Sailing Safety

[BarryK1200LT]

Ouch! ... the dislocated shoulder doesn't sound much fun V.I. Lucky you got it to pop back in.

I don't know, this cat sailing seems too dangerous. Might be time to take up a safer sport like hang gliding or base jumping?

Cheers

Barry

[QB2]

I put spectra ropes in plastic tubing on my trapeze as the hook up loop. I am wondering now whether to go back to the stainless ones I replaced. I went to spectra after my crew had a front tooth crack after copping a minor hit in the mouth.

I had another thought on using a safety line Was thinking of using a drogue which could be deployed when you fall overboard. It would be activated as the final half dozen metres of rope comes out of the bag before the rope came under strain. A drogue would take the weight and you could then swim to the cat

how much are small yacht sized drogues?

[Loose Change]

Well, seeing everyone else is sounding off about their nearly close call, I may as well wade in too. I was off work for the day and took my Mari 4.8 out to Jervis Bay for what I thought was going to be a nice sail. The day was the kind we all dream about, blue skies, glassy water and ten to fifteen knots of breeze. After I put in it was ll as I had hoped so I sailed over to a well known spot called Honeymoon Bay, now for those that don't know Jervis Bay, it is 16km by 10km with an average depth of about 16 metres. About three quarters of the way over to Honeymoon Bay the wind all of a sudden turned very nasty and came up to about 20 to 25 knots and due to shallow water the chop was very short and steep with a lot of power in it, me not being a hero decided to turn around and head back to the safety of the beach at Callala Bay, but due to the chop I couldn't tack the damn boat through the eye of the wind, no jib ya know, so I attempted to gybe it, half way through the gybe a gust tore the main out of my hand and whipped the sail over to the other side with such force that the sail ended up past the side stays (Mari 4.8 is boomless) not being able to get the sail back on the right side of the stays I had no control whatsoever and the boat tipped in and almost immediately went turtle. With the wind and chop being what they were I could not right the boat by myself, now one of the flaws of the Mari is those pesky little PVC tubes that they put into the side of the hulls to allow them to breathe and equalise the pressure, the theory is great when the boat is the right way up, it works a treat. It's a real shame that I doesn't work so great when you are turtled and the ends of the little tubes are now busily sucking up Jervis Bay. The only thing I could do as I began my own exodus to NZ was tp pull off my bright flouro orange life jacket and standing on the tramp wave it like a maniac hoping that someone will see it from somwhere .... anywhere. Luckily someone did and called the police who in turn called the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol who in turn called one of the whale watching boats that was out sight seeing, I had seen the whale watching boat and tried to attract it's attention, but no one was watching, they were all looking for whales; all of a sudden it turned, but I couldn't tell if it had turned towards me or away from me after a few minutes it was apparent that it was heading my way as I could now see a bow wave, it was responding to the request from the RVCP till they mobilised. About 30 minutes later I was in tow behind the RVCP vessel heading back to Callala Bay, at one point the skipper called out and asked how long my mast was, I replied "8.5 metres" he said he would let me know when that depth aproached. Finally it happened, we were at 8.5 metres and still nearly seven hundred metres from the shore and I had to make a decision wether to abondon the boat and moor it and attempt to salvage it another day ot to continue the tow. As we had been towing my boat from the front the mast was pogo sticking in the sand bottom and it wouldn't take much to either snap the mast or worse yet, break the two piece front beam and lose the entire boat as it broke up. I made the decision to tow the boat sideways and that way the mast was dragging in the sand and as the water became more shallow it would then just drag at a more shallow angle. This we did and eventually the sail started to "fly" underwater and generated enough lift to right the boat which was floating very low in the water due to the water that had been gurgling in through the breather tubes. The upshot of all this is that I spent nearly five and a half hours in the water with no safety equipment other than my life jacket and in closing would like to thank all the other people in this thread that have shared their story in the hope that anyone that reads this thread may get a bit of an idea that it doesn't always work as planned but we can and must minimise the risks we pose to ourselves and our loved ones.

Harry

[BarryK1200LT]

Thats a hell of a story Harry and I'm glad it ended well for you and your 4.8 Mari.

Having had a week to think over the experience of becoming separated from my boat and hearing what others have suggested, I reckon whenever your sailing alone or with young kids onboard it's important to;

1. Plan ahead how you will manage a situation where you might become separated from your boat. For example what would you do if you fell overboard, and your kids/ wife etc are left onboard, but don't know how to control the boat?

2, Always carry a waterproof VHF radio that is attached to you, not packed away on the boat somewhere.

3. Take your mobile phone with you in a waterproof cover, and have this tucked inside your harness.

Get a cover that allows you to use your phone while still inside the cover as you don't want your phone getting wet.

4. Place a small mirror in the waterproof case with your phone.

4. You have a VHF radio, so log on with your local VMR people. Tell them where your going to be sailing, and what time you expect to be back. Then log off when you get back.

5. Carry flares and a Vee sheet in a waterproof bag inside one of your hulls. If you happen to sail out of radio and phone range and things turn pear shaped for some reason, you can fall back on the flares to attract attention.

If your planning to sail alone in an area where VHF radio and mobile phone coverage is suspect. Stay at home instead!

6. Wear a PDF type 1 life jacket at all times, and consider wearing a wetsuit even through summer. It will help insulate you if you end up in the water for longer than expected, and will also increase your bouyancy.

7. DON'T TIE YOURSELF TO YOUR BOAT. Be willing to grab hold of the mainsheet and hang on for dear life if you fall in to try and stay with your boat. But don't tie yourself to the boat.

If you get separated from your boat, use your VHF radio and phone to call for assistance.

8. Keep your boat in first class seaworthy condition.

Those ideas aren't in any particulalr order. Feel free to add anything else you can thnk of.

Cheers

Barry

[This message has been edited by BarryK1200LT (edited 06 September 2008).]

[dood]

9 Hard Hat with Orange flashing light. So they can see you in the water.

Looks like you have had some great advice From others Barry.

[tornado]

10 Blow up doll

[nacrabat]

11.. A hand held gps so you can tell the CG where in the water you are. Very hard to spot a floating head!! Even with a flashing light on it!!!

Dave.

[bad dog]

This has been a great read! Basically we have all been in unplanned 'incidents' all of which scared the crap out of us. Now we could take this to the next level - start a collection of stories of all the other accidents and incidents that have befallen us.

...like the time I was skylarking on my Paper Tiger on the seaward side of the Foster-Tuncurry bridge, in a nor-easter and a flood tide, tacking back n forth, lah de dah - then the breeze died. How high is the mast on a PT? About a foot higher than the clearance under the F-T bridge at half water! There I am banging masthead against bridge, praying for a little breeze, with various pedestrians attempting to do a King Canute from 5m above the river, with about as much success.

So a power boat comes to tow me away - and right at the critical moment, their shear pin does what shear pins are supposed to do (are they? - what for?) and they drift down on top of me. So now my masthead is holding two boats against the tide...

Anyway, I politely and sorrowfully fend them off and pass them around the bow - "thankyou, what a shame, never mind it was the thought that counts..." - to watch as they slide quickly into the sunset over Wallis Lake.

Breeze returned, PT took off, lah de dah, lah de dah. Oh the folly of youth (I was 18).

But back on track here Barry, I do not agree about NEVER tying yourself to the boat. It's the best hope you have of self-recovery, surely. Quick release will fix the unlikely event of not wanting to be connected to a big floating thing that will usually save your life!

Dick

[BarryK1200LT]

Hi Dick,

I know I've come full circle in relation to the thought of tieing myself to the boat as a safety measure to prevent becoming separated from the boat.

Personaly, I think if you fell off the side or over the back of the boat, it might be Ok to have the mainsheet attached to your harness, as the sheet would pull tight and hopefully capsize the boat, and you can then pull yourself back along the rope and get back on the boat.

In the circumstances I found myself in last weekend that would have worked fine.

However, I have reservations about what might happen in a pitch pole situation where you tend to get thrown forward a long way.

I've had occasions where I've ended up in the water in front of the bridle wires after pitch poling forward. In that situation I'd be concerned that my mainsheet might not be long enough to still remain slack in that situation.

I can see a risk where you could get hung up between a tight trap wire and a mainsheet thats pulled really tight, and be unable to release either line quickly.

Whether to tie yourself to the boat or not as a safety precaution is really a matter of personal choice. There's probably no right or wrong - just pro's and con's.

There's always going to be risks involved with any activity. The great thing is that by sharing our own experiences we create awareness of the kind of things that can, and sometimes do go wrong for us cat sailors, and hopefully that will make sailing safer for all of us.

Cheers

Barry

[HooD]

Well today we took the Capricorn out for its maiden voyage. This thread was in my mind as we were the only sailing boat on the bay. The breeze was off shore and reasonably tame.

BUT

I made sure some one on the beach kept an eye on us, they had my mobile and access to the rescue boat.

[Simmo]

This is sobering reading. This Sunday will be fourth sailing lesson.

I've just bought a Maricat 4.3 with the intention of sailing Brisbane Waters both solo and with crew. Looks like I best start investigating some of your options (and making sure my better half doesn't see this thread).

I like the doll idea best but how would you stay centred to avoid falling off? (LOL)

cheers,

Trevor

[knobblyoldjimbo]

Simo, fret not. The main story here is of open waters. One of the attractions of sailing on Bris Water, or Lake Maq is that in case of trouble you're always pretty close to shore.

You should pop up to Mannering Park on Saturdays or Toukley on Sundays and do a bit of racing. Certainly at MP there are generally about ten mari's of all skill levels (literally from the very best to me and my back marker mates).

[knobblyoldjimbo]

The other thing is that "Morton Bay between Cleveland Point" is pretty much open water, next destination is New Zealand by way of the Styx, Briso and Lake Maq are nicely narrow so just lie back in your pfd and wait till you hit something hard!!

[pepsi1234]

i am sorry to here you had a bad time in Morton bay, i to had a rather unpleasant experience some years ago, in a power boat Lucky i had a anchor ''But it only just held long enough for me to get a tow, sailing is for me now. is there any way that you can tie some SHOCK CORD to your rudder so that if you let go of the steering that boat will turn and come to a stop, giving you time to swim to it, i hope this dose not sound to stupid, i don't see why it would not work''''''''

[Simmo]

This is sobering reading. This Sunday will be fourth sailing lesson.

I've just bought a Maricat 4.3 with the intention of sailing Brisbane Waters both solo and with crew. Looks like I best start investigating some of your options (and making sure my better half doesn't see this thread).

I like the doll idea best but how would you stay centred to avoid falling off? (LOL)

cheers,

Trevor

[Simmo]

Originally posted by knobblyoldjimbo:

Simo, fret not. The main story here is of open waters. One of the attractions of sailing on Bris Water, or Lake Maq is that in case of trouble you're always pretty close to shore.

You should pop up to Mannering Park on Saturdays or Toukley on Sundays and do a bit of racing. Certainly at MP there are generally about ten mari's of all skill levels (literally from the very best to me and my back marker mates).

Thanks knobblyoldjimbo. I best finish the sailing lessons first. Still haven't given the Mari 4.3 her maiden voyage but hopefully will on Sunday (lesson 5).

Cheers,

Simmo