Safety II: STAY.ON.THE.BOAT.

Hand hold above the dodger

This is the other post that I meant to write long, long ago. Owing to some degree of distractibility by beautiful sunrises and sunsets, I never got around to it.

Safety On Deck:

Again, I repeat, I am no expert on sailing. These are my thoughts and observations from living onboard for 4 ½ years. Take them for what they’re worth. 

A bar for bracing our feet against when we heel. It is
part of the center cockpit table.

There are many ways one might be injured on deck aboard a sailboat. One could be hit by an unsecured boom (done that--check) with disastrous consequences. (Luckily for me, not disastrous). Stubbing one’s toes on snatch blocks. (Done that, many times--check) Getting one’s fingers caught in a loaded winch (in other words, the winch is under load from a sail powered by the wind. A finger under the line wrapped around the winch spells, “one less finger.”) Docking can be dangerous. As in, leaving one’s foot between the boot and the pier. With a 16,000 pound vessel, who do you think will win? The boat or your scrawny foot?

EPIRB-an emergency GPS
beacon. "Deploy only in grave
and emergency situations." This
post does not address EPIRB.
Research EPIRB use elsewhere.

A deployed EPIRB will broadcast
boat location and need for emer-
gency assistance to NOAA.
Natl Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administation 

However, I am not going to attempt to address all of those potential hazards.  I will address only one--the most dangerous thing for you on a sailboat is when you do not remain onboard where you belong. Now, it is true that there are a number of safety tools to assist a sailor in retrieving a person out of the water.  We have all of them. 

Man Overboard. MOB.

We have a MOB, Man Overboard which is attached to the aft pushpit. If someone were to fall overboard, whomever sees the unfortunate soul go overboard is supposed to deploy the MOB. Additionally, there is a throw version with a 100’ long floating neon yellow poly line. Theoretically, the person in the water grabs the line and can pull themselves in. We also have a buoyant horseshoe, which is also attached to the boat by a 100’ line. Again, theoretically, the person in the water can put the horseshoe around their torso and be pulled in to the boat.  

Horseshoe flotation attached to boat.

I am saying theoretically because while you are busy falling in, gulping water and flailing around, the sailboat is continuing to move away from you. If it’s moving under engine power, then one cuts the engine to turn around for you, making a tidy “8” in the water in order to pluck you out of the water. If the boat is under sail, however, it’s a bit more complicated. First of all, there needs to be a third person onboard. Someone to steer the boat and someone else to drop the mains’l and handle the foresail in order to get the boat turned around and get back to where you and the boat parted ways. 

Simple throw device. Floating poly
line with loop.

This post is not about how to do that.  It is a worthy topic, but not one that I feel qualified to address.  I will never forget the cautionary comment made to me before a long ocean voyage when I suggested that perhaps we ought to practice doing a man-overboard drill before setting off. *The wise sailor, with many more years of sailing experience than I will ever have, said this to me, “Well, we could. But the reality is that if you fall off, it’s likely going to happen at night and/or in rough seas. The chances of us finding you are not great.” Hmmmm.……..again, hmmmmm. Well, that made me think twice, even thrice.

CO2 cartridge automatically inflates
life jacket when submerged in water.

Clearly, the most important advice for a sailor is to-- Stay. On. The. Boat. So, that’s what we have always put the greatest amount of effort into doing. So far, so good.  Knock on wood (of which we have none on deck.)

So, here is how we stay on the boat.

Quick-release attaches to harness, which
is built into this life jacket

First a word or two about life jackets--a life jacket in and of itself is not going to keep one onboard the boat. But, when the life jacket also has a harness built into it that can be attached to the boat, then you’re in business. Of course, we wear the latest version of life jacket. It automatically inflates without the wearer doing anything, when it becomes immersed in water. That is nice because if you hit your head on the way in, it does not wait for you to pull the cord. It keeps your head above the water because that is its’ only function at that point. Well, that and, there is a whistle attached and a small beacon to help those folks who have the good fortune to still be on the boat, to find you in the waves. I would hope that they can do that for you.

Heavy duty carabiner-type clip to attach to boat.

So, back to the harness built into the life jacket. The harness is designed to be used with a tether. A tether is what connects you to the boat. Tethers are designed, as far as I have observed, with a quick-release that attaches to the harness. The other end of the tether has a different kind of attachment that will fit over stainless attachments and jacklines. 

Pair of stainless eye hooks beside companionway

We have a few different kinds of tethers. I don’t pretend to know which are the best. Read the reviews for that. But I do know that if I’m not physically strong enough to open the attachment or to release myself from the tether, it’s not going to be the right one for me.  Tethers often have two lines, a shorter one and a longer one, both elasticized. Hopefully, you will understand why in a bit.

Pair of stainless eye hooks each side of helm.

Anytime we are in rough seas, we are tethered to the boat. Also, at night, or anytime that one of us is asleep, the other one must be tethered in. One would hate to awaken and discover oneself all alone on a sailboat in the ocean. We put our life jackets on down below.  We attempt to keep the life jackets as dry as we can when they’re not in use.  Would hate to have one automatically inflate unnecessarily. The tether, we attach as we come up on deck. We first attach the harness end to us and then the other end of either the long or the short tether to the boat. 

Elasticized tether with a short and a long line.

There are a set of matching stainless eye attachments right by the companionway so that we can be hooked on even before we step out on deck. There is another matching set of eye attachments on either side of the helm, so if you’re sitting at the helm you can be hanked on close by. 

Clipping onto jackline before stepping out
 of cockpit

What if you have to go up on deck for some reason? First of all, we try to avoid having to go up on deck when we’re under sail, but sometimes it’s essential. That’s when we use what are called jacklines. There is a pair of them, one running from either side of the cockpit, inside the standing rigging all the way to the bow. 

Heavy-duty stainless frame built around each dorade. Frame protects the dorade
and makes for sturdy hand holds.

The jacklines are made of tough braiding designed for that purpose. We would not think of going offshore without having jacklines  in place first. So, when we need to go on deck, we first hank on to the jackline before stepping out of the cockpit.  As I walk forward, the tether moves along the deck with me. Depending upon the design of the boat, a person may have to squeeze to get through a narrow place where the standing rigging is attached to the deck. It is during this process that the usefulness of having two tether lines, one shorter and one longer may become most apparent. 

Squeezing between standing rigging
and structure surrounding dorade.

Obviously walking on deck is best done on the high side of the boat, the windward side. If you fall, you would certainly prefer to fall onto the top of the deck rather than into the water, which would certainly happen on the low side of the sailboat. You’d be attached but a little worse for wear  being dragged through the water.

Stainless hand holds on deck. Note that
tether drags along with wearer across
the deck. Jackline to be set up inside
the standing rigging.

Again, walking on deck is best done in a crouch. Keep the center of balance low. Hang onto something every minute. “One hand for you and one for the boat” is the old saying. On our boat, we have lots of hand holds on deck.  That was one of the things we were especially impressed with when we bought the Saga 43. Sturdy hand holds built onto the dodger, large hand holds built around each dorade fore and aft and long hand holds between the pairs of dorades. 

A shiny dorade. Ventilation to cabin below.

Dorades are the large curved “tubes” that are mounted on top of the cabin roof. They can be turned to face in different directions with the intent to capture breeze and send it below for ventilation, even when it’s raining or there’s wave washing over the deck. And of course, there are lifelines along the perimeter of the entire sailboat. 

"There goes my hat."

Just as an aside, while we were taking the photos for this post, I lost my favorite pink baseball cap with the extra long visor to the wind. Bummer. I knew better. If I had been on the ball, I would have attached a hat clip to the back of the cap and to my shirt before going on deck. Duh. Hat clips are little tethers for your cap.

Should have been wearing this hat clip.

*The wise sailor who helped us sail from Norfolk, Virginia to Antigua in the Eastern Caribbean was Harry Corbett, from Oriental, North Carolina. A great sailor and a good friend. Not to leave anybody out, we were also aided in our 14 day crossing by a 19 year old long time sailor by the name of Luke Johnson, from Hampton, Virginia, who would have gladly gone up the mast or taken on any other task deemed precarious before even being asked to do so. The fact that he was crossing the ocean with three old guys was not lost on him.