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Safety at Sea Seminar March 22, 2003
Lakewood Yacht Club, Seabrook Texas
CREW PREPARATION
INTRODUCTION
Where to get more information:
- Can’t teach everything in ½ hr just pointers
- My book: Safety Preparations for Cruising
- Website: notes for this presentation
- Articles on Crew briefing etc
What I plan to cover:
- Skipper experience
- Crew briefing
- Crew training
SKIPPER EXPERIENCE
Before you can prepare your crew you need to be experienced:
- English Channel example lessons learned:
- Seasickness
- Navigation
- Reefing
- Night entrances
- My preparations
- A basic and coastal navigation classes
- 3 separate weeks on-the-water instruction
- Many weekends as skipper of my own boat day-sailing along the coast.
- Make sure you are ready
CREW BRIEFING
What and where the safety equipment is stowed:
Lifevests:
- Different types
- Where they are stowed
- When to wear them
Seacocks:
- Friends experience of loss of Beneteau
Liferafts and grab bags
- Example of liferaft use
- Types of raft
- Where stowed
- When to launch
- Grab bags
Epirbs
Use of safety harnesses, lifevests etc
Example:
- Madeira single-hander example
- Safety harnesses
- Types
- Tethers
- Strong points
Man-overboard procedure (theory) and MOB examples
- Rob James
- Corps of Engineers loss 2001 HSC
- Prevention is best
Need for
- Knowledge
- Experience
- Equipment
Fire precautions: prevention is best
- Stove
- Engine room
- Electrical
Seasickness: how you cope with this
- Anxiety a significant factor
- Instructions for crew:
- What to eat
- Seasickness medication
Communications
- To obtain assistance in situations such as:
- Serious medical emergency aboard
- MOB lost
- Vessel sinking or on fire
- Communications equipment:
- VHF talk with other vessels; emergency assistance
- SSB long range assistance; marine nets
- Sat phone; emergency alert; phone calls
Float plans
- What to include
- Where to file
Man-overboard drill
- Quick stop maneuver
- Reach tack reach
- Under power
- Recovering person aboard
- What I cover in crew briefing
CREW TRAINING
Reefing and familiarity with systems:
- Cleat hitches, way lines are coiled
- which line jammer is which
Problems that need to be anticipated
- Headsails
- Storm Jib
- Mainsail reefing systems (battcars)
HEAVY WEATHER
INTRODUCTION
- Can’t teach in ½ hr
- Mention classes
What I will cover:
- What is heavy weather
- Before you leave
- Before it arrives
- Coping with it
WHAT IS HEAVY WEATHER
What to expect
- Beaufort Scale
- What is heavy weather (> Force 6)
- Extreme conditions (> Force 10)
Before you leave
The right boat
- For the bay
- For the Gulf / Caribbean
- For ocean crossings
Equipment
- Storm sails
- Foul weather gear inc boots
- Harnesses & tethers
- Storm boards
Deck organization
Below decks organization
- Secure heavy items such as:
- Tanks, tool boxes, batteries
- Stove
- Crew (hand holds, lee cloths / lee boards
Skills
Reefing
- Headsail reefing
- Mainsail reefing
- Storm jib arrangement
- Need to be able to set storm jib without removing a roller furling headsail
Heaving-to
- How, when (Storm Tactics by Pardeys)
BEFORE IT HITS
Reefing
- Set storm jib
- Reef mainsail
Secure gear on deck
- Stow loose items
- Extra lines on deck gear (anchors, spin poles, dinghys)
- Dorade cowls
- Storm boards
Secure gear below
- Stow items away
- Lock gimbaled stove
Food
- Prepare food and hot drinks for now and later
COPING WITH IT
Beating to weather when reefed
- The boat can take more than you?
Heaving-to
- When you are going to weather and need rest
- At any time to give crew rest
- To wait for daylight
- In most heavy heather as advocated by Pardeys
- How to heave-to by tacking without releasing the jib
Running
- When heading down wind
- When you have plenty of room to leeward
- When you have sufficient skilled crew to maintain the helm
Storm anchors (set like an anchor from the bow)
- To get rest
- To minimize drift to leeward if making way is not possible
Drogues (trailed from the stern when running)
- To slow down when running under bare poles is still too fast
For more information:
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