admin Date ,February 22, 2025 Sailing Previous Blog Safety Boat Day 1 Comments (0)
The weather was much warmer but even though we were on Yellow Boards the current was still strong. The second day was more intensive than the first, towing boats astern and alongside and using spring lines. The capsized bigger boats and learnt to right them if the centreboard was missing, using righting lines repeating the man overboard procedure and recovering someone from the water.
Setting the boats up to tow and then towing them up the river with man overboard drills and learning to right the capsized boats.
The day started early with us getting out several boats,
three Toppers with masts up and sails furled for towing behind a safety boat.
We had the choice of how to tie them up, so we tied them painter to the rear of
each Topper, three in a line. Two Fevas, were rigged with their sails out and
them two safety boats that were left towed each Feva, firstly astern on a long
line tied to the bridle around the back
of the engine. We quickly found out that these boats were best towed with the
rudder and centreboard up. After mastering this we then towed the boats up
river alongside the powerboat. This was significantly harder as the painters
weren’t long enough to tied to the front of the safety boat so one of the crew
had to hold the boat whilst the other steered the powerboat. The powerboat
towing the Toppers performed figure of 8 manoeuvres to show control.
Once upriver we capsized the Fevas and went about righting
the boats using the centreboard or walking up the mast. Whilst capsizing and
recovering the boats we had to deal with several man overboard drills. It is
more important to save people in the water than recovering their boats. So we
abandoned the boats and set to the rescues, taking it in turns to complete each
one so that we all could do each part.
The sessions were punctuated with excellent feedback on what
was good and what needed improving from the two instructors Jeremy and Stuart.
We covered all the theory from the book and watched a few videos on how to do
the tasks and on how to recover a catamaran since no one at the club had one.
Afternoon Session capsizing and righting toppers and Fevas
using a spare centreboard to assume that a boat might have lost theirs.
Recovering a boat using the anchor and letting us downstream via the anchor
chain, Righting a boat using the engine of the boat and a righting line.
Recovering a capsized boat with its mast stuck in the mud.
It was certainly a bust afternoon taking the boats up river
capsizing and rescuing them and them having to tow them or in the case of the topper lay it over the
safety boat and take it back up river due to the strong current washing us back
down the river.
After this we rigged two boats together with spring lines
and ties forward and after and whilst towing the boat carrying out a
man overboard drill.
The last part of the day before putting all the boats away was to rescue Sturt who had bravely entered the Thames and required rolling into the safety boat. The first team to do this were excellent making Stuart feel safe through out his recovery. Having done this a few times in my past I knew what to do and ensured Stuart’s safety.
