US SAILING

Safety At Sea - Agendas and Minutes - 3/14/2003 Minutes



Safety at Sea Committee Meeting
Friday, March 14, 2003
1500 - 1700 Hours
Cincinnati, OH

MINUTES

 

The Offshore Office is studying the operation currently run by the Sailing Company to evaluate the depth and breadth of running the back office operation for the Sanctioned Safety at Sea Seminars series, which includes the manual of running a seminar, and updating the correlating printed materials. US SAILING may take over this duty by 1/1/04. Operation of this duty can not operate at a deficit.

The SASC website had a 46% increase in traffic, larger than all other websites of the US SAILING website from 2001 to 2002. This indicates that the web audience has a high interest in what the committee works on. There have been more than 131,000 User Sessions since July 2000.

Ron Trossbach is writing “Safety Tips” and distributing it through e-USSAILING and the Offshore Newsletter as the deadlines for publishing arise, with a permanent copy on the Safety at Sea Committee website.

Noted that Patti Lawrence, Chair of the One-Design Class Council joined the meeting as part of the Safety Task Force Report recommendation. Vice President Bill Munster has joined the committee to provide reports directly to the President.

Hanson report - there is a 16 step back-room process from the nomination through getting a medal delivered to a recipient. People should be aware of the amount of effort this takes. In the 1990’s we averaged 6.8 Hanson medals per year, in the 2000’s, we are averaging 13 Hanson medals per year. We are starting to see a new trend, where multiple boats are coming to the aid of a single rescue and the team taking parts of the recovery.

The Sailing Foundation is currently reviewing the Lake Michigan Overboard Study, the Hanson Medal Stories, and the Sailing Foundation Lifesling studies to assess the problems involving the use of Man Overboard Modules, Horseshoe Liferings, Strobe Lights, Drogues and other devices for an overboard, to see where the devices had problems. Once this list is ascertained, they will purchase devices and perform testing. Current concerns were that devices do not reach the victim in the water and at times are out of reach or blow away. They will also perform testing with the equipment in the ISAF Regulations configuration.

John Rousmaniere is studying and compiling the “Lessons Learned” from all of the overboard collections studies available.

Comparisons of MOB recovery maneuvers - Study underway.

Lifeline study - no report.

PFD Rules for US SAILING Championship regattas - Working on it.

Overhead Power Line Hazards - Working on it.

Category 1 Inspection - Chuck Hawley is developing a checklist and a guide to teach people “How to Pass a Category 1 Inspection.” He is looking for volunteers to assist in this using PowerPoint. A number of people expressed interest in this project. See the three attachments MS Word - "Cat 1 Cover Letter," MS Word - "Inspection Recommendations" and the PowerPoint - "Preparing for a Cat 1 Insp." Please contact Chuck Hawley via email.

The RRS 1.1 is under interpretation review by the US SAILING Appeals Committee currently.

PFD and Harness worn sun down to sun up for crew on deck:
The committee reviewed the 125+ public responses to an unscientific web poll where comments were converted into the following categories:

In favor, as worded: 49
Not in favor, unless it includes either All Night Races, or Attached to Jacklines 11
Not in favor, as worded: 64
No indication whether in favor or not: 8

It is noted that not one person said that PFD's or harnesses were bad. The public that are not in favor of this recommendation simply wanted to keep the decision personal and did not want it mandatory. The committee weighed the feedback regarding why it should be limited to just Category 0 and 1 night races (not all night races), and why it doesn't require the tether to be attached to the jackline. MOTION to accept this new PFD/Harness prescription. Motion carried effective 3/16/03.

Coax Cable - Bruce Eissner reports that since the Board of Directors passed this as a US SAILING Prescription before, he will carry it directly to ISAF Special Regulations Committee.

Heavy Weather and Storm Jib - First a typo correction to eliminate it for Category 3. Bruce Eissner reports the remainder of the Heavy Weather and Storm Jib will be an ISAF submission.

Category 5 - the committee deliberated whether to adopt all US SAILING Prescriptions to the ISAF Category 5? MOTION: Extend the Category 4 prescription to category 5. Motion carried effective 3/16/03.

ISAF has a Liferaft Standard completed. ISO has a Liferaft Standard about to be completed in approximately 12 months. US SAILING has grandfathered liferafts up to this point, and suggests that the committee should consider grandfathering the liferafts for a longer period for Categories 1 and 2. MOTION: ORC liferaft grandfathering to be extended to at least January 2006. Motion Carried effective 1/1/04.

Fully assembled anchors. Motion declined.

ISAF Special Regulations 2-year book, Bruce Eissner would carry this to ISAF. In the next printing of the U.S. book, we will include a statement that only U.S. changes to the U.S. book will be found on the US SAILING website. A moving target in compliance is found to be too complicated.

Regulation 4.26.6 Mast Furling and Storm Trysails
MOTION: d) In case of yachts with in-mast furling mainsails, the storm trysail must be capable of being set while the mainsail is furled. Motion carries effective 3/16/03.

Anchor Table: The committee sees that the bottom conditions, different manufacturers, type of course, weight and windage size of a hull all make developing a table a complex task. At this time, the committee believes this too complex a task for a publication.

Respectfully submitted,
Glenn McCarthy
3/14/03

Committee Attendance:
Ron Trossbach, Chair
Glenn McCarthy, Web Liaison
Bill Doelger, Multihull
Matt Pedersen, Offshore
Bill Munster, US SAILING Vice President
Gene McCarthy, NOC
John Winder, NOC, Offshore, Newport-Bermuda Race
Talbot Wilson, NOC, Offshore, IMSOC
Jack Braitmayer, SASC
Dan Doyle, Area H Director
Bruce Eissner, Offshore Chair
Dan Nowlan proxy for Stan Honey

 

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