Any reasonably equipped cruising yacht carries hundreds of pounds worth of safety gear. But how many of us would know how to use it, if the need arose?
For years we carried a very expensive (and heavy) liferaft, which acted as a sort of comfort blanket, but until we did the RYA sea survival course, it's doubtful if it would actually have been much use to us, if we'd ever had to use it in anger.
And how many yachtsmen carry state of the art lifejackets, but very rarely - if ever, in some cases - put them on?
There's that feeling of 'it'll never happen to me,' which is a basic part of human nature. None of us would ever drive a car if it wasn't. But you do have to take your responsibilities seriously at sea, because accidents can happen to anyone, and if they do, the chances are that there will be nobody much around to help you.
You have to take things even more seriously when you are taking responsibility for other people, as race crew, for example, which is why ISAF, the international racing authority, has introduced a training course for people doing longer offshore races like the Fastnet. And at the weekend we took the RYA/ISAF Offshore Racing Crew Approved Course for Personal Survival.
It comes in three parts, the standard RYA First Aid and Sea Survival courses, and then a third element which looks at every other aspect of keeping safe when the going gets tough.
Our instructor for this part, Peter Smith, proprietor of the East Anglian Sea School, www.eastanglianseaschool.com, has a long history of offshore racing, having skippered in four Fastnets (he's going again this year) and several Three Peaks Races, among many others, so you know he is talking from experience.
The course made us all look a bit harder at some of the things we take for granted. I went home and checked the expiry dates on the hydrostatic valves and lights on our lifejackets, and then blew them up to make sure they still work. It should be a routine check, but it's one (of many) too often overlooked.
We had a really interesting discussion about the use of drogues, both as a sea anchor and as a form of emergency steering. In the latter case it's simpler to set up, and likely to be far more effective than the traditional racers' solution of a bunk board lashed to the spinnaker pole to create a steering oar. But of course you've got to have thought in advance about the length of chain and ropes you will need to put the theory into practice.
And this, in a nutshell, was the value of the course. It was making us face the realities of putting all that theory into practice, should the need ever arise. And there's a vital, hands on element to the instruction.
One thing you are extremely unlikely practice in advance is severing standing rigging - which needs to be done quickly to prevent damage to the hull if the mast goes over the side.
Peter provided giant bolt croppers and some redundant rigging wire and we all had a chance to see just how much effort was involved. It quickly became clear that we would have no chance of severing the shrouds on our boat even with a huge pair of bolt cutters - but it proved far easier than expected to saw through it with a hacksaw. So there will be more hacksaws and plenty of top quality spare blades going on board.
All in all we pickled up lots of useful tips and advice, some from other sailors on the course, about everything from provisioning to gathering weather information.
In future I'm going to be much more conscientious about logging barometer readings and wind direction to establish the speed of changes, rather than just keeping a vague sense of a developing trend in my head!
I should have known, for example, but didn't, that if pressure changes by 6mb in three hours, a Force 8 gale is on the way. And if you know that, you have time to make the sandwiches and fill up the flask, as well as get the boat comfortably reefed down before it hits.
All in all, it was time very well spent. And my advice is, don't wait until you are doing a Category 2 offshore race, and so are required to get the certificate. Anyone sailing offshore, whether cruising or racing, will gain lots of useful, and potentially lifesaving, ideas from this course.
For more information see Appendix G Training in the ISAF Offshore Special Recommendations at www.sailing.org
