Hi Drew,
Safety precautions / equipment should be directly proportional to the conditions which you believe you may encounter during your day`s sailing (assuming you are a day sailor on a beach cat.)
I`ve done a 4 day adventure trip on a beach cat, with tent, clothes, food, water etc for the whole trip stored on the tramp. This, in hindsight (there it is again) proved a bit difficult on the last day when we were hit by a 40 knot squall when an approaching thunderstorm swallowed us.
SInce all the gear was lashed to the tramp, I feared capsizing since I figured we may not right the boat after the storm with the weight of the kit. I had not considered this as a problem, until it became one. We rode the storm out pointed head-to -wind with sails flogging & lightning conductor
pointed at the sky - I would rather have been upside-down for the duration of the storm, but had not left that option open to myself. The safety equipment we had was very basic - obviously life-jackets worn all the time, 2 cell-phones in a waterproof box, flares, spare line, spare shackles & 2 paddles.
After the storm we came across a keelboat which had run aground & went to their assistance - we did not need to phone NSRI but it was comforting to know we were in a position to do so if anyone was injured.
If you intend to sail outside of the view of your club, perhaps a long-distance sail on your lake/dam/open sea, best to have someone on land know your intended time of arrival back at the beach - Our club`s rescue officer goes looking for someone who hasn`t returned about an hour after dark - problem is an upside-down cat is hard to find after dark on a dam with a 900kn shoreline, the open ocean is going to be impossible.
A while back one of our club`s best sailors went to fetch a Tornado from another club, intending to sail it across to our club for a race the following day.
He should have arrived by about 7:30pm, at 9pm we sent out rescue. The NSRI (South Africa`s National Sea Rescue Institute) boat joined the search at about 10pm.
They found him upside-down at about 2am, skipper & crew were in shorts & t-shirt, no lifejackets, no safety equipment ie flares etc. Luckily it was summer & they were cold but alive.
On the open sea that same incident would have been a newspaper article about 2 guys who drowned.
This doesn`t mean we can relax about safety on lakes or dams - rescue operations on Vanderkloof dam (looking for people on motorboats who have run out of fuel or got lost) have taken up to 5 days.
I would reccommend the following rough guidelines:
-If you sail up & down in front of your club, lifejackets should be all you need. Flares would be optional. A paddle is also a good item to have.
- If you intend on going off out of sight of your club, make flares mandatory, add drinking water. A paddle becomes a must have. A cellphone is optional & might help in an emergency.
- If you go on a 4 day trek, notify someone of your route & where you intend to be each night, as well as return date. Keep in touch via cell-phone as
much as possible, maybe have a report in time each day to a buddy at your club. If you`re camping on the shore each night, take a snake-bit kit for snakes
that are common to that area (I live in Africa, this may not apply elsewhere.) Also, take enough provisions for 5 days if you plan to be gone for 4.
I`m sure there are many guys who know more about safety than myself, these are just my ideas.
The problem with taking the safety equipment along for the situation which you think you might encounter, is that you may very easily encounter another situation for which you had not planned.
If you sail solo & capsize, your flares are no good to you if they`re in a trampoline pocket & you lose touch with the boat. This has happened to me, and you can`t swim as fast as your boat can drift using it`s trampoline as a sail.
Also, know how to operate the flares properly before you leave the shore - reading the instruction leaflet should not be done when you are floating around with a gash in your forehead & you can`t see your crewmember. If you take them along & don`t know how to use them you are likely to shoot a hole in your hand or something.
This applies to all safety equipment & procedures - have a "what if" discussion with your crew once in a while, so that they know what to do if you get separated from the boat & they are drifting with it, but can`t right it & get back to you by themselves. (Also happened to me.) I`ts easy - they just have to turtle the boat, you can then swim & catch up to it since it will slow down a lot. This may not be apparent to them at the time, so a safety briefing before a sail is a good idea, especially if you are sailing with new crew.
I take part in paragliding, a while back we had a discussion as to whether it is a good idea to carry flares on a cross-country flight, bearing in mind we fly over forested areas where you may set the forest alight by discharging a flare. A heated debate ensued, until a few weeks later a pilot crashed in an inaccessible place. He was rescued the following day, spent the whole night sleeping in his chute with a broken leg - His comment "wish I`d had flares".
Hope this helps.
Steve
