Learning Safety at Sea
Safety at Sea allowed juniors to learn and practice safety-at-sea techniques on shore and on the water, while gaining insight into what offshore sailing has to offer. Larchmont Yacht Club hosted Storm Trysail Foundation’s Junior Safety-at-Sea Seminar on Friday, July 17.
Adam Loory wrote in a Facebook post:
Just back from teaching at the Junior Safety at Sea Seminar run by the Storm Trysail Club at Larchmont Yacht Club. 200 juniors came for a morning of classroom sessions and an afternoon of on-the-water practice on 20 different boats ranging from J/105s to 40-footers.
I taught the session on the Quick Stop Man Overboard Recovery, and the biggest take away is that crews need to practice this maneuver frequently on their own boats. Even though racing requires tacking and jibing, most good crews have to do some warm up tacks, jibes, sets and douses at the beginning of each race day to warm up and make these moves automatic.
The same goes for crew overboard practices. The more we do them, the more automatic they will become. I had been sailing for 50 years before I was on a boat that had an actual man overboard, and I am glad it happened on a boat that had practiced. The water was cold that April.
Remember, the life that gets saved may be your own.
Morning presentations covered safety procedures, particularly man overboard recovery and big-boat crew work onshore. Juniors saw and volunteered in inflating a six-man canopied life raft on the water. In the afternoon, sailors practiced performing man overboard drills both upwind and downwind.
Pizza followed upon their return. Advanced juniors participated in a separate agenda later in the evening.
View full agenda here.
See photos here.
Find more information about Safety at Sea Programs here.
