RYA safety boat presentation Suggested methods for dealing with small craft in a sheltered environment

Guiding principles Count heads! Ask if help is required, and if so, what. Recover and return students to shore if the situation is becoming serious. Leave the craft ‘tagged’ to let other crews know it has been dealt with. Don’t become another casualty yourself .

Guiding principles If students are in the water near to your boat, turn the engine off. Even if they are not, consider turning the engine off. Involve the casualties in their rescue. Holding or raising the tip of the mast may be all that is required if sailors are tired. Whilst dealing with a rescue, the rest of the fleet may be without cover. Remain alert for them.

High performance dinghies In a training context ‘prevention is better than a cure’, therefore….. Use a mast-head float. Prevents inversion. Doesn’t affect performance much.

They can be squash containers or in this case, a canoe air-bag.

Just fasten it to the halyard.

High performance dinghies In the case of entrapment, the priority is to bring the casualty to the surface. Either lift the spinnaker pole, or the stern to create an air gap.

It will allow you to see under the hull.

High performance dinghies Resist cutting lines, the sails will be easier to manage if you don’t. Use wire cutters as a last resort and only then on the trapeze system.

High performance dinghies If it’s a standard ‘rescue’.. Get the spinnaker down first. Ask the dinghy crew to do this. If they can’t, ask them how and do it yourself.

High performance dinghies Drop other sails if possible. Roll jib if it has that system. Put wing/rack over RIB sponson and ask crew to sit on it. Remove dagger board. Pass line around mast. Consider ‘spring’ towline to take strain.

Single handers.

Lay mast across safety boat, helm or sailor sits on mast, drive away.

Open hulled boats (and open canoes)

Retrieve crew in normal way, then..

If inverted and no dagger board, use paddle gently to right.

Once on it’s side, draw hull across..

Until high and dry on safety boat.

Turn upright, replace rudder, place boat and student back onto water.

Double handed dinghies Used on the more traditional dinghy. By definition, heavier. Harder to right, especially if the crew is light. Can also be used if the mast has become stuck in mud on the bottom, and if so… take care to pull it out the way it went in.

Attach a line from your painter to the top jib sheet.

and reverse gently away, keeping at right angles to the dinghy.

Maintain an even pressure on the tow-line… and as the dinghy comes up, the crew get in as normal and balance the boat.

If the dinghy needs towing, consider towing it backwards….

Once the stern is clear, it will follow the towing vessel nicely.