conditions, particularly during departure and arrival maneuvers. What stress these maneuvers often cause!!! You need to know how to adapt and use the wind properly as one of your loyal crew members—the one who will press against the bow to assist you in your maneuver. Yet all too often, the opposite happens, judging by the alarming shouts of skippers who are sometimes too authoritarian with their crew.

Licenses

It’s true: no license is required for sailing yachts, only for motorboats. So what do day sailors do when they want to go sailing without a pleasure craft license? They rent a sailboat—yes indeed!!! Needless to say, the deposit often goes with it. Do you know the price of one hour of towing by the SNSM? 600 euros per hour. The final bill can become quite salty by the end of the day, between the deposit, towing, and all the rest—things that could sometimes have been avoided with a bit of regulatory knowledge taught during coastal pleasure craft license training, particularly regarding maritime buoyage.

Anchoring

And anchoring: the art of anchoring a boat while taking care not to drag. This is certainly an important phase where the situation must be analyzed from the beginning to the end of the maneuver. Often, simply dropping the anchor is enough for some to believe the boat is anchored—but no!!! The anchoring procedure is far more comprehensive and requires an assessment of all phases.

Active safety

Nautical anticipation concerns the attitude to adopt and the actions to take when risk is present.

In particular, you must know the safety headings in order to quickly secure both the crew and the boat.

During onboard incidents, acquiring reflex actions is enough to quickly stop the chain reaction of disasters.

Gain efficiency without losing time during a sea emergency.

And finally, for man overboard,

• Act with full awareness
• Use the most appropriate method
• Know how to handle a man overboard situation
• Performing a medical assessment is essential
• The use of radio communications no longer needs to be demonstrated

However, having worked in many cruising schools as an instructor, regarding man overboard situations, very often only one method is used!!!

These same schools even believe their method is magical, because they themselves were trained using this method and know how to use it perfectly, and therefore pass it on with great conviction, claiming that their method works better than all the others.

It is therefore a heresy to believe that there is only one method for recovering a man overboard!!! Indeed, everything depends on the circumstances, the causes, and the abilities of each individual.

“Man overboard!!!” one of the crew members shouts; panic sets in, even for a trained crew, which at best will lose around 50% of its capabilities! The life of the man overboard depends on only three links,

• The visual link, which allows us to maintain contact
• The psychological link, which allows us to reassure the victim and ourselves as well
• The physical link, which allows the recovery of the man overboard

These three links certainly make it possible to keep a man overboard alive long enough to give ourselves the necessary time for recovery.

Is the man overboard conscious or in a coma? That’s where things get complicated if he is in a coma!!! Yes, you will have to deal with an element that will really challenge you, because the boat must absolutely be stopped in order to hoist him back on board. Hoist him! But with what?

• A block and tackle
• A halyard, perhaps!

In any case, with an effective means, because a man overboard weighing 80 kg, once soaked in his clothes, will weigh much more. And without a Personal Flotation Device, his position will generally be face down in the water, so he will need to be turned over quickly.

This could imply putting someone else in the water, secured to the boat, to ensure the turning over and the clearing of the airways.

This is indeed debatable, since you are putting a second potential victim in the water. Let’s assume you have recovered him, hoisted him on board, still in a coma, no longer ventilating (not breathing)!

In fact, you have recovered the man overboard—okay, you have done 50% of the job. Now you must treat the victim, alert the rescue services, and possibly prepare him for helicopter winching.

We will deal in more detail with “man overboard” in a future article.

It’s a nightmare; one might think fate has turned against you, but unfortunately, you must be prepared for all eventualities.

These situations are often the tragic result of obvious incompetence—because you took too long, because your crew member was not wearing a life jacket, or simply because you told yourself that it could not happen to you and therefore you were not trained.