Safety At Sea Studies - Safety Tips
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How do you know if your inflatable Personal Floatation Device is working? Every inflatable has an Owner's Manual that describes a visual inspection of the inflator and the CO2 cylinder before each use. In addition, each inflatable should be blown up annually and leak tested overnight. If it has an automatic inflator, the water-sensitive bobbin should be replaced annually as well. A record of this maintenance should be marked on every inflatable. WE ARE SEEING FAILURES OF THESE PFD's AS THEY AGE AND ARE BEING ROUTINELY WORN. Become a survivor not a statistic by checking your own safety gear. PFD OWNER’s MANUAL
HOW TO VISUALLY INSPECT AND LEAK TEST YOUR PFD ANNUAL TEST RECORD INFLATABLE PFD CHECKLIST. When preparing for an outing, ask yourself:
John Bonds recently sent me a Storm (TM) Safety Whistle, which claims to be the "world's loudest whistle" that "works in wind and water." It is certainly loud, and at around $4 with the lanyard, it's an inexpensive but thoughtful safety device for a gift. The key factor in finding a victim in the water is visibility. Get some reflective tape for and put it on your outer garments for sailing. Take a look at the inexpensive chemical light tubes or at the personal flashlights that clip to a jacket. (Be careful about personal strobes that can blind the rescuers, look for combination strobe with a switch to steady light). Do you know about the Quick Stop? If you don't know this essential life saving maneuver cold, or don't practice it regularly, make Quick Stop a part of your sailing day (you'll find it in the International Sailing Federation Special regulations Governing Offshore and Oceanic Racing for 2002-2003 including US SAILING Prescriptions). Safety harnesses, with specifications described in an Appendix to the "International Sailing Federation Special regulations Governing Offshore and Oceanic Racing for 2002-2003 including US SAILING Prescriptions," are the essential piece of personal safety equipment. Buy one for yourself or for a friend, and carry it with you whenever you're aboard a boat. Most of all, wear it and be prepared to clip in whenever conditions warrant. There has been an incidence of failures of upper diagonal shrouds in deeply-reefed boats sailing in ocean conditions. When mainsails are reefed, the diagonals essentially become the mast's upper shrouds. This increased demand, combined with the shock loading that can occur in ocean wave conditions, may account for a number of the failures that have been reported. We would appreciate hearing about other experiences with modern rig failures, and we advise that sailors should be judicious in reviewing the strengths of upper diagonal shrouds and their attachments. There are continuing reports of delamination of composite construction hulls. It is especially important for sailors as consumers to understand that the composite construction process involves not only specifying the proper materials for the components or layers of the composites, but also ensuring that those materials (some of which are complex chemicals) meet strict quality-control standards, and that the composite building process must follow a strict timing schedule in order to achieve the inter-laminate bonds that are required for a proper hull. The finest hull, built of any material, may be subject to damage or degradation. Because delamination is a special concern for composite-construction hulls, some sailors have asked their builders for "delamination repair kits," an idea that seems to have merit. The best fire extinguisher on your boat is still Halon. Since it is a CFC, which harms the ozone layer, it has not been in manufacture since 1993. As a result, extinguisher manufacturers stockpiled the substance, which should allow them to provide refilling service for several years. Halon doesn't require refilling if the seals and pressure fittings remain intact, so if you have a good unit it need be only inspected annually for safety. For those who feel that Halon use is too detrimental to the environment, most experts will point out that toxins released by your boat burning out of control will harm it more. Nothing works as well as Halon in an automatic engine room installation. It disrupts the combustion process itself at the molecular level and is spectacularly effective. If you don't want to use Halon, the dry powder units are pretty good. They just make a terrible mess. If you use them on electrical panels, it usually destroys them. CO2 is the standard substance for electrical fires, but it only displaces oxygen, and the fire will re-flash as soon as oxygen returns. Industry is working hard on finding a good replacement for Halon, but it is not here yet. So keep what you've got, don't discharge it for training and have extinguishers inspected annually. If you've got dry powder units, you may want to try them on a yard fire or something similar to see how they work and how long they will work for you. Generally a 2-lb. unit will give you two-seconds of solid bursts at the fire, which should be aimed at the base of the fire. Placement of extinguishers is important too. Put them where they can be used to fight the most likely locations of fire. I like an extinguisher in the cockpit when the stove is being used. It can be under a cockpit lid, but if there's a problem in the galley, it will likely be fought from the cockpit. Another needs to be forward, so that people up there can use it to fight their way out of the boat in the event of a big fire. "SON, YOU GETS WHAT YOU
INSPECTS,
NOT WHAT YOU EXPECTS" One of my early Executive Officers gave me this advice when I was a young officer. My division had not completed their assigned cleaning tasks, and I had trusted my petty officers to make sure it was done as directed. It was a painful lesson, administered with the usual Navy colorful language, and not to be forgotten. It applies equally well to our own boats. The Safety Seminars are full of stories of disaster, or at least misadventure, which have as their ultimate parent an EXpectation that some critical work was done correctly. Quite famous people have lost boats because they "sprang a leak somewhere..." The owner simply didn't know where the through-hulls were located, so he could check them one-by-one before the cabin was awash. When the pumps clogged or the batteries shorted, the boat was abandoned to the seas. Incredible? Do you know where each of your hull penetrations is located? Does the valve work easily? Does it actually work? (Some early production boats had common plumbing gate valves fitted, which turn quite well but don't do anything to stop water coming in.) Is there a soft wooden plug adjacent to it, ready for instant use? Are all your hoses in good shape, and fitted with two hose clamps? When did you last check them? Are your batteries securely fastened, and in a box to contain acid in the case of a knockdown? What will happen to your cabin if you invert? My "racing boat" came with an icebox lid held down solely by gravity. It weighs about 10 pounds and has sharp enough edges to be a dangerous missile in a violent knockdown. (Barrel bolts solved that.) Will the bilge plated stay in place, etc.? You gets what you INspects. Particularly early in the season, and before each deep ocean excursion, you should start at one end and work to the other, inspecting. Go from the keel bolts to the masthead, inspecting. So that you know. Make a list of things that have to be fixed, attack them in order and be ready for the challenges out there. It's just good seamanship; good management. And it's more fun to be ahead of the game. Enjoy! Rod Stephens suggested the following: Because you may have to get rid of a broken mast quickly at sea, rig your boat to make this easy. On the lower clevis pin on each shroud and stay (where they attach to the chain plates), use nothing but a proper-sized BRASS cotter pin to retain the clevis pin. Cut it so that about 1/4" extends through the clevis pin, and then spread the ends no more than about 15deg. Then if you have to get rid of the rig, a sailor's knife's spike will easily pull out the pin, and then you can punch out the clevis pin. It's a lot easier than trying to cut through rigging! If you have wire halyards, you'll still need cable cutters to cut the halyards that will be left between the stub and the rest of the mast. But cable cutters work well on halyards and on the electrical wires. If you have no-stretch rope halyards, a sharp Spyderco knife will slice them quickly. Another tip, this one required for ocean racers and recommended for all: Ensure that you secure the mast butt to the step. The International Sailing Federation Special regulations Governing Offshore and Oceanic Racing including US SAILING Prescriptions don't tell you how to do that, so you can use your imagination. The test is, will the butt come off the step and destroy the cabin if the mast breaks above deck? When Dodge Morgan built AMERICAN PROMISE to sail around the world (non-stop, single-handed), he used barrel bolts on every drawer and cabinet. The Naval Academy followed this practice on their Navy 44. There's a good reason. The barrel bolts provide very positive and visible security for all sorts of things. The International Sailing Federation Special regulations Governing Offshore and Oceanic Racing including US SAILING Prescriptions require racers to rig their boats and all equipment to withstand a 180deg capsize. Barrel bolts can help in this problem. Check your icebox lid. Will it become a projectile at 180deg? Many will, and two barrel bolts will fix it. How about that tool drawer that relies on lift and slide security. It isn't likely to stay closed in a capsize. The list can get pretty long. Just go through your cabin (outfitted as you sail, with the "jewel box" full of spare blocks, the toolbox in normal position, etc.) and imagine what would happen if the world were turned upside down. And consider barrel bolts when you start to remedy the problem! Jacklines are the other half of the safety harness system, to keep you from becoming a crew overboard victim. We suggest you consider wearing harnesses as the Naval Academy does--anytime you have to hold on, and always at night. Keep in mind that even with our improved methods of recovering a crew overboard, at night your chances are sharply reduced and in really rough weather there is a point at which overboard is DEAD. For harnesses to be really useful, you need to be able to snap on before you leave the cabin when you're coming on deck. For this a sturdy eye on either side of the companionway, outside in the cockpit, will work well. But from there on, you need to have jacklines rigged. These traditionally are plastic-covered wire, and nylon-webbing of 4,000# breaking strength has also been used. In the Sydney-Hobart Race of 1998, most competitors reported the nylon webbing stretched too much, and International Sailing Federation Special regulations Governing Offshore and Oceanic Racing including US SAILING Prescriptions now suggests the use of similarly strong Kevlar or Spectra rope. Whatever you use, the jacklines must be secured to strong points on the boat. Special eyes, suitably backed up, are best, starting far enough back to allow the helmsman to clip on. But you can use the bow and stern cleats quite nicely with screw pin shackles for attachments. If you use anything except wire, you should take the jacklines in when you return to port, to avoid sun damage to the artificial fiber materials. The technique for using jacklines is simple. Snap your harness tether onto the jackline and then go forward to the bow attached to the boat. In many cases you'll find that you can use both hands for the job required when you secure your tether tautly somewhere. Bowmen say at first that they don't like harnesses, and people racing around the buoys can afford the luxury of a crew overboard drill--but in the ocean you should think quite seriously about accepting this excuse. The odds in a crew overboard search are not good, and running a long search is almost guaranteed to take you out of the top finishers. Jacklines and harnesses will keep your crew on board and you in the running for silver! When we first began learning about the effects of hypothermia in our safety seminars, we realized right away that our ocean racing crews often had suffered degradations in watch performance due to the effects of hypothermia. Sitting on the rail in improper clothing, inadequate foul weather boots, light boat shoes which are water soaked, no hat in the chill night air--our midshipmen became chilled, and lost coordination and judgment without realizing it. When a wind shift or change in the tactical situation required a sail change, a peel-away, or a quick jibe, often at night, the evolution was not executed crisply. You may recognize this phenomenon in your own crew. Hypothermia is insidious and it's inevitable unless you mount an active defense against it. Clothing that is adequate for a warm afternoon is no longer adequate after sunset. Too often, our younger members of the crew watch the sunset and neglect their protection until hypothermia has set in. There are some really good defenses these days, beginning with polypro long johns (ladies often prefer these garments made from silk which works just about as well and feels a lot more luxurious), adding bulky layers and finally, some good foul weather gear on top. Don't forget a hat of some type. Your head loses a lot of heat, and even a cotton hat will help. The standard Navy wool watch cap has survived for generations of seamen because it works, even when wet. So as skipper, leadership is needed to remind your younger crewmembers that they need to dress properly if they're going to be good "night fighters" for you. Hypothermia will slow them down and make them inaccurate, with much the same effect as alcohol. It's dangerous, and unnecessary. Keep 'em warm, dry and effective--to win at night! There has been a lot research into seasickness in the last 25 years. NASA has put time and money into the problem because space motion sickness is very much like seasickness. One of the most basic discoveries they have made is that EVERYONE with normally functioning inner ears is probably susceptible to seasickness. As one of the researches says about the centrifuge on which they test subjects, "everyone gets sick. Some just take more spinnin'!" Skippers particularly need to ensure that they don't get sick themselves, as they can't afford to be impaired. Crewmen who are seasick are nearly worthless, and when racing you need everyone on their toes. So, insist that your crew know what remedy works for them, and that they take their medicine as a prophylactic before they get sick. Most remedies require that treatment start BEFORE seasickness begins. If you wait until you're sick, any remedy may be totally ineffective. There are some practices that contribute to seasickness and incapacitation. Heavy drinking or eating the night before you sail exacts a toll on your system. Recovery from this abuse lowers your resistance to motion sickness. So some advice: Have your parties prior to the night before you sail, and have a quiet dinner together and then an early bedtime the night before--if you're serious about your racing. Seasickness can cripple even the best crew, particularly those which don't sail a lot. But the medicine now available can take care of the problem, for most of us, if taken ahead of the problem. It's just another case of getting ahead of the problem, and staying in control. Normal wire rigging swages have a general lifespan of about five years in a freezing climate. The usual cause of failure is the intrusion of water down the grooves of the wire into the barrel, where it lodges, starts corrosion and holds moisture. Then when the air temperature falls below freezing in the winter, this trapped water expands and cracks the swage. There's really no permanent remedy for this, although Rod Stephens has long advocated the use of anhydrous lanolin to fill these cracks. Monthly applications are required. (lanolin is available in drugstores and smells awful...) Others use silicone sealants to keep out the water. We're really not sure either of these work, but they're surely worth trying! If you have wire swages, you should think about non-destructive testing of the swages each season. Dye penetrant is the usual method, and the purchase of a kit (3 aerosol cans comprise a kit) is a good club project which can be used by perhaps 10 boats. Instructions come with the kit, and the test will reveal very small cracks which will enlarge. Broken swages are a major cause of dismastings (and lifeline breakage). A little Inspection and care will prevent it happening to you. Disposal of Out of
Date Flares
Use them for practice (call local and USCG authorities and get
permission first.) Transporting Liferafts for Recertification Did you know that it is illegal to carry a charged liferaft aboard a commercial aircraft? This includes forwarding your liferaft through any freight forwarding company like UPS, FEDEX, etc. The dangerous element issue revolves around the charged CO2 tank and any flares that may be packed inside. Plan extra time so that you can truck your liferaft to your preferred service station. Much has been written and said about the use of
stern ladders and Alternates include ladders attached to or hung down
the sides near or close to amidships.
We had a swim ladder that worked if you could get it out of the
cockpit locker and rig it. Some boats have their swim/boarding ladder built into the
life line system. Another option is a rope ladder, kept in the bottom of the
Lifesling bag/container. I
can't climb aboard using a rope ladder but have talked to people who
claim that it is possible to climb a vertical surface if you keep your
arms above your head as you climb up.
Many folks have something called an SAS (Save A Soul) rope ladder
rigged on the outside of the lifelines with a string hanging down so
that they can pull it down themselves. I think it is important to point out that many lives have
been lost because people cannot reboard their own boats after falling
in. I'm told that PEI
(Prince Edward Island) requires all fisherman to have a ladder
permanently rigged so that they can pull it down from the water.
A major point about any ladder is that it should have one to two
rigid steps under water so that the PIW can climb up using their leg
muscles rather than their arm muscles because they will weight much more
with wet gear on. ELEVATOR Another variant is the clever use of a sheet/line
attached to a cleat at one end and a winch at the other.
The PIW stands in the bight and is winched up to the deck level. This was not easy when I tried it. It requires strength and coordination that many PIW's may not
have, especially if they have been in the water for any time. LIFESLING I am a big supporter of this system because it
works under a wide range of skill levels and sea conditions on both sail
and power boats. It also establishes contact and provides a
lifting capability to the conscious PIW better than anything else that
is available. We developed
a paper describing the four variants of Lifesling and several
recommended ways to personalize it to your boat and improve it's
performance which is still available on the US SAILING web site (http://www.ussailing.org/safety/Studies/2001_bc1.asp).
It bothers me that this system isn't more widely accepted,
especially by the sailing schools and their instructors.
We are currently am using a prototype of the new Inflatable
Lifesling on our trawler and think that this is an even better system
because it can be tossed like a throw rope to the PIW by a relatively
unskilled person or it can be towed around the PIW until contact is
made. MOB POLES, LIFE RINGS/Horseshoes, MOMs and West
Marine's LIFE SAVER BUOY
A common thing with all of these devices is that
they provide floatation to the PIW and they can be hooked to a lifting
device if the recovering boat can maneuver close enough to the victim.
The jury is still out, but I am convinced that these items are
nearly worthless because they wind up being too far from the PIW by the
time they are released/deployed. They
also blow and drift away faster than the PIW can swim after them.
These are serious limitations which I feel need to be studied and
corrected because we place too much emphasis and depend too much on this
type of gear if it is not going to be effective. THROW ROPES This piece of safety equipment doesn't get enough
emphasis IMHO. I do not
understand why some people stow their throw rope tied to a stern pulpit.
This forces it to be used from the cockpit instead of on deck
where there usually is move room and fewer interferences when heaving it
to a PIW. I recommend that
people buy the 75 ft version and put two loops in the end that goes into
the bag first. These loops
can be put around the PIW like a sling and used to pull the person
alongside and even hoist them aboard. A photo of my wife hoisting me
with this rig is still posted on the US SAILING SAS web site
(http://www.ussailing.org/safety).
There is another type of throw rope used by beach guards that is
thrown like a Frisbee that should be tried by boaters. DINGHY/LIFERAFTS One popular scenario that is discussed is that it
might be easier to pull a PIW into a dinghy or raft than up to the deck
of most boats. Some
recommend deflating one tube in an inflatable dinghy so that an
unconscious, weakened or large PIW can be rolled into it easier. This
means putting a crew member into the dinghy, hopefully with a PFD and
tethered harness on. GALE RIDER This device can be used as a basket to hoist an
injured, unconscious or weak PIW out of the water.
It works well but tends to roll the PIW into a ball and reduce
their capability to help the reboarding process.
We tried this one time. HARNESS This could be one of the best ways to hoist someone
aboard. The caution here is that people slip out of harnesses when
crotch straps are not used. I
think we are not far away from an international requirement to use
crotch straps. RORC has
required them for several years and incidents like Sydney Hobart 98
documented the need to have them when four people slipped out of
harnesses that did not have crotch straps. MACHO STRAP This is a piece of webbing that goes around the PIW
like a Lifesling and can be used to hoist or lift the person much easier
than grabbing/pulling arms and legs, etc. They used to be in the
Survival Technologies Catalog. I
make my own and carry one in the dinghy and another on the larger boat. BLOCKS & HOISTING TACKLE Many boats can use a halyard to a major winch to
hoist the PIW back aboard. This
usually requires having a longer tail on the halyard so that it can lead
to the water all along the side of the boat.
Many boats claim that they will use the boom vang but the same is
true there. A block and
tackle used to hoist a PIW aboard often requires 50 to 100 feet of line
to have it high enough above the deck and then lead to a winch.
Additionally, if the winch is self tailing, the line may have to
be larger than the one that comes with a vang or even the prepared block
& tackle sold for the Lifesling.
Here again is the situation where methods need to be to be tried
and proven for each boat and each scenario rehearsed/practiced.
We use a five to one block & tackle with a jam cleat at the
top. We use this every day
to hoist the dinghy engine and dinghy aboard.
Hopefully we will be familiar enough with the way this is stuffed
into it's bag and used to make it work when/if we ever have to hoist a
PIW aboard. MOB-UP This piece of equipment is imported from Europe and
is our favorite lifting tackle. It
won SAIL magazine's innovative award several years ago.
Basically it is a series of jam cleats arranged so that a lever
can be used to hoist up to 300 lbs.
It comes with a sling and line all stowed together in a bright
bag about 3 feet long. It
can be attached to any vertical standing rigging wire or put into the
top of a tube on a stanchion similar to a fishing rod holder. SAILS and over the side devices like JASON's CRADLE and REBOARD People that have tried to roll the PIW up the side
of the boat in a sail attached to the rail report that it is very hard
to lift the weight of the water and that PIW nearly drowns in the
process. We have something
called EASYLIFT which is a mesh triangle like a jib that allows the
water to drain out. It
still is a scary ride to be rolled up the side.
Jason's Cradle and Reboard do a similar type of hoist.
I have only seen them in videos. PIW TRAINING.
A very important part of this formula is that the PIW can help in
the rescue, perhaps more than any other person.
Familiarization with the equipment that will be used and how to
put it on, etc. can save the day. A
list of items to be considered in this training is also posted on the US
SAILING SAS web site. UNCONSCIOUS VICTIM Every discussion on MOB/PIW leads to the question
of how to handle the unconscious victim.
Getting alongside them is one challenge but getting a hoist
attached to them is another. We
have experimented with hooks used to remotely attach a mooring pendant
to a ring such as the Happy Hooker, another similar one and our favorite
which is the Grab-N-Go made by Johnson.
They all go on the end of a boat pole and either attach to the
mooring or pass a line through it and back to the hook.
Johnson's hook attaches and is tested to 1500 lbs. All of this
assumes that there is a harness on the PIW that will not slip off.
An unconscious victim will probably slip out of a Lifesling
unless it is fitted with a thigh strap.
The most likely scenario is that a swimmer would probably have to
enter the water to attach something to the PIW before they could be
raised up the side. ELECTRONICS I'm not sure whether any of the MOB electronics
will be tried in August. IMHO
the advertising of GPS capable PLB's is misleading because they only
tell the shore based search & rescue authorities where the PIW is,
not the boat that has lost a person and is searching for him/her.
I also think that homing devices that use 121.5 MHz beacons are
very difficult for the average boat to use, especially is any type of
heavy weather. This whole
subject needs some kind of unbiased testing. What I would like to
see is a real time position of the PIW transmitted back to the vessel
that lost the person. This
could be done using DSC (Digital Selective Calling) with the development
of a beeper size VHF device with a GPS in it (like a cell phone).
The antenna for the VHF could be built into inflatable PFD's like
they are in the US Navy's 121.5 systems used to locate MOB's from
carriers. DSC already is
capable of displaying emergency positions on compatible plotters like
Northstar and Standard Horizon as well as Rescue 21. High end VHF radios (like ICOM 602) already provide incoming
DSC positions to plotters. Several
handheld VHF's are DSC capable but fall short because they transmit the
GPS position recorded when they are removed from their charger.
This idea wouldn't require much development or change to the
current system. Development
money should not be hard to find either.
All we need is someone interested in the project. The conclusion to every lecture and demonstration that I give or attend is that how it discussions like this are only the first step. They are intended to show what methods work for others and not to sell any specific piece of equipment. It also helps to know that others are practicing and actually trying different ideas. There is no one recovery method that is better than another, IMHO. The way that is most likely to succeed is the one that has been worked out ahead of time and practiced until all of the kinks are resolved and every crew member understands works on their specific boat, with the crew that is left aboard. I think our records show that the PIW is more often the most skilled crew member which means that the rest have to solve the problem without him or her. |
