Safety I: Below Decks on Sailboat

Do not boil water or make soup while doing this.

 I meant to write this post a couple of years ago, but the Islands captured my attention and I never did. So, at last, here ‘tis.

Personal safety below decks onboard:

I am not a professional sailor by any means. We’ve been living aboard for 4 ½ years now and so these are my thoughts and observations from that limited experience. If you are new to cruising or are thinking of cruising perhaps these may be of some interest.

There are many potential ways to injure oneself below deck on a sailboat. I think the most likely and most damaging ways are by falling onto something, or having something fall onto you.

First of all, there are some things that just should not be performed while under sail, unless perhaps you’re going flat downwind and it’s a very calm, flat sea. How often is that the case? Not so often.

So, things like boiling water for pasta or making a big pot of soup? Probably not the best things to do while the boat is making way. Do those while you’re at anchor.

Does your boat come with one of these?

An exception to that rule might be use of a pressure cooker. Obviously, the stove must be gimbaled so that the stove fights to remain more or less level while the rest of the boat heels. If the seas are choppy, forget the pressure cooker idea, too. Have peanut butter and jelly, or granola bars or a banana and be happy. (We do not subscribe to the superstition that having bananas onboard are bad luck. Neither of us have ever been injured by a banana).

The stove is gimbaled and level. I am not.

So, other things to watch out for in the galley:  hopefully all of the drawers have locking mechanisms. Any drawer that does not is apt to come flying open and its’ contents strewn onto the beautiful sole (floor) of your of the boat. Take it from me, someone who has forgotten to lock a drawer once or several times. 

Another safety feature on a sailboat ought to be a stainless steel bar which extends out from the stove and across the entire front of it, to prevent one from falling onto the stove. I used to think that was overkill but have since changed my mind on the matter. The bar also serves as a place to attach the torso brace to prevent one from falling backward away from the stove. Again, at one point I thought that was overkill, but have changed my mind on that as well. All it took was one time of the boat lurching the “wrong” way unexpectedly in chop and me pedaling backwards to remain upright and then slamming through the open door to the head and landing against the sink. I was, shall we say, surprised to say the least, to find myself in the bathroom while cooking. I suspect that most people would be.

Another pair of safety features which we have never had to use: fire extinguishers and a fire blanket. Does it go without saying that one should not store the fire blanket so close to the stove that one can’t get at it if there’s a fire at the stove? We have a few fire extinguishers below decks. One is close to the stove, which possibly could become inaccessible in the event of a fire at the stove. Also, there is one in the aft cabin which is farther from the stove and next to the door to the engine “room.” (Quotation marks indicate that to call the area housing the engine on most sailboats a “room” is totally ludicrous; as ludicrous as calling the area surrounding your car’s engine, a “room.”)

Other galley considerations: Anything that is left on the counter will fly around while the boat is under sail, or under motor in big waves. If the items don’t fit inside a cupboard, then tie them down in some way. A person can install little eyehooks in order to run bungee cords to contain things like a thermos or bowl of fruit. Teapots are always left on the stove. It’s gimbaled, so that’s pretty safe. Otherwise, I tuck anything that’s loose on the counters into a sink where it’s contained-- including the dishwashing liquid which really makes a mess when it falls onto the floor and seeps over a rug or really any surface. Very, very slippery as well. So, wedge that, plus anything else that won’t go into a cupboard in the sink so they don’t bang around against each other. Perhaps a comment about breakable things on a boat. We tend not to use glassware made of glass, nor do we use breakable dishes. I don’t think that our cupboards lend themselves to a snug enough fit for those items, but many boats are designed so that dishes and glasses can’t shift around much at all.  We do have things like vinegars and oils that come in glass bottles, however, and we are able to stow them snugly so they don’t clink together. Just about everything else that I use in the galley is unbreakable.

The ring is something I attached to the
handle on refrigerator to make it easier
to grab quickly.

Refrigerator and freezer doors on most sailboats (at least the ones I’ve been on) tend to be the kind that one lifts up in order to dig down into the box. These doors are very heavy. Very. A wise person would likely avoid trying to hold the door up with one hand while rummaging around in the box for items. A wise person would install some sort of stainless steel chain with an “S” hook to attach the door to, in order to have both hands free to work in the fridge.  “Work” is the operative word. Sailboat refrigerators are nothing like your probable experience with refrigerators on land that have lots of shelving and where things more or less remain where you put them last. I have seen pictures of people’s hands after being smashed under the door of a refrigerator. Hard to believe those were previously attractive fingers.

Ceiling handholds run the length of salon. We're tall so we
can easily reach them. Make sure you can reach yours.

Spills. There will be some. Wipe them up before someone slips in them. I think it’s a good idea to have some kind of mat at the bottom of the companionway. If you’re going below from on deck and it’s raining or you’ve gotten wet, your shoes or bare feet will be wet. When you hit the bare sole, it will be very slippery.

Handhold at the entrance to
companionway.

Lastly, hand holds. You can’t have too many of them.  If you’re looking at a boat to buy, I suggest that every person who will be living onboard take a walk through the cabin to see if they can reach hand holds in order to move below deck. Short people might not be able to reach the ones on the cabin ceiling.  If not, hopefully there are handholds placed at lower heights. If the beam of your boat is quite wide, there might be nothing, I repeat, nothing that a person can reach to hang onto while moving around below while underway. I am of the opinion that that is a foolish thing in boat design, giving up safety for luxurious space, but that’s just me. All about safety Ardys.

Well, there, those are my observations and opinions about safety below deck on a sailboat. Next up, safety above deck. Won’t that be exciting?