Canadian Yachting April 2020 - 16

3. Going forward what will change for
you as a result of your experience at
the clinic?
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE
TO ATTEND THE CLINIC?
Dan: Two reasons. I own a 38-foot racing sailboat and we do a fair amount of
long-distance racing. While I have a
great deal of experience, and I realize
that we do all the things we think we
should, you want to double check. The
second reason is I want to get my commercial endorsement for my RYA (Royal
Yachting Association) Offshore certification and the workshop is a requirement
for it.
Andy: After retiring, I spend a lot of
time sailing offshore, so I feel I am increasing my likelihood of a problem at
sea - just from the time I am spending
offshore. I also need the Safety at Sea
course to complete the International
Yacht Training (IYT -iytworld.com) instructor standard and with the offshore
sailing I am doing now - it is a good idea.
WHAT WAS YOUR
BIGGEST TAKE AWAY FROM
THE CLINIC?

Andy cruises all over the globe with
friends and teaches cruising. He chose a
course in Ontario because the BC-based
courses fill up in a matter of hours. Dan is
a marine surveyor and racing sailor who
sails out of Collins Bay on the west side of
Kingston, ON.
The 3 questions I asked of each of
them were:
1. Why did you choose to attend
the clinic?
2. What was your biggest take away
from the clinic?
16

Can adian Ya cht i ng

Dan: We are going to pay more attention
to Man Overboard (MOB). We always
have paid attention to it, but I am aware
we have not paid enough attention to it.
How many times a year do we practice
MOB? Once or twice - but that is not
enough, and we don't do it in the worst
conditions, so we are going to change the
way we train.
Andy: Cutting the rigging, especially realizing some of the tools didn't work as
well others. The hacksaw was a lot of effort and it took a long time. I have been
on boats and, 'Yea. There's our bolt
cutters.' But are they the good ones? Do
they do the job?
Another take away was the choice of
life raft. A 6-person life raft is very
crowded with six people in it.

GOING FORWARD WHAT
WILL CHANGE FOR YOU AS A
RESULT OF YOUR EXPERIENCE AT THE CLINIC?
Dan: There are things that I noted
going through the course that I will address on my own vessel. For instance, I
have 5-pound fire extinguishers. During
the course we used 10-pound fire extinguishers and they did not last very long,
so a 5-pound will last even less. I am
going to change all my fire extinguishers
to 10-pound.
We are also going to add some dedicated Man Overboard (MOB) retrieval
equipment. We have a LifeSling® and
we are going to add a parbuckle to retrieve an injured person from the water.
A third item is rig cutters. "I have rod rigging and it became obvious that I am
never going to cut rod rigging with any
standard cutter, so I am going to have to
get a hydraulic cutter."
Andy: Getting into the pool with all of
our foul weather equipment on and
struggling to get into the life raft. I am
still fairly agile, but I sail with all sorts of
other people (body size and conditioning). Getting into a life raft is going to be
a challenge with some of the people I sail
with. To improve their probability of success in boarding a life raft is dependent
on wearing a life jacket. On one training
cruise we did a sailing risk assessment
and it was interesting how many of the
risks we might encounter, were minimized by wearing a PFD. I have always
practiced that, and I will continue to
build that safety ethos in all of my students and guests.
APRIL 2020
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Canadian Yachting April 2020

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