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Silvio - 11/3/2019

Back to 2009 when I crossed from Galapagos to Marquesas, a 3200 miles route that took us 19 days to complete, I had a lot of time on hand to think about improving easiness and safety on board, so I made a few changes on managing the sails and on the ship abandoning procedures that included:
1. Reefing: when you have to reef a sail, is already because conditions are deteriorating so, the worst thing you can do, is going to the mast to reef the main sail. To resolve that, I installed one counter halyard (pull down) for each reef ( have 3), so I could pull down the sail from the cockpit, avoiding going to the mast. That significantly improved the effort of reefing the main sail. Recently, on winds over 50 knots, I found myself having to go to the mast to take the rest of the main sail down from reef 3 to zero, so I installed one small counter halyard to pull the last piece of main sail completely down, from inside the cockpit. Later, I had a chance to test the system on a real situation, and, provided that you manage that small cable well, avoided the trip to the mast on real bad wind or sea conditions.
2. Abandoning ship: Working on the "what ifs" of abandoning ships, came to mind that, the most important thing to take with you is water, so, I reserved a 3, 5L pet bottles of water, from which I took some wayer out to promote positive buoyancy, tie them together with a small rope, and tie the small rope on a longer rope, to take it out, throw it on the water, holding the long rope, and tying it up to the raft or other floating equipment to be used on the abandoning ship procedure.
3. Abandoning pack: using one of the waterproofed abandonig sacks, I put inside it:
Spot, Epirb, TelSat, Batteries, Solar powered chargers, Portable, waterproof VHF, on abandoning ship, take this sack out with you.

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Daria Blackwell - 6/24/2019

Dick, you are so right. When we were first getting acquainted with Aleria, our Bowman 57, we went through every piece of gear aboard and studied how to deploy it when necessary. Naturally, an emergency tiller would be useful to get at quickly. But when looking at ours and trying to fit it, we realized we would have to be steering from under the berth in our aft cabin, periodically sticking our heads out the hatch to check on things happening on deck. Not an ideal situation. 

That's when we decided that the Monitor windvane steering system, with its emergency rudder configuration, would be a good backup system for us. And so we fitted the Monitor which we love. Fortunately, we have not needed to deploy it despite losing steering - twice - mid-Atlantic. Because of our sail configuration (cutter ketch), we can balance Aleria exceedingly well. While I stayed on deck and steered the boat by adjusting sails, Alex worked on the steering. The first time, a gearbox had seized; many hours of greasing and manual persuasion finally managed to loosen it. We have rod steering and several gearboxes. We had called into our Atlantic crossing net via SSB and several yachts diverted to our position to assist if needed, but we got lucky. Fortunately, it held until Grenada where we replaced the gear.

The second time, the quadrant 'jumped' off the post. I had to align the wheel precisely up on deck so that Alex could refit it below. Naturally, I was at the helm both times. :ermm: 

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Daria Blackwell - 10/10/2019

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Dick - 10/10/2019

Shifting One’s Mind-Set
At this time when many are looking at ocean passages to warmer climates for the winter, one’s Safety at Sea is usually founded on a mind-set that is developed after long years of sailing, and much experience in a wide range of conditions. This mind-set is hard earned and serves us well. It is, however, possible, even for those who have a lot of sea miles and especially for first timers, to induce mind-sets that can markedly improve safety.
For example: When on passage, I think there is a world of difference, when doing a 360 sweep of the ocean, if you tell yourself ahead of time that there is a potentially dangerous ship out there and you just need to find it. The work is then to convince yourself that you were wrong: that there is no ship out there. This may be a particular effective suggestion for new and inexperienced crew.
The same goes for pre-passage inspections (or all inspections for that matter): look for the problem you “know” is there. When I go aloft to check rigging, I “tell myself” that a problem exists and I just need to find it. And then convince myself there is no problem.
I know this “mind-set” shift changes my behavior from what might be termed casual-but-attentive to one of increased diligence: others have confirmed that this “mind-set” shift made them more focused.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

Dick,
This is a really important concept. Being convinced that there is a problem makes one concentrate on really investigating thoroughly.

Along with that is the question I ask myself while on watch -- "What if?"  I learned that from astronauts talking about their training protocols. What if a shroud breaks?  What if the forestay fails?  What if we hit a whale? What if the genoa sheet snaps?  What if we have an overlap on the winch? What if there's an injury aboard? And so on. By walking through 'what ifs' on a routine basis, the response to a risk scenario may be faster and more appropriate if thought through well in advance. 

Cheers,
Daria 

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Daria Blackwell - 10/10/2019

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Dick - 10/10/2019

Shifting One’s Mind-Set
At this time when many are looking at ocean passages to warmer climates for the winter, one’s Safety at Sea is usually founded on a mind-set that is developed after long years of sailing, and much experience in a wide range of conditions. This mind-set is hard earned and serves us well. It is, however, possible, even for those who have a lot of sea miles and especially for first timers, to induce mind-sets that can markedly improve safety.
For example: When on passage, I think there is a world of difference, when doing a 360 sweep of the ocean, if you tell yourself ahead of time that there is a potentially dangerous ship out there and you just need to find it. The work is then to convince yourself that you were wrong: that there is no ship out there. This may be a particular effective suggestion for new and inexperienced crew.
The same goes for pre-passage inspections (or all inspections for that matter): look for the problem you “know” is there. When I go aloft to check rigging, I “tell myself” that a problem exists and I just need to find it. And then convince myself there is no problem.
I know this “mind-set” shift changes my behavior from what might be termed casual-but-attentive to one of increased diligence: others have confirmed that this “mind-set” shift made them more focused.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

Dick,
This is a really important concept. Being convinced that there is a problem makes one concentrate on really investigating thoroughly.

Along with that is the question I ask myself while on watch -- "What if?"  I learned that from astronauts talking about their training protocols. What if a shroud breaks?  What if the forestay fails?  What if we hit a whale? What if the genoa sheet snaps?  What if we have an overlap on the winch? What if there's an injury aboard? And so on. By walking through 'what ifs' on a routine basis, the response to a risk scenario may be faster and more appropriate if thought through well in advance. 

Cheers,
Daria 

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Dick - 10/10/2019

Shifting One’s Mind-Set
At this time when many are looking at ocean passages to warmer climates for the winter, one’s Safety at Sea is usually founded on a mind-set that is developed after long years of sailing, and much experience in a wide range of conditions. This mind-set is hard earned and serves us well. It is, however, possible, even for those who have a lot of sea miles and especially for first timers, to induce mind-sets that can markedly improve safety.
For example: When on passage, I think there is a world of difference, when doing a 360 sweep of the ocean, if you tell yourself ahead of time that there is a potentially dangerous ship out there and you just need to find it. The work is then to convince yourself that you were wrong: that there is no ship out there. This may be a particular effective suggestion for new and inexperienced crew.
The same goes for pre-passage inspections (or all inspections for that matter): look for the problem you “know” is there. When I go aloft to check rigging, I “tell myself” that a problem exists and I just need to find it. And then convince myself there is no problem.
I know this “mind-set” shift changes my behavior from what might be termed casual-but-attentive to one of increased diligence: others have confirmed that this “mind-set” shift made them more focused.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

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jmounter - 10/1/2019

Hi Dick, I agree with all your thoughts, including the alarm. I dd not recall but have a feeling they did have a smoke alarm, but sounding below. Clearly if these are any use they need to have sound in the cockpit, too. With an engine running and hatches closed, anything down below would be very hard to hear. We have an auto fire extinguisher and now we are sailing back in northern waters both my Admiral and I keep Epirbs in our clothing. I always keep a hand held VHF on deck, too. The advice about getting the liferaft ready, immediately a real problem is discovered, is very important. But, of course, they did that on this occasion and it seems it may have been cooking for up to 18 minutes. In a Valise it might have been toast. As a stowage arrangement, that system is hopeless and my friend is writing to the upmarket boat manufacturer to warn them. Imagine this: Half way across an ocean, everyone on deck, clipped on and wearing lifejackets. Hatches closed. They start the engine to charge and, as with my friend, cannot get below. The life raft doesn’t inflate having been cooked. Fire is starting to cook the gas bottle stowage, as it did for my friends. Choices: None. Swim, try to survive in a dinghy ( if you can get it out of a fiery locker and inflate it in time ) or suffer a fiery death.With or without alarms, even with lifejackets properly worn, that ‘over the engine’ liferaft stowage system is deadly, in my view, and I urge fellow members who have it to use it to stow extra ropes or maybe a spare anchor and look for an alternative place to keep their ‘last chance’ .

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jmounter - 10/1/2019

Two weeks ago a friend, with two aboard his 55 footer, was sailing off Mallorca in strong winds, clocking speeds in excess of 9 knots. As they turned into the bay of Palma, as often happens, the wind completely died. They turned on the engine and took course for Palma. Because they had been sailing hard, all hatches except the main one were shut and that was open only an inch or two.

As those who have sailed extensively in the Med will know, not everyone tolerates wearing life jackets at all times so, against the safety advice, the jackets were below but placed so they could be easily retrieved. ( It is hard to criticise people for not wearing them when temperatures are well above 30 degrees, most are very uncomfortable. Flat calms, the boat motoring at, say 7 knots, what could go wrong?)

Approximately fifteen minutes after starting the engine one of them noticed a wisp of what appeared to be smoke coming out of the main hatch. On opening the hatch they were driven back by thick, foul toxic smoke. They shut it again and opened a cockpit locker to get at a fire extinguisher. Again they faced clouds of thick yellow and black sooty smoke.

Having immediately shut off the engine they tried again to get below, but could not. Meanwhile, they launched a liferaft, which inflated the wrong way up. The drogue deployed and pulled the raft to the end of its tether. It took exhausting minutes to haul it in and turn it the right way up. By then it had a foot and a half of water inside. Luckily, the sea was flat calm.

The skipper has tried to use the deck VHF to put out a May Day but all electrics were dead. Handheld VHFs were below but fortunately the skipper had his mobile phone in his pocket and sent for help on that. A Customs boat and a rescue craft were quickly on the scene and recovered all safely from the liferaft. The rescue boat pumped large amount of water into the yacht and extinguished the fire. She was towed to port.

On examining the boat back on shore, things got scary. The liferaft was kept in one of those bins that some yachts have, below the cockpit floor and over the engine. The heat from the engine fire had started to melt the bin, which was heavily blistered. Fortunately, the liferaft has been in a container and not a valise, or it might have been seriously damaged. The heat had also started to blister the purpose built gas bottle stowage locker.

The Skipper is highly experienced and generally very careful about safety. One of his crew is a professional yachtsman. They comment that they were extremely lucky. In the Caribbean, the Pacific, the Med, or anywhere where you can get days of benign sunny, shorts and T shirt weather, it is easy to think you are relatively safe. Particularly so when seas are flat calm and you are not far offshore.

But what if that main hatch had been closed completely and the fire had burned another ten minutes before being noticed? What if they had been fifty miles offshore, not ten? What if the liferaft had caught fire or been severely damaged? What if all the mobile phones had been below decks or they had been out of mob range? What if the gas had been on at the bottle and the lines had burned through?

This could in different circumstances, on a different day, in a different place have been a true disaster. Fire at sea is one of our greatest dangers. The skipper says he will never go to sea again without his grab bag on deck, I usually hang ours from the companion way steps and might have been able to grab that, an alternative way. He recommends mounting the liferaft on the push pit or, in any case, never in one of those purpose built liferaft storage bins over an engine. Too many liferafts inflate the wrong way up. Service companies should perhaps be encouraged to ensure that if this is a possibility, the drogue will not come out of the liferaft until purposefully deployed. If you insist on not wearing life jackets, because it is too hot and sticky, at least have them to hand.

I am sure there are other lessons from this incident, which happily caused no deaths or injuries.

Julian.