Since this column opened for business, we have ranged over the wide territory of seamanship. We have looked closely at tangibles like knots and inflatable PFD's, at intangibles like leadership, and at basic skills like heaving-to. Here's some follow-up on two of the biggest stories we covered - the 1998 Sydney-Hobart Race and the reliability of safety harnesses and their tethers. I've included references to sources that may help you make your boat safer and more seamanlike. Here also is a report on the very rough 1999 Sydney-Hobart.
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The Sydney-Hobart Storm - Such is the power of the Internet that my first column, a year ago, was an early analysis of the brutal storm that hit 115 boats racing off Australia on December 27, 1998, killing six sailors. That 1999 race was a landmark event in the long history of offshore sailing.
The last word is not yet in on that catastrophe and it may well prove to contain many fireworks. The final word will come in the coroner's report after his official inquest. A coroner in the British legal system has many of the broad powers of an American grand jury and can aggressively pursue many threads. Expected to appear by mid-2000, the report may well be more critical of race management and boat handling than the somewhat tame self-investigation by the organizer (the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia) and books written about the race.
The CYCA changed some rules for the 1999 race. Here are some of the new ones. They're worth serious consideration by anybody heading offshore:
At least half the crew must have extensive offshore experience
At least 30% of the crew must have formal training in safety-at-sea techniques at a safety seminar (like the ones held in the United States).
At least one crew member must have earned a first aid certificate.
Each boat must carry at least one 406MHz type EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon). This is the EPIRB that sends an accurate positioning signal that identifies the boat; it's far superior to the old 121.5 MHZ model.
The minimum age for crew is now 18.
Each boat must carry a satellite communications device, provided by the race sponsor, Telstra. The device sends out a steady signal so the boat can be located and also provides a line of communications to and from the boat.
Experienced cruising sailors, libertarians by nature, may well complain that such rules - any rules - limit sailors' freedom to prepare their boats and themselves as they think fit. It is my long experience that before a race, safety preparations often are assigned a lower priority than racing preparations. If left entirely to their own devices, many racing sailors will prepare to go to sea by buying another jib instead of the best safety harnesses or EPIRB and will spend their spare time practicing spinnaker sets, not crewoverboard rescues. The competitive impulse is that strong.
So I'm not bothered by cautious racing safety regulations. Still, two of the new Hobart Race rules initially struck me as overly restrictive - the ones concerning age limits and satcom. On reflection, however, I could see how each does address important problems specific to this event. Apparently it has been fairly common to take adolescents on the race, and in 1998 some teenagers were in far over their heads. (By the way, there seems to be no maximum age limit; one skipper in the 1999 race was 84.)
The Sydney-Hobart Storm - Such is the power of the Internet that my first column, a year ago, was an early analysis of the brutal storm that hit 115 boats racing off Australia on December 27, 1998, killing six sailors. That 1999 race was a landmark event in the long history of offshore sailing.
The last word is not yet in on that catastrophe and it may well prove to contain many fireworks. The final word will come in the coroner's report after his official inquest. A coroner in the British legal system has many of the broad powers of an American grand jury and can aggressively pursue many threads. Expected to appear by mid-2000, the report may well be more critical of race management and boat handling than the somewhat tame self-investigation by the organizer (the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia) and books written about the race.
The CYCA changed some rules for the 1999 race. Here are some of the new ones. They're worth serious consideration by anybody heading offshore:
Experienced cruising sailors, libertarians by nature, may well complain that such rules - any rules - limit sailors' freedom to prepare their boats and themselves as they think fit. It is my long experience that before a race, safety preparations often are assigned a lower priority than racing preparations. If left entirely to their own devices, many racing sailors will prepare to go to sea by buying another jib instead of the best safety harnesses or EPIRB and will spend their spare time practicing spinnaker sets, not crewoverboard rescues. The competitive impulse is that strong.
So I'm not bothered by cautious racing safety regulations. Still, two of the new Hobart Race rules initially struck me as overly restrictive - the ones concerning age limits and satcom. On reflection, however, I could see how each does address important problems specific to this event. Apparently it has been fairly common to take adolescents on the race, and in 1998 some teenagers were in far over their heads. (By the way, there seems to be no maximum age limit; one skipper in the 1999 race was 84.)
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