Commentary

• The most consistent question sent in by readers is, “Is there going to be a Safety at Sea Seminar in my area soon?”
• Readership continues to grow at a healthy pace.  With three months to go until the end of the year, we have already surpassed last years total.  It looks like we will easily surpass 100,000 user sessions for 2004, a new milestone.
• The site continues to be maintained with 1 tweaking a week, and sometimes more.
• The U.S. version of the Special Regulations is on the site for the first time this year.  There have been “zero“ emails from the world about this topic since it was put up.
• There are still 5 early Hanson stories that we do not have any data on.  I tracked down two of these Hanson recipients, but they have been too busy to provide a synopsis of what occurred.

Proposed Projects

• None at this time.

 Completed Projects

• Added Spring 2004 Minutes and Fall 2005 Agenda.
• SAS Seminars are added to the site’s calendar within 24 hours of the contract being signed.

Crew Overboard Testing
August 2005
by Chuck Hawley

The Modern Sailing Academy of Sausalito, CA and West Marine of Watsonville, CA will co-host a Crew Overboard event in early August, 2005 on San Francisco Bay. Patterned after the tests conducted in 1993, 1994, and 1995, the four day event is intended to add to the body of knowledge concerning crew overboard recovery from recreational sailing vessels.

August 2 and 3 will be for crew overboard tests involving non-professional cruising and racing sailors from the San Francisco Bay Area. They will test new recovery products, recovery methods using increasingly popular boats like sprit boats and cat boats, and other variables which can effect the reliability of the technique.

August 4 and 5 will be reserved for professional sailors and experts, with an eye towards perfecting techniques, and establishing standardized techniques which might be adopted into sail training programs.

Extensive use of GPS, still and video photography, and documentation will allow best practices to be recorded.

A steering committee comprised of sponsors John Connolly and Chuck Hawley has been formed, which also includes sailing author John Rousmaniere, and representatives of national sailing organizations from France, New Zealand, Australia, England and Canada. A representative of the US Sailing Safety at Sea committee would be welcome.

Boats will be made available by the Modern Sailing Academy for the duration of the tests. San Francisco Bay is typically windy in August, and should provide a variety of conditions in which to practice crew recovery.

The Steering Committee welcomes input from sailing professionals and the sailing public at large, and will consider all comments so that the event can be as successful as possible. The event website is www.cobevent.com.

Thank you for your consideration.