If you are distance racing and a boat behind you flips then unless you are extremly confident that a boat behind them has spotted them and is rendering assistance, you must turn back and render assistance. (Even if that means sailing upwind).

The Great Texas Catamaran Race has a nicely crafted rule covering this:



I have twice diverted in that race to render assistance. In one case I actually helped them right a turtled boat that had taken a little water into the mast. In another case the other boat righted itself just as we arrived next to them. In both cases we recorded the time we diverted course and the time we got going again and were granted redress by the PRO with no questions asked and no grumbling from other teams.

Spelling it out in the sailing instructions and talking about this stuff at the Skippers meeting is a very good idea. If there are no chase boats and it is a buoy race then all the competitors must be prepared to render assistance. Obviously this is a difficult call to make - but safety is a lot more important. We recently did a few fun races without a comittee boat or chase boats. We spotted some newbies who weren't even racing who had flipped their boat and looked like they were struggling - so we dropped out of the race, went over and my crew swam over and helped them out.

Monitoring a VHF radio for a distress call is a little marginal. This assumes every one is carrying one on their person. Also, on a spinnaker boat, carrying the kite and moving at pace, both skipper and crew have their hands full, so monitoring the radio may be difficult.

For serious distance races (Tybee 500, Great Texas etc), renting a satellite phone for the week is a good, inexpensive option (less than $100). In fact, the Great Texas made it mandatory this year for each boat to carry one.

Personal EPIRBS are also a good option, but this means you are always handing responsibility for the rescue to the Coast Guard - which may be appropriate for really serious situtations (such as one of the sailors separating from the boat), but may be over kill if you have just dismasted and drifted in to a shore with no cell phone reception. The safest option is to carry both (one satellite phone on the boat and a personal EPIRB each).

Life lines go a long way to preventing drama. We use 6ft tethers with elastic that keeps them to 3ft and kept permanently attached to the boat this year apart from when the crew went low side to clear the boards/rudders.

A few years ago we did an informal distance run out to an island in Galveston Bay and back to the beach. On the way back a guy who was soloing a H16 at the back of the pack flipped. Another guy just ahead of him saw this and kept on sailing instead of standing by to offer assistance.

When we got back to the beach we waited and waited for the H16 sailor to appear. Finally, as the sun began to set the guy who had witnessed the capsize told us what he had seen (not very smart waiting that long).

A few boats went out to try and find him - but it grew dark and we never found him. The beach crew did the smart thing and called the coast guard, who found him using an IR camera and got him back to the beach safe and sound.

We use this as a cautionary tale around the fire as to why you should always render assistance when distance racing - this story could have just as easily ended in tragedy.

Chris.