If they have laid over and are clearly on the board and getting the boat up then there is little reason to tear across the lake to get to them.

I certainly would not tear over to every capsized boat unless I could not see the right number of people with it or I felt they were in need of immediate assistance.

Most people so attract the attention of the boat when they need it (arm waving etc..).

If it is a boat where there is a higher risk of entrapment (kite boat, trap boat and the like) then I would always move towards the boat and be prepared to assist.

We do have something in our SIs that state if a rescue boat is actively involved in rescuing/recovering then they have right of way.

I only ever had words with the rescue coverage once in ten years....  that being a rather over-zealous kid who tried to tell me that he would ask me to leave the water if I kept capsizing as I was according to him 'monopolising his time'.  Funny thing was, I don't recall signalling for him, or indeed needing any rescue due to injury or gear failure.  

It was my third or fourth time sailing the Musto- therefore hardly unheard of put it in the piss at least once on every downwinder whilst I got used to hoisting, gybing and dropping the kite.  If buzzing up to me helped keep boredom at bay, then fair enough, but his attitude stank.   

I picked up a crew once who'd got swept away from a capsized Wayfarer, very strong tidal flow, when I came back to the boat with her onboard, the helm (on the plate) shouted at her for accepting assistance! There was an exchange of views at that point but by the time they got back ashore, he sought us out (me and the RB crew) and offered to buy us a drink by way of apology. Just as well, he was a big fella!

I think we call ours an 'Assist Boat' officially.

All for legal reasons (and insurance) as rescue implies too much (apparently).

We also have something written in the SIs that if you are helped by the assist boat then you are allowed to continue racing in club events. Usually by the time assistance has been rendered you are usually so far off the lead that position doesnt matter and completing the race is more of a reward!

well that's nugget of wisdom that should be shared more often for club racing... 

I'd like to find anyone (jury or bystander) who would take exception to it, if you have your crew picked up and brought back, unless you carry on racing while this is going on, just seems sensible and hardly providing unfair advantage, most sports provide for assistance to enable competitors to carry on (magic sponge!) and while I appreciate the "seamanship" aspects of sailing, it shouldn't override common sense

Head count is the obvious first step, but I'm sure we can all remember situations where potential disasters have been narrowly averted.

there is a safety benefit in that the safety crew is not distracted hovering around a crew that are safe (if with a mud-bound mast) potentially missing something more serious.

Interestingly, laser radials get stuck really easily, but a full-rig rarely does so, presumably thanks to longer mast and shallower angles of mud-penetration

And Rooster 8.1s even less! 

possibly  based on a  interesting reading of the MCA rescue boat code  and/or interpretation of the 'provided for the public good ' , especially if you are inland.


"1.6 The level of safety that this Code sets out to achieve is considered to be 

the 'it;s not a rescue boat it;s a <insert other word > boat is possibly  because   of 

" 3.1.6 The following craft are excluded from the provisions of the Code: 
but it seems forgetting 

"3.1.7 This Code has been developed largely for sea-going Rescue Boats. 
the question also has to be asked  is  are  sailing clubs  providing   a safety boat   for their own activities 

1. a 'Rescue boat organisation ' 

2. providing a  rescue boat for the public good 

i would suggest not 

 or whether they fall under the  'out of scope'  statements in 3.1.4 and 3.1.5

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/330757/rescue_boat_code_final_rev_5-13_02.07.13.pdf

having found and read the  Rescue Boat Code  i'd agree 

 although it doesn't say in explictly   the code seems to be to cover the  not insignificant number of Independent ILBs .

there's confusion elsewhere as I have heard suggestion that  the Rescue Boat Code was the final nail in the operation of St John Ambulance safety boats , which were  event based andprimarily there not as rescue boats  (although equippe das such) but to provide Ambulance skills to complement the rescue boats where the  risk assessment  said they  were needed) . In the case of the SJA boats  the majority of the other nails  were knocked in by it being a 'none core activity' ( core activities for SJA being  First aid and H+S  training, first aid at events, road ambulances and the youth groups) / training overhead for asuch a limited number of schemes / financial issues with the old county structure  not helped  by  the money peeved up the wall on 'social care project' inland waterways boats which were losing tens if not hundreds of thousands a year and appeared to be grandstanding  'pet  projects' for  senior volunteer managers in the old counties.

One other observation, is that whilst there may be something to admire about the person who is so single minded that they are going to get around the course despite multiple capsizes, there comes a point where these people clearly tie up a limited resource.  

Often this is in a situation where the RO has to make a decision about protecting the less able sailors from themselves, whilst allowing experienced sailors the chance to sail in conditions that they live for.

This works really well in Solo's, because 1. in a normal situation it is a high climb up onto the board, and 2. also when you do the roll, the boat will eventually come up pretty dry, 3. there is less chance of getting separated from the boat when you have to swim around the boat!

Maybe it's just the boats I sail, but if the wind is strong enough for you to capsize then you're unlikely to be able to right the boat with the jib sheeted in, and secondly if the jib is sheeted in then the bow will blow away to leeward and everything can go pear-shaped.

BTW I thought the idea of the SF roll was that the boat DOESN'T capsize a second time, because the sailor holds onto the centreboard and effectively becomes ballast while they reach around and grab the windward gunwale and/or the drag of their body swings the rig around.

The other great trick to come from San Francisco is the Bennett's Bath, which is quite fun! But it's a way to turn the dreaded high-speed downwind roll to windward into a high-speed dunking and therefore a capsize prevention technique.

While I'm rambling - back in the 1800s, some leading authorities campaigned to DSQ boats that capsized because once one boat went in, the law of the sea meant that all racing boats nearby had to stand by them as they were a vessel in distress. This distorted the race if the boat that capsized was something like a Rater or Canoe that could be righted almost immediately and with no problems. For example, someone (maybe Morgan Giles) wrote about an incident in which Linton Hope capsized his Rater on the Solent. Giles headed his own Rater back to help as he felt he had to do (there were of course no outboard powered rescue boats at that time) only to see Hope just hop onto the centreboard, right the boat with no water aboard, and sail away, having (IIRC) increased his lead because Giles was trying to help him.

It was an interesting vignette to me because it underlined once again that ancient rules and attitudes that seem nonsensical were often highly logical and practical at the time they were created. One thing that hasn't changed is that AFAIK crews still often check that everything is OK when a boat capsizes in a race, which is nice to know.

it'sthe windward jib sheet that  is used to right the boat  backwinding the jib 

as the rudder  will generally   want to turn the boat  to windward and the  classic  position  relative to the wind   for  the  unassisted recovery of a leeward capsize  ends up with the boat on a beam reach ...   the recovered boat should then right itslef   and sit hove to ...  

I can recall several incidents when the boat wouldn't come up at all because a jib was sheeted on, and if the wind is strong enough to capsize a dinghy hove to in the classical sense will often get blown over.