your responsibilities as a sailor

windsurfers - Norfolk - common sense....

extra fingers and toes to grip I guess...plus the webbed feet, always helpful.

Originally posted by winging it windsurfers - Norfolk - common sense.... extra fingers and toes to grip I guess...plus the webbed feet, always helpful.

I've had a couple of 'gnarly moments' on a wire, but only one that has actually caused any damage.  That was on an RS600, tight reach and plenty of speed, I slipped on the rack and ended up catapulting forward as the boat then went down the mine.  My leg broke the mast on impact, (glad it wasn't the other way around!), a rack cracked, the sail ripped and the hull got a lot of damage against the dam wall.  An economic write off... but I came to an arrangement with Noble.

Edited by pondmonkey - 21 May 13 at 11:59am

Originally posted by winging it It was a laser 4000.  The crew was crawling forward along the deck to deal with a tangled spinny when his harness hook got caught on a lower shroud.  The boat then capsized and he couldn't free the hook, plus there was a sheet caught round his neck.  There was a second similar incident in USA where a hook got caught on a shroud.  The lessons learned from these incidents report the need to right the dinghy as quickly as possible, rather than try to free the caught persons whilst under the water.  Same with the Kielder Water fatality. One of the joys of being an RTC Principal is you get to read all this stuff.  Lessons do get learned after such incidents, and new guidelines are produced.  One such after Kielder is that training boats should be fitted with mast head floats and also the boats must be fitted with devices to stop centre boards falling back into cases should the boat invert. Clubs should keep accident and incident reports and anything serious will automatically be investigated by MAIB.  Their findings then get reported to people like me and changes made.  There have been changes to the pb2 sysllabus for example - no sharp u turn stops - too many people falling out of the boat.  Plus all the new pb guidelines for training boats.

Originally posted by 2547 I think there are 3 types of people when it comes to risk ... Risk ignorant, people with little knowledge or understanding who do stupid things ... Risk managers, people who understand the risks and make a considered choice Risk paranoid, people who are so paranoid about the risks that they take all measures regardless about the actual (d)effeteness just to tick the boxes in the case of an issue

The vast majority are in the second camp as risk managers. However there is still interpretation in that. I wouldn't see pondmonkey as risk ignorant but he had weighed up the risks and in his opinion he doesn't need the pfd. Sargesail isn't in the latter and had considered the risks but decided that he wishes to wear the pfd. I don't know many people who do fall in either category 1 or 3 to be honest. The latter are usually people that are scared of being sued without the ability of being able to withstand such a legal action