Safety Lesson 101 (Udate on the boat)

It doesn't take much to be safe on the water. Here is a little reminder, this happened yesterday.

If you sail in open water there are 2 things (other than a safe boat) you should have on board that the following guy didn't have. He paid the price with his boat, floating around in the COLD water for 2 hours, a stiff fine, possible criminal charges for lack of safety gear, and easily could have paid the ultimate price. When I saw him around 9pm he looked pretty cold. We'll go look for his boat today over on the beaches.

The reason I post things like this is to not be alarmist, but to make sure we as small boat sailors are viewed in a good light by the Harbor Patrol and Coastguard. One incident like this can make our fleet look bad.

QUIZ: I left two blanks in the last paragraph. What do you think they are?


Water 53degF
6’ NW groundswell
Wind 15-19 kts

Approx.1400 hrs Hobie 16 left Santa Cruz launch ramp.

1600 hrs overturned Hobie spotted with one passenger aboard.

1630 hrs Catalina 30 renders assistance to overturned Hobie approximately 4 miles from the Santa Cruz Harbor entrance. Call to Santa Cruz Harbor to search for missing skipper.

1645 Patrol boat code 3 to scene.

Diminishing Sunlight

1700 hrs Skipper found, Coastguard notified code 4.

1730 hrs skipper and crew taken back to harbor. Last known coordinance of vessel is:
“?â€

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1. Signaling Devices, Communications

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2003 Tiger - Don Atchley

Flares (signaling devices); communication

A second to OS 18's reply!

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Trey Brown
www.velocitysailing.com
2006 N20 1017
1998 H16 102698
www.sunjammers.com ftw!

Have played that scenario ( or one like it ) out in my head many times since I sail solo most of the time. Just recently acquired a regular crew. Nevertheless, I always carry a GPS and a VHF in a fanny-pack on my persons at all times, in the event I get separated from the boat.

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Happy Sailing,

David

Jeremy are the sailors ok?
Anyone we know ?
WAs it johnny o? lol jk

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Rich Vilvens
F-18 5150
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http://www.sailblogs.com/member/f-185150sailing/

Good job guys! I should've offered an award or something. OS18 will probably get something out of me sometime, but I don't know you Trey. You'll have to come to the West Coast and collect.

Flares and a VHF.

Either of these items could have made a crappy situation stay a crappy situation rather than become life threatening like it did.

Everyone is OK. I'm not at liberty to say who it was, even though I want to. It wasn't Johnny O. He'd have swum in no problem and eaten a shark for dinner that he caught with his bare hands and filleted with a leatherman.

Here's the scenerio: Newish skipper, $600 boat from craigslist and not totally prepared. The more experienced of us should help these types of sailors out. It kind of gives us all a black eye when the Harbies have to come and scoop us out of the water... And then they find out that we didn't have any safety gear on board...I'll hear about it every time I go into the harbor office for the next 3 months.

The good: No one got hurt.

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Nice post Jeremy! I hope everyone thinks about worst case scenarios and preparation, especially in open water. A whistle and a flag are always in my jacket and that's just in a small lake. I want to meet this Johnny O!

So was it the skipper got separated and the boat sailed off a bit with the crew (inexperienced maybe) on it and eventually flipped...or that they flipped and and the skipper became separated at some point while the boat was over?

I guess It's important to note that the VHF should be hooked to you and not the boat.

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Tiger 947/2364

Went out in the Hobie Skiff and did some search patterns downswell, down current. Then went and had a picnic and a walk with the wife and kid on the beach where it will eventually wash up. Didn't find it. Hobies don't usually sink unless they get crushed, so I think in a few days we'll find it.

The funny thing is, this boat got annihilated in the surf several weeks ago. Broke the mast, ripped the sails, bent a crossbar...so it probably had some hull damage.

Hobies usually float just under the surface. It's probably bobbing with the mast in the sand just outside of the surfline at my favorite surf spot!

I was really stoked to try out some maritime law and 'salvage' a 'derelict', but it didn't quite work out.

A few more details:

Vessel assist wanted $1000 just to start their boat and go search. They settled on an undisclosed amount.

The last known lat and long was in 110 feet of water, so if it did go down it's gone.

Harbies were bummed, but like the chance to go try out some of their toys and training. (We've got the best harbor patrol! No offense Buchanan, o'side is pretty cool too.)

The Coasties are pissed and want to throw the book at him! This means fines for littering in a marine sanctuary, not having the proper safety gear, etc, etc. We're talking over $50G's

Moral of the story, go buy yourself a waterproof VHF and some freakin flares. And, keep your boat in seaman-like fashion. Yea, you can score them for cheap, but that doesn't mean you should be when it comes to safety!

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Apparently, the boat flipped, the skipper lost his grip and the boat drifted downwind, "...way faster than I could swim, it was blowin 35-40kts at least..." according to the wide eyed skipper last night.

Yes guys, in high winds a boat can get away from you fast. It's pretty slow swimming with all of that safety gear on:D

According to the Harbies it was blowing up to 18 and the skipper was found 1.5 miles from the cat!!! That's a lot of water between the dude and the boat!! 52 degree water at that!!


Alright, that's enough to chew on for a while.

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Not to diminish the obvious human side of the story, but I see a business opportunity, Jeremy. Do you sell flares and radios? They are cheaper than rescue operations and Coast Guard fines.

(By the way, good move shrinking your cool graphic signature. For a while last summer I had to use dial-up internet service, and topics with your posts would take forever to load.)

Yep, I sell em. They're cheaper than WM too. (Not that hard to do). Yeah, sorry a bout the large graphic, I got a new computer and didn't have photoshop to get it more manageable. It's a little less obnoxious.

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Jeremy
Sales idea " THE HOBIE HARBOR KIT " Flares, radio, whistle, signaling mirror all in a "SURF CITY RACING" waterproof bag. Because safety on the water is as important as service at the beach. have a standard bag and price to get everything in one or individual items.
P.S. my idea do i get a discount?

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Rich Vilvens
F-18 5150
[email protected]
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/f-185150sailing/

Or do we call it the "Surf City Safety" bag.

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Rich Vilvens
F-18 5150
[email protected]
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/f-185150sailing/

Thanks for the idea Rich...but...

In 1998 when I started at O'neills, there were a couple of dudes that 'sailed' their yellow 18 upside down one night to Moss Landing. They were found at 6am, frozen, but alive.

The next week the coasties and harbies wanted to meet with the fleet and discuss safety issues. I thought it was the end of our beach launching days. (Which is always my fear, we are one of only a handful of beaches where you can launch a Hobie legally. A status that we should all protect by not being cavalier!) We had several fleet meetings where the harbor patrol came and did a little safety talk.

They suggested that we put together a 'safety kit' and require it for beach launching. It basically had flares, a whistle, and a signaling mirror. This program lasted a season and then enforcement became lax.

People thought we were scamming them. We had the kit, they needed it. So there was an uprising of sorts and people stopped buying them from us. The next time they tried to launch, the harbies would check for the gear, not find it, and tell them not to launch. Then they'd go up to WM and pay twice as much for the kit just to prove a point.

To me the radio is the key and first line of defense (your addition to the safety kit). Which definitely does earn you a discount

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