Earlier I posted a list of boating hazards (What would you do if ...?) prepared as input for a safety seminar to be held at the Port Townsend Yacht Club on October 14th. Following is a report of that seminar. It was agreed that safety should be emphasized more in our boating. Besides the master, crew and guests should be aware of safety procedures. Anybody on board should be able to find and put on PFDs, read the current position from the GPS, send a mayday over the radio, place a call to the Coast Guard on the cellphone (*CG), start the engines and run the boat in forward and reverse. Panic can be alleviated by checklists and procedures displayed in a prominent location. Sending a mayday first thing was emphasized. A checklist should include answers to the questions asked by the Coast Guard. This could shorten the 20 questions response by the Coast Guard. Man overboard recovery was a lengthy discussion. There is no easy way of recovering a person overboard, especially in a choppy sea. The best approach is to avoid falling overboard at all costs. Using a harness and jack line was discussed. Second is that wearing a PFD or other flotation is essential to staying afloat long enough to be found and rescued. Keeping sight of a person in the water is difficult. Only one member had actually been retrieved after falling overboard and that was when he grabbed hold of a trailing fishing line (he knew he had to grab it before the big hook at the end). Many members have Life Slings but haven't exercised them. The club should choose a cruise next year for practicing man overboard recovery. Having to abandon ship was another topic. It was agreed that boaters should have a ditch kit which should contain essentials for survival in a dinghy or life raft including a portable VHF radio, compass, flares, water, emergency blanket, money (even a credit card). The ditch kit should be stored in the dinghy or close at hand and should float. A plastic bucket with a watertight lid makes a good container. A member told his story about his boat rapidly sinking off Protection Island and being rescued after 26 minutes in the water. Two people with one PFD were all that got off the boat. Since I first heard that story we now keep PFDs accessible in a deck box on the boat. For treatment of hypothermia, it was emphasized to warm groin and armpits first, not the extremities. Warming extremities could introduce cold blood into the body core and worsen the problem. Engine room fires were discussed. An automatic fire suppression system should have an alarm at the helm and should shut off the engine. Maneuvering in fog and at night was discussed. Only two members had an automatic fog horn timer for their horns. (Does anybody know a timer circuit for a fog horn?) Tales were told about how it is easy to be disoriented in limited visibility. The Vessel Traffic System (VTS) can be contacted to determine traffic in your vicinity. Vessels in your vicinity can also be contacted directly to determine their intentions. Each boat should have a copy of VHF channel assignments at the VHF radio. Yellow cards of VHF channels published by the Recreational Boating Association of Washington and the North Pacific Marine Radio Council are available in the bookcase in the clubhouse. Shipping does not always monitor channel 16. Ship-to-ship is channel 13. VTS is channel 14 in south Puget Sound and channel 5A in northern Puget Sound. Other channels are listed for VTS in British Columbia.

I built a couple of timers using a 555 chip. The Radio Shack tech book on 555's has the circuits. Neither worked worth a darn. Problems with both timing variability and especially with random activation from external interference sources such as the horn's compressor motor. Then I bought a commercial unit which also had interference problems. However, I've found a terrific solution and am using it on two boats. Altan, Inc. (4620 Honeymoon Bay Rd, Greenbank, WA 98253) makes a horn controller which handles fog signals for power, sail, and not under command, port and starboard turns, reverse, and attention. All seem to have proper timing and I've had no interference problems at all. I paid $134 this past spring including shipping. They don't take cards so you have to mail payment. Frequently they advertise in the back section of National Fisherman if you want to see a picture of the unit (about 4x6" face and 2" deep). You can tell I do a lot of sailing/powering in foggy downeast Maine! For me, the controller along with the autopilot and computer navigation setup take over jobs during the high stress foggy periods which give me more time to study the radar and hang my head out the door listening for sounds. I wouldn't be without them. Tom At 11:41 PM 10/20/2000 -0700, Phil Keys wrote: >Maneuvering in fog and at night was discussed. Only two members had an >automatic fog horn timer for their horns. (Does anybody know a timer >circuit for a fog horn?) Tales were told about how it is easy to be >disoriented in limited visibility.

While I have previously heard a number of people advocate just what Phil had conveyed in his report on the Safety At Sea Seminar, I take a very different view on the issue of Mayday calls on the radio. There are enough documented cases where the captain and crew were on deck working a difficult but manageable situation when an inexperienced novice below deck panicked and took it on themselves to use the radio to issue a Mayday call without the captain's knowledge or permission. I don't want that nasty surprise happening to me. I make sure that whoever is sailing as Mate with me knows how to use the radio properly, and that the novice guests aboard know NOT to touch the radio without assistance. As far as inexperienced guests starting and putting the engines in gear - would you want guests firing up your engines? I certainly want at least one other crew member besides myself who can do this (and be competent in MOB recovery in case I am the MOB), but very certainly, not every guest who comes on board. Kevin Redden Westfield N.J. http://www.BoatMoves.com -----Original Message----- >From: On Behalf Of Phil Keys >Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2000 2:41 AM >Subject: TWL: Safety at Sea Seminar Report > >........................Anybody on board should be able to ............. >send a mayday over the radio, place a >call to the Coast Guard on the cellphone (*CG), start the engines and run >the boat in forward and reverse. ...................................... >Sending a mayday first thing was emphasized. A checklist should include >answers to the questions asked by the Coast Guard. This could shorten the >20 questions response by the Coast Guard.

> Maneuvering in fog and at night was discussed. Only two members had an > automatic fog horn timer for their horns. (Does anybody know a timer > circuit for a fog horn?) Tales were told about how it is easy to be > disoriented in limited visibility. > I did not see a response to this so I thought that I would "chip in." This surprised me that few boaters had automatic fog horns. As you know, many VHF radios (Ratheon was one that we owned) have hailer functions and an auto fog function. As long as you have the external speaker hooked up you just hit the button and you get a fog horn type blast every 2 minutes. The only problem with our old unit was you could not simultaneously use the radio in auto fog mode. That was not very satisfactory for us because we like to stay on channel 16 at all times. In the Pacific NW you may need to be in the auto fog mode all day long! Our latest purchase was a Kahlenberg air horn. With it we purchased an electronic activator that allows you to honk at will or on a timer for fog or you can push a button and get the appropriate blast for different activities such as overtaking, etc. Yes, this was a little extravagant, but hey, that's boating! Total cost including the horn was 2 boat units. Do you'all know what a boat unit is? One boat unit equals $1000. Enjoy it while it lasts...... Eric Thoman www.seanet.com/~kimeric