How to be Safe at Sea – IT’S WET

Every year in the UK more than 8,000 rescues are made by the RNLI, with more than 50% of these being responses to leisure sailors like us. While many of these are real accidents that no-one could have forseen, a great proportion are rescues or incidents that could have been avoided by better preparation before setting off.

The Lifeboat service is voluntary and the men and women that brave all weathers deserve a little more consideration. Should they really have to launch in truly foul weather, risking their lives, to rescue a yachtsman who didn’t check the weather well enough, or who didn’t have the right equipment on board before setting out? I’d argue that our own families deserve a little consideration too, as do the crew that trust in us as their all knowing skipper on what for them should be a pleasant day out.

The RNLI have a mnemonic for safety at sea: IT’S WET

1. I – Inform. Tell others about where you are going. Make sure others know what your pasage plan is and make sure they know when to raise the alarm if they don’t hear from you. Shortly Harbour Exchange will be launching a service to help sailors do this effectively.
2. T – Training. Think about you and your crew. Do you all have enough knowledge of the plans, how to sail or handle the boat? Would they be able to cope if it got rough or if the skipper got sick or injured? Make sure there are at least a handful of experienced sailors and the longer and more involved the planned journey, the more experience you should have on board.
3. S – SOS Device. What if you got into trouble? Do you have a working VHF with DSC and just as importantly does your crew know how to use it and what the calling protocols are? If you are on a longer passage offshore, do you have an EPIRB, SART or other means of raising the alarm if out of VHF range. It can take minutes for a problem to become a disaster at sea and so having these in easy reach (with a hadheld VHF and personal EPIRBs in the grab bag) and a well briefed crew is essential.
4. W – Wear a lifejacket. It’s so obvious that it’s trite to say it, but a lifejacket can only save a life if it is attached to a living being. Othervise it is just an inflatable bag with straps!! Wear it or drown. I see a lot of people sailing in the Solent with no lifejacket, oblivious to the effect of the cold water should they hit the ‘drink’. To demonstrate the effect, a few years ago some of our Olympic swimmers were tossed in to a cold Solent without lifejackets and they struggled to swim. The cause: the shock of the cold water. If our Olympians struggle, imagine what an overweight, middle-aged, booted and foulweather-geared up crew member would do – and you don’t even need to be submerged to drown – you can drown in the spray you cause trying to stay afloat. Worth thinking about. Wear it!
5. E – Engine and fuel check. Do you have enough fuel for your journey? What if the wind dies and you need to motor all the way? What if you need extra power to get out of danger? Is the oil at the right level and do you have enough spares in case something breaks? Obvious things to ensure you have are spare impellers. If you have ever been thrown around in a rouch sea, you may know that the cooling system could get an airlock and not circulate when you fire up the donkey. Do you and at least one member of the crew know how to prime the system and get it back to life so you don’t ruin the engine or worse still cause a fire?
6. T – Tides and Weather. Check the weather regularly before setting out either online or via radio/TV. The best sources are the shipping forecast on BBC Radio 4 or the Coatguard’s broadcast following announcements they make on Channel 16. Marinecall.co.uk is also a good source, and if you phone them for a weather update, a portion of the cost of your call supports the RNLI. You can also check out our weather pages on for a range of up to date services. Then there are the tides – make sure you know what these are doing even if you are only day-tripping, as a strong spring tide ebb could make it impossible to get back to your morring if your engine is under-powered. Also a ‘wind with tide’ passage is bound to be much more comfortable for you and your crew than a ‘wind against tide’ passage. Check out some good tide resources on Harbour Exchange.

These are real basis ‘Sailing 101′ tips, but given that more than 4,000 call outs are made to yachties each year it seems like we could all be doing with a refresher.

And the last thing….if you aren’t already a supporter of the RNLI then go to http://www.rnli.org.uk and support them. You hope never to need them but if you do you’ll feel so much better knowing you conributed to their efforts to keep us safe.

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