Experienced Sailors Share Safety Lessons Learned the Hard Way
We have all experienced onboard mishaps, from minor inconveniences to adrenaline-rush moments. Just search “sailing mishaps,” and you’ll spend hours watching chilling sea misfortunes. These stories should serve as lessons we can apply to avoid similar calamities. Sailors are problem-solvers, sometimes in terrifying conditions, and we can glean wisdom about safety from others.
I recently interviewed a few members of the Chesapeake Area Professional Captains Association (CAPCA) about their lessons learned from onboard mishaps. These captains generously shared a few tales and astute insights to keep us safe on the water.
Know and maintain your vessel
“Avoiding mishaps begins with knowing and maintaining your vessel,” says Captain Priscilla Travis. “Equipment failures frequently occur because maintenance has been overlooked.”
Checking fluid levels, belts, bilges, and thru-hulls before each outing should be commonplace, as should visually inspecting rigging components and lines. Preparing annual budgets that include routine maintenance can assist in keeping memories fresh and your vessel seaworthy.
Pre- and post-cruise checklists, for your own boat or a chartered vessel, are extremely helpful. Nothing can take the place of knowing your vessel. If you hear, see, or smell something that doesn’t seem normal, check it out.
Instill a culture of safety
Captain Mary Ann DeGraw recently retired after teaching sailing offshore and near shore for 30 years. She never had a student go overboard or sustain a serious injury. Captain DeGraw attributes this track record to establishing a culture of safety, beginning with the basics, including how to step onto a boat (passing items), securing long hair, no bare feet when working or moving, and using heels of hands on winches.
Another CAPCA member, Captain Doug MacNair, is a firm believer in instilling a culture of safety. He worked commercially on the Chesapeake Bay and learned the importance of emergency drills:
“We trained the crew on specific personnel overboard (POB) procedures, including using a harness and a sling to retrieve a live swimmer in the water. At times we’d do a final exam of sorts, when you pile one emergency on top of another, such as POB followed by an engine failure, followed by fire, because you seldom have just one emergency.”
He somberly recounted the time when one of his crew went overboard due to a lifeline parting. This crew member wore hearing aids and glasses and wasn’t a strong swimmer: “He came to the surface but couldn’t see or hear well. It was a windy day, and we were under sail making eight knots with a full complement of passengers. But the other crew members knew what to do. They pointed, threw throwables and lifejackets into the water, and donned their lifejackets. We had drilled with four crew, but now we only had three. Despite being down one crew member and under sail, we got the crewman onboard. Building and maintaining a culture of safety will prepare you for the unexpected.”
You don’t need to be a commercial boat operator to practice safety drills, from verbal quizzes to practical applications. POB, fire onboard, abandoning ship, injured crew, and VHF protocols should all be exercises that you review with crew.
Be vigilant about weather
Chesapeake sailors know that weather can be quite fickle, especially during humid summers. My husband and I avoid sailing to a schedule, which mostly keeps us from going out when conditions are dicey. Still, I’m usually the one that doesn’t reef early enough, despite regularly checking weather when underway. So, I was especially empathetic when Captain Davis Jones regaled this story about his return from Kent Narrows on his Catalina 425.
“The winds were at 10 knots from my stern, so I pulled out my Code Zero, set my course, and relaxed. Gradually the winds built, but apparent wind remained below 12 knots. As we approached Rock Hall, I started to furl the headsail and realized that the true wind was much higher than I thought. The lower half furled fine, but the top half of the sail blew back out, making it impossible to furl as the winds had built to well over 15 knots. I donned my PFD and dropped half the sail into the water which then tried to pull me overboard.
Finally, I hauled the sail onboard, but one of the sheets had wrapped itself around the propeller and wouldn’t budge. Thankfully, the engine wasn’t running, but I would need propulsion to make it back to the dock. So, I tied a safety line around my waist and swam down to untangle the line and make everything right.
I spent a lot of my magic karma beans that day. Had I not been able to get the sail onto the deck, had the engine been running in gear, had I needed to maneuver, had the weather been worse… While the only damage was to my pride and some wet shorts, the incident was a wake-up call to pay attention to both apparent and true wind speeds, and reef before you think about it.”
I’m sure we all have a weather story to share as a lesson learned. One of mine appeared in the June 2023 issue of SpinSheet (“High and Dry on the Fourth of July”). It was embarrassing at the time, but I learned a bunch, and I’m hoping other sailors did too. (Check out our weather webinar series).
Situational awareness
Sailors who return to port safely after an onboard mishap are usually the ones who are situationally aware. These sailors review the route ahead of time, noting tides, depths, and air draft. They know the rules of the road and navigate by looking up more than looking down, checking weather often. Furthermore, they take care of their health including their rest, to avoid fatigue that can compromise decision-making.
Captain McGraw is a big believer in resting when off watch. She described a dismasting that occurred on a chartered boat in the Gulf of Mexico. Her situational awareness kept her four students safe. She was below when the mast fell, with a noise and jolt that felt as though they had hit a floating container. After trying unsuccessfully to raise the mast with a topping lift, it took over an hour to cut away the mast in white-capping seas.
With the VHF antenna under water, they were unable to call the US Coast Guard. They kept the boom but pitched the mast overboard while recording latitude and longitude. More than 24 hours later, they arrived safely in Fort Myers. Afterwards, she reviewed Nigel Calder’s “Repairs at Sea” and noted that she had done exactly what he advised.
“A mishap can turn into a disaster very quickly, and how we cope with the event can make all the difference. Captain DeGraw’s dismasting incident is a good example: she handled it well and no one got hurt,” added Captain Travis. “The famous world cruising couples who inspired my generation—the Hiscocks, the Roths, the Pardeys—had no serious accidents, and they began in the time when navigation and safety gear was primitive. Same with the new generation of world-cruising couples and families: very few serious accidents. Thousands of boaters go out in all types of conditions and nothing happens. The bad stuff makes the headlines, and hopefully, people learn from the stories.”
Indeed we do.
About the author: Captain Cheryl Duvall is a USCG Licensed Master, Inland 100 GRT, and program director for Chesapeake Area Professional Captains Association (CAPCA). She recently joined Watermark, so you may have seen her as Captain Ms. Claus during the Jolly Express season.
