Safety Tips:
The following was recommended by some experienced sailors.
1) " One hand for you, one hand on the boat"
50% of dead sailors are found dead in the ocean with their fly open (pants zippers open). Most dead sailors fall into the ocean while peeing and are thrown from their boats. There is a famous expression that has outlived many a sailor with due caution.
" One hand for you, one hand on the boat"
This allows you to ALWAYS keep a hand on the boat for stability and not get caught off guard by rough seas and fall off.
2) Drag Line behind your boat 200-300 feet on the open ocean.
When traveling at high speed on the open ocean, it is easy for the boat to race away from you should you get thrown overboard. Having a long line attached to the butt end of your boat that you can swim to and grab onto like a water skier behind a boat will allow you to grab a hold of your boat and catch to it so it doesn't run away from you for safety. This is essential especially in rough, wet weather with rough seas and a possibility that a rouge wave with thrown you off your deck. Using a drag line behind your boat is also useful for hauling in fellow shipmates if you have crew with you. Doing a Quick-Turn and encircling a shipmate that has gone overboard with the drag line is one way to keep them in range and within reach of your boat. It is very important to keep constant visual contact with them, since it is easy to loose them in very rough seas.
3) Sailing Safety: An opinion.....
For the sailing that most of us do i.e. coastal or lake, I think it is pretty safe.
Basically if you stay on the boat you are likely to be just fine. I have been sailing actively on Lake Huron since the mid 70s. While it is certainly not the ocean I think my experience is typical. I can think of three fatalities in that time and they all involved someone falling off their boat.
I am starting to take safety harness etc. a lot more seriously, of course I am getting older (maybe already there?) and sail with my adult son and daughter and their numerous friends who I am of course responsible for.
The hazard that I wonder at the most, but am amazed at how seldom a sailor is seriously hurt, is lightning. I cannot count the times we have been in a race with lightning all around us and no boats got it. It does happen, but a lot less frequently that I would expect.
Some thing about a 50 foot aluminum pole rising up from a very flat surface ??
The following was recommended by some experienced sailors.
1) " One hand for you, one hand on the boat"
50% of dead sailors are found dead in the ocean with their fly open (pants zippers open). Most dead sailors fall into the ocean while peeing and are thrown from their boats. There is a famous expression that has outlived many a sailor with due caution.
" One hand for you, one hand on the boat"
This allows you to ALWAYS keep a hand on the boat for stability and not get caught off guard by rough seas and fall off.
2) Drag Line behind your boat 200-300 feet on the open ocean.
When traveling at high speed on the open ocean, it is easy for the boat to race away from you should you get thrown overboard. Having a long line attached to the butt end of your boat that you can swim to and grab onto like a water skier behind a boat will allow you to grab a hold of your boat and catch to it so it doesn't run away from you for safety. This is essential especially in rough, wet weather with rough seas and a possibility that a rouge wave with thrown you off your deck. Using a drag line behind your boat is also useful for hauling in fellow shipmates if you have crew with you. Doing a Quick-Turn and encircling a shipmate that has gone overboard with the drag line is one way to keep them in range and within reach of your boat. It is very important to keep constant visual contact with them, since it is easy to loose them in very rough seas.
3) Sailing Safety: An opinion.....
For the sailing that most of us do i.e. coastal or lake, I think it is pretty safe.
Basically if you stay on the boat you are likely to be just fine. I have been sailing actively on Lake Huron since the mid 70s. While it is certainly not the ocean I think my experience is typical. I can think of three fatalities in that time and they all involved someone falling off their boat.
I am starting to take safety harness etc. a lot more seriously, of course I am getting older (maybe already there?) and sail with my adult son and daughter and their numerous friends who I am of course responsible for.
The hazard that I wonder at the most, but am amazed at how seldom a sailor is seriously hurt, is lightning. I cannot count the times we have been in a race with lightning all around us and no boats got it. It does happen, but a lot less frequently that I would expect.
Some thing about a 50 foot aluminum pole rising up from a very flat surface ??
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