Best Practices in Watch Keeping
see attached PDF [attachment=485]Best practices in watchkeeping procedures_r2_23-02-2015.pdf[/attachment]

Doublehanding, Marina and I prefer 3 on and 3 off starting at 6 pm. We try to get at least some sleep during the day. We show running lights ALL night and set up the Radar on "watchman" every 10 minutes with the alarm. We don 't have a AIS yet but would get one if a future passage were planned.
Some people have said with AIS & Radar you don 't have to keep watch...WRONG!
Singlehanding: Sleep mostly during the day. Cat nap ( 20 min) at night. Always use an alarm. Show lights, use Radar and AIS continuously. (Tow generator allows this without running engine)
Be sure to have a good dodger fitted on your boat to make watch keeping on deck more comfortable.
Peter and Marina Passano
s/v SEA BEAR

It took a while but the first of the papers is now published on the website. Thanks to all of you who contributed.

Now live...OCC 's Best Practices in Blue Water Cruising

A series on Best Practices in Blue Water Cruising is being developed based on discussion threads in the OCC Forum and elsewhere. The first white paper, Best Practices in Watchkeeping , has been posted. Thank you to all the members who contributed their valuable thinking and expertise. Please let us know what you think. If you have an idea for a topic, please start a thread on the forum or contact Daria Blackwell at PR@oceancruisingclub.org.

https://liveicomgrshot.blob.core.windows.net/occfiles/Archive/images/Publications/Best_Practices/Best practices in watchkeeping procedures_r2_23-02-2015.pdf

Vice Commodore, OCC 

[quote="DariaBlackwell" post=1659]I am writing up the results of this thread and several that appeared on Facebook. I would like to pose a question to the single-handers in the group.

From what I have read, 20 minute intervals of sleep during the night is preferred. That is the amount of time taken to traverse the distance to the horizon as seen from the deck of a boat. In each case, alarms were cited as critical. (radar proximity, AIS, radar detection, off course alarm, wake up alarm at the companionway so you have to get up to shut it off). Some single-handers advocate heaving to during the day for longer sleep intervals. Are these some things you practice or would agree with?

What other options are there?[/quote]

Actually, it 's 20 minutes at any time of day. Blondie Hasler told me that whenever there was nothing vital that needed doing (sail handling, navigation, eating), I should lie down and close my eyes. You might not sleep deeply, but you get physical and mental rest, and your ears should remain wide awake for 20 minutes, until you start to slide into deep sleep.

And the 20 minutes is not a fixed amount. In shipping lanes where there are fast, quiet container ships, 15 minutes is the maximum. In mid-ocean, clear of shipping lanes, 1 - 2 hours is OK. Close to the coast, with fishing fleets about, 5 minutes might be sensible. Whatever the time, lie down and close your eyes.

I find that I need at least one period of 2 hours sleep in each 24 hours, to reach REM sleep. Otherwise, I start to get confused.

Alarms are certainly very useful, and have improved safety for single handers, but we managed before they were available. They are not critical, but they are highly desirable.

I might well consider heaving to if I were totally exhausted, but I 've not reached that stage (yet). Having a good self-steering system, an easy to handle rig and a comfortable, sheltered watchkeeping position mean that I shouldn 't reach that stage. I might add to the list of desirables a sea berth that puts the sleeper 's head as near as possible to the centre of pitch, yaw and roll (at just aft of the halfway point of the waterline), but that applies to crewed boats as well.

I am writing up the results of this thread and several that appeared on Facebook. I would like to pose a question to the single-handers in the group.

From what I have read, 20 minute intervals of sleep during the night is preferred. That is the amount of time taken to traverse the distance to the horizon as seen from the deck of a boat. In each case, alarms were cited as critical. (radar proximity, AIS, radar detection, off course alarm, wake up alarm at the companionway so you have to get up to shut it off). Some single-handers advocate heaving to during the day for longer sleep intervals. Are these some things you practice or would agree with?

What other options are there?

Vice Commodore, OCC 

More on the pramhood and the watchkeeper 's alarms attached as PDF documents:

[quote="DariaBlackwell" post=1122]Here is a good article about keeping a log, which is an essential part of watchkeeping procedure. Were you aware that a ship 's log is a legal document?

http://www.skippertips.com/public/1707.cfm?goback=%2Egde_781317_member_274164593#%21[/quote]

I think that 's an important point. In the event of an accident, a well-kept and up to date log provides some evidence that the vessel was being well-run and a watch was being kept.

When Tystie sailed two-handed, we used a 4- on, 4- off system, with no dog-watches. I, as skipper, took the graveyard watch, and let Fran have the first and morning watches, when she got the sunrise and sunset. Watchkeeping would be more relaxed during daylight, with the nominal off-watch maybe in the cockpit snoozing, if it was too hot below. The main meal would certainly be during the 1600 to 2000 watch. I think the 4 hour watch ties in with the science of sleep - the sleep cycle from light sleep through deep sleep to REM sleep takes 90 - 100 minutes, and the first two such cycles are when most of the good work of renewal is done. So you fit two such cycles neatly into four hours, with enough time to get to sleep, and to rouse yourself for your watch.

Being junk rigged, deck work is minimal, and the watchkeeper has little to do but look around every 15 minutes, reading and listening to music the rest of the time.

I disagree with keeping watch in the cockpit. A warm dry watchkeeper is a better watchkeeper. Tystie has a Hasler pramhood, and the watchkeeper is sheltered, yet with the eyes, ears and nose outside, taking in all that 's happening. Every serious cruising yacht should have one.

Now I 'm single-handed, and I 've made a watchkeeper 's alarm using a clockwork run-back timer, activating a bright red LED and a 90db piezo buzzer when it reaches zero (with a dim green LED to tell me that it 's active and counting down). All components can be found at RS components.

[attachment=111]image.jpg[/attachment]

I also make much use of my Vesper Marine AIS and my CARD radar detector.

Here is a good article about keeping a log, which is an essential part of watchkeeping procedure. Were you aware that a ship 's log is a legal document?

http://www.skippertips.com/public/1707.cfm?goback=%2Egde_781317_member_274164593#%21

Vice Commodore, OCC 

Top of our list is AIS. Everything that has been written is essential but it is also necassary for the watch keeper to have easy access to someone off watch to call for help. Someone must be in the cockpit 24/7. We had friends run down by a ship in the south Atlantic when he went below to make a cup of coffee. Fortunately they survived (only just) to tell the tale.

Nick and Helen Bryant
s/v Ursa Maris