Emergency Lists

[Freesail99]

The list would be a great way to practice for an emergency. So that you know what to do.

[hellosailor]

Considering that all pilots have and use checklists...One has to wonder how big boater egos must be that no one wants to ever be seen with a checklist. Oh, wait, those are the macho boaters who refuse to wear PFDs and are found floating in the water after falling overboard with their zippers undone, aren't they?

I'm not saying you need to have and use one all the time, but I think everyone I know says "Ooops, well, I forgot I haven't done this all winter" the first time after launching. Me inlcuded!

So, a list to "prepare for sea" "secure for docking" "secure for heavy wx" "abandon ship" "prepare for helicopter rescure" "call for rescue" "collision damage control" "flloding/leak" etc. would be the least set. "Man overboard" only counts of the guy who went over owes you money.<G> If nothing else, they help newbie guests to understand what might need to be done, and familiarize them with the boat. Having a vague memory of something you've read, sure beats having no idea at all of what you might have to do.

A helivac, by the way, calls for some simple but totally non-intuitive steps and if you ever need to call one in--having it documented and being able to tell the helo that you've read and followed the prep, will make both them and you feel a whole lot more comfortable with what happens next.

[Omatako]

Originally Posted by billyruffn

Chuck, I disagree! Why is it that every commercial aircraft in the world carries emergency checklists?

Yeah. And every time we fly, we all avidly pay attention the the air crew while they go through the ritual (when actually the best advice they can give is "Place your head firmly between your knees and kiss your a$$ goodbye").

I agree with Chuck. Let's face it, none of the newbies is going to know what the SSB emergency frequency is or howit even works. So what is the point of the knowing the distress procedure? Even so I have a distress calling procedure, frequencies and my callsign pasted on the bulkhead alongside the radios, no other lists.

Newcomers to my boat get nothing to read. I take them on a tour of the boat and they touch and smell and kiss all the safety gear. When the $h1t hits the fan, they are going to be looking after No.1 and the survival of your vessel will depend entirely on you. If you blow it they die but they will never appreciate that fact.

And as has been said many times before, there is no better bilge pump than a desperate man with a bucket.

To me it's more important that everybody understands how to properly use the head because that's the most common disaster you'll experience

FWIW

Andre

[Omatako]

Originally Posted by Freesail99

The list would be a great way to practice for an emergency. So that you know what to do.

Nothing that you do when you practise will even resemble what you will need to do in a real emergency. If you believe that the situation when things go badly wrong will be as you expect it then I respectfully suggest that you're going to experience an unpleasant surprise.

A real emergency starts insiduously and accelerates at astonishing speed and normally draws in a cocktail of things going wrong in a totally random sequence. What you can't practise or predict is which elements on your boat are going to fail to complete the cocktail. It will never be one thing.

Andre

[chucklesR]

I think I was misunderstood.

I have the lists, including visio diagrams and photo's I made up all in my own little book of SoP's on my boat.
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/YDK8R9Y...%20storage.vsd


No Navy guy operates without SoP's.

I don't know if most of you will be able to open that - it requires visio 2000.

Emergency to me means the IA (immediate actions) of pilots - the things you do when you don't have time to read a check list. Like how to turn on the bilge pump, how to use a fire extingiusher, man overboard etc..
For those you train until you get it right without thinking.

When time permits you read the list it's not an emergency, it's just urgent.

[hellosailor]

"To me it's more important that everybody understands how to properly use the head because that's the most common disaster you'll experience "

WW2 subs used to have the instructions for using the head mounted on a large placard right inside the head compartment door. Talk about complicated...and a REAL lousy way to start the day if someone got it wrong.<G> Andre's right, you gotta have priorities.

[Freesail99]

Originally Posted by Omatako

Nothing that you do when you practise will even resemble what you will need to do in a real emergency. If you believe that the situation when things go badly wrong will be as you expect it then I respectfully suggest that you're going to experience an unpleasant surprise.

A real emergency starts insiduously and accelerates at astonishing speed and normally draws in a cocktail of things going wrong in a totally random sequence. What you can't practise or predict is which elements on your boat are going to fail to complete the cocktail. It will never be one thing.

Andre

True, You can't practise an emergency but a list is a way to start. Hell when your lost, any road will take you somewhere.

[Barquito]

Thank you all for the good ideas. It looks like I need to differentiate emergencies that can be thought through (with a list), and ones that need to be responded to right away. This, no doubt, is a continuum. A checklist for what to do in a knockdown will only be useful for review prior to the event, whereas, a list for preparing for a squall that is a few minutes away might help a lot (put the hatch boards in!) at the time.

[Valiente]

Originally Posted by billyruffn

A first hand sea story....

And a good one, Billy. I've heard that "taste the water" advice before...it's easy to forget that a completely emptied water tank might put the boards awash, but won't drop the waterline a millimetre... (in fact, it might stiffen up the boat a bit and clean out those hard to reach spots!)

[sailingdog]

Chuckles-

Your link is busted...

BTW, most emergencies aren't one big thing going wrong... they're usually a bunch of little ones going wrong, one after the other, and if you could have stopped any one of them, the whole thing would have turned out much better...but generally, when they start to go wrong, it's is way to late to fix any of them.