Casualty management

 

Spine and neck injuries are a possibilites but give that (most) dinghy crashes are low speed and most people crewing safety boats at sailing clubs are volunteers you have to give them an overview of the most likely situations which are drowning and hypothermia.

 

At the end of the day you and only do what you can do at any given incident. Regretably sometimes this may not be enough (this from a former first aider who had someone die on them from a heart attack). The main priority is to get the casualty out of the water and administer first aid and get them ashore as quickly and safely as possible. At that point the professionals can take over.

 

No doubt there can be lessons learnt from this incident not least of which is observation is key when sailing on a crowded race course and being aware of potential incidents (and giving additonal requirements to hail may help).

 

At large events such as this one then it may be practical to have at leat 1 safety boat crewed with a paramedic, at grass roots level this is just not possible.

 

I'm not sure why you have posted any of these references. I know this is a 'quick and dirty' review, but I don't believe they show any credible evidence of risk to spines in this sport. The reports reference that head injuries account for between 22-35% depending on the reference used and those references do not take into account degrees of injury. The statistics could include everything from a little bump to a great whack, mid-gybe.

 

I have faith that the RYA has people well versed in researching this topic. If it was a significant issue then the RYA as a governing body would be reviewing training and issuing new guidance. As people have noted above, they haven't.

 

The main issue here is ensuring that clubs put two in the safety boats. Thats a basic step and hard enough to achieve for some, without adding additional responsibility to the mix.

Lifeguards need training.  People break their necks and backs diving into pools every year.  

In thirty years of sailing I have not heard of a single spinal injury, there is no evidence in them in the water related accident stuff, and I have not even seen anything in the reporting of the  incident that sparked this thread to link it.

More pertinent:  I have twice been involved in CPR in a rescue situation.  Once I gave it in the water.  I'm not sure it was needed, and I'm not sure it was effective: it's near impossible in even the most benign conditions.  But the guy coughed up the water and was OK.  In the second case it was a hard stint in the rescue boat.  No way it could have been done in the water.  It's all about the priorities.

In my professional life I deal with risk management.  It's about probability against consequence then mitigation.  No matter what the serious of the consequence if the probability is nil or next to it then there is no need to treat the risk.

But I have seen senior practitioners pick up on threads like this and take actions which diverted resources and actually increased risk to life elsewhere.  So forgive me if I seem a little robust but this touches a nerve, and frankly, in comments like "lay person necissity" offends.