Remember to put safety first in the busy season

Most of us have been enjoying a good summer, with an abundance of dry weather and there seem to be many more boats on the water this year. During a busy season, safety gear can tend to be neglected, which could mean that it fails to work when you need it most, so perhaps now is the time to have a mid-season check.

The RNLI have hundreds of volunteer safety advisors around the country, offering boat owners face to face advice on safety equipment through the SEA Check scheme. In our experience, most boat owners have most of the basic safety equipment but it's surprising how often our advisors discover items that don't work properly or are badly stowed, but we have the opportunity to learn from their experiences, here are just a few examples of the sort of things they found.

By far the most common safety equipment failure that our advisors find relates to the floating lights attached to horseshoe buoys. Many have never been used in anger and tend to sit on the guardrail neglected all season. When you check yours, there is a high chance that it will not light when turned upright, so replace the batteries, check the bulb, empty any water that has entered the casing and put some Vaseline on the threads and seal before you re-tighten the case and the chances are it will work should you be unfortunate enough to need it.

Another common problem is emergency steering gear. Most people carry an emergency tiller but have never tried to fit it. Often we find that the tiller has become so rusted at the bottom of a cockpit locker that it would be impossible to fit in an emergency. Check that yours will fit and does turn the rudder. While it is connected, can you see where you're going? Some boats have the emergency tiller fitted to the top of the rudder stock in the aft cabin, which means that the helmsman has to be directed by someone on deck, not ideal especially if, as happened to me, the steering fails on a dark and windy night! Entering a marina shouting “left a bit, right a bit”, to a helmsman who was down below, steering while being sick into a bucket, was an experience I'll never forget.

Most of my sailing is done on the west coast of Scotland, an area blessed with long summer evenings, which means that nav lights are rarely used and tend to be a bit neglected, so before setting off, check that your lights, especially those at the mast-head are working. If there is a problem, it is far easier to go up the mast and change a bulb in the marina or on your mooring rather than at dusk on the first night of your trip.

Your liferaft will probably have been serviced over the winter and will be in first-rate condition, but we often come across boat owners who are no longer in the first flush of youth and when they have tried to lift their raft from its deck cradle the task has proved almost impossible. Try lifting your raft, then imagine repeating the exercise on a rolling cabin top, if you find it difficult then perhaps it's time to think about cockpit stowage or, even better, a purpose-built cradle on the pushpit.

Most liferafts only contain the most basic of equipment and we would encourage anyone planning a trip to make up a grab-bag containing essentials such as a hand-held VHF, some flares, thermo-protective aids, spare medication, glasses etc. I always put in some money, after all, if you end up ashore having abandoned your boat you may need to buy some basic essentials.

The grab-bag could be one made for the purpose, available from a number of manufacturers, a large screw-top bottle of the type used for holding flares or the type of dry-sac used by canoeists. The important points are that it should be waterproof and able to float when it has all the equipment in it.

Have you checked your distress flares recently? We have found a number of cases of cracked flares, or hand-held flares with the handles broken off. Usually this is due to the flares being stowed at the bottom of a locker in a plastic carrier bag. They really should be in a poly bottle with some form of padding, so even if you're sure that your flares are in date, it is worth having a look at them before the start of a trip to make sure they are well protected.

One of the most neglected safety items we see is the poor old fire extinguisher. Many people purchase fire extinguishers when they first buy their boat and promptly forget all about them. Check yours, are they in date, or is the pressure indicator in the green area? That's a good start, but if you have a dry powder extinguisher, take it off its bracket and give it a good shake, you should be able to hear the powder moving in the extinguisher. This type of extinguisher should be stored horizontally to prevent the powder being packed to the bottom, which will prevent it from operating.

Many of the extinguishers we see are very badly rusted (the oldest I've seen dated from the sixties!) and these should be replaced, after all the cost of a fire extinguisher is very little compared to the devastation of losing your boat.

While on the subject of fire extinguishers, the use of Halon filled extinguishers should have been discontinued at the start of 2004, but I'm sure there are still many automatic systems in engine compartments using this type of extinguisher, have you had a look at your system?

On deck, I'm sure you have jackstays to allow freedom of movement when wearing a harness. These days, most are of the webbing type, which are much safer underfoot, but webbing can deteriorate after long exposure to sunlight. Stitching can also become frayed and it's much easier to check this if the stitching is in a contrasting colour to the webbing. If in doubt replace them before you set out.

If you and your crew are sensible about the use of harnesses and jackstays, you should never need to worry about a man overboard, but this is probably the most common subject that we are asked to advise on. Not so much how to get back to the casualty, but how to get the casualty on board.

There are a number of proprietary systems available, or it is possible to rig a block and tackle or use the mainsheet. No one system is ideal for every boat or crew but it is essential that you put together a system that works for you and try it out till you're sure that everyone on board will know what to do. If you are in any doubt then ask us for advice by e-mail on seasafety@rnli.org.uk or on 0800 328 0600.

Finally, there is little point having all the safety equipment you need, in good condition, if the crew don't know where it is. I was recently on board a racing yacht where a crew member had to phone the owner to ask where the flares were kept, so make sure that everyone who comes on board this summer knows where each item is kept and how to use it, after all it may not be you who has to deal with any situation which arises. If you regularly have different visiting crew through the season then it might be wise to draw up a storage chart listing where everything is, similar to the ones found on most charter yachts.

I know that all this could sound like a long list of things to check, but a couple of hours work will help to ensure that the rest of your summer sailing is enjoyable and uneventful.

	Rick Raeburn

Rick Raeburn is the RNLI's Leisure Boat Safety Manager, responsible for delivering safety information to all those who go to sea on a non-commercial basis. As part of it's incident prevention programme, the RNLI also has a team of Sea Safety Co-ordinators around the UK, supported by teams of volunteer safety advisors. Rick started sailing 36 years ago, completed three trans- Atlantic crossings, spent two years in the Caribbean as skipper of a 50ft charter catamaran, worked in a boatyard in the USA and ran a 52ft sail-training ketch in Scotland. Rick currently owns a Contessa 26 which is based in Scotland and is also an active Scuba Diver.