Safe to sail alone?

   Always tell someone where you are going, what time you are leaving and what time you will be back. And if you are not back by that time to try and contact you. Take your mobile phone in a waterproof pouch.
Your backup person can then call for help if you don't turn up.

Author	Message Share Topic Printable Version Delicious Digg Facebook Furl Google MySpace Newsvine reddit StumbleUpon Translate Twitter Windows Live Yahoo Bookmarks Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic
Contender443 Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Really should get out more Joined: 01 Oct 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 1211	Post Options Post Reply Quote Contender443 Report Post Quote Reply Topic: Safe to sail alone? Posted: 28 Apr 13 at 8:34am
	Always tell someone where you are going, what time you are leaving and what time you will be back. And if you are not back by that time to try and contact you. Take your mobile phone in a waterproof pouch. Your backup person can then call for help if you don't turn up.
	Bonnie Lass Contender 1764

rb_stretch Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Really should get out more Joined: 23 Aug 10 Online Status: Offline Posts: 742	Post Options Post Reply Quote rb_stretch Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 28 Apr 13 at 8:25am
	I've done quite a lot of sailing alone and whilst Jim's points are actually very sensible, like all things it life it is about the risk. Sailing in a harbour usually means that there are plenty of other water users about. If you were to get in trouble, my general experience is that anyone will help if they see you are in trouble - so you just need to make sure you can signal in some way or have a HH VHF. For instance I've always been happy to sail alone in the Solent and any of the Solent harbours. When younger my risk tolerance was perhaps a bit too high and I used to sometimes windsurf in v. remote locations with not a soul about in gale force winds. Even then I was managing risk, because I was always certain that if something broke, the wind/currents would take me to shore. I had to rely on the drift rescue technique twice so far, once due to broken mast and once due to a broken board. Edited by rb_stretch - 28 Apr 13 at 8:27am

JimC Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Visit Member's Homepage Really should get out more Joined: 17 May 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 6661	Post Options Post Reply Quote JimC Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 28 Apr 13 at 2:36am
	I don't sail alone because there are quite a number of single points of failure on my boats that would render me unable to get into safety if they failed. If you think about a cruising situation you would ordinarily expect to have two forms of propulsion in the boat, say sails and engine, sails and oars, that sort of thing, so if the mast breaks you can still get home. In a racing situation my second form of getting in is the club safety boat, or if say I'm sailing the boat over the the IOW for an event then I'll sail in company and the second form of getting in is my mates boat. I think you've got to ask yourself what your means of getting in is if, say, you lost mast, rudder or centreboard, and to what extent are you prepared to trust your neck to it... If you want to just carry a paddle, say, could you paddle well enough to get back the beach before the ebb tide washes you out to sea? Edited by JimC - 28 Apr 13 at 2:37am

dohertpk Send Private Message Find Member's Posts Posting king Joined: 28 Sep 12 Online Status: Offline Posts: 172	Post Options Post Reply Quote dohertpk Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 28 Apr 13 at 12:16am
	I'm wondering how/if it is safe to sail alone, and what precautions I need to take if so. I've been sailing my Laser for about a year now, and I want to spend more time on the water now that the weather is improving. I sail in a sheltered harbour, and there are usually clubs out on any given day of the week. One of the other Laser sailors in my club does a lot of solo sailing, but he is far more experienced than I am. That said, I'm comfortable with my capsize drills. Apart from the obvious (ie. checking to make sure a cyclone isn't closing in), what precautions should I take, or is this totally inadvisable? I'd really appreciate your feedback!