Canadian sailor launches new global sailing risk assessment to help sailors overcome potential risks

Kelland Sewell, on his sail boat at the Whitby Marina © rPM3 Solutions

rPM3 today announced the launch of a new Sailing Risk Assessment to gather feedback from the global sailing community to identify and measure the potential risks of sailing.

The company is targeting 10,000 participants globally over an eight-week period. Considered the first of its kind, the review will capture data on sailing risks including design, technology and engineering, environmental factors, collisions and injuries, and run it through a risk analysis.

"I aim to bring together the collective knowledge of sailors around the world which has never been done before," said Kelland Sewell, Senior Vice-President of rPM3 Solutions. "When traversing the ocean, there is little room for error. We believe that the Sailing Risk Assessment will give us insight into the top risks of transoceanic sailing as well as the specific areas of sailboats we should be paying attention to as consumers and manufacturers to mitigate risks and decrease liability."

The assessment will be delivered in two parts. The first portion is to gather risk events that sailors typically experience through a survey. From those responses, a second survey will be sent to the same participants to rate on their likelihood of being involved in a high-risk situation while sailing and its impact. The risk assessment is determined by survey responses. rPM3 will advise of the relevant safety measures in a post-survey report after assessing the operating risks of sailing.

"This survey will provide an educational platform to learn about the top sources of risk while sailing, and how to apply this knowledge to sailing to provide a safer experience. It will help sailors be better prepared when purchasing a boat and better adapt their approach to sailing to reduce risk and keep themselves and their passengers safe. It will also be beneficial for sailing manufacturers who rely on customer feedback to continually improve the quality of their products," adds Sewell.

Full survey results will be released around February 2020. The survey is available here.