Perhaps the best answer is always to look to the worst- case scenario, then to use one’s own judgment. • Safety harnesses – These are now almost universally incorporated into the life jacket as described on page 111. Most offshore sailing craft are fitted with jackstays to which the harness may conveniently be attached. The tether is best made of non-tangling webbing and the snap-hooks must be of a safety type. This latter feature is extremely important as studies (including the SNAME USYRU post-1979 Fastnet Race enquiry) have found that ordinary clips can and do flip open. The Offshore Racing Council (ORC) rule for tethers requires a stress indicator to assess overload. It reads, ‘A safety line purchased in 1/2000 or later shall have a coloured flag embedded in the stitching to indicate an overload. A line which has been overloaded shall be replaced as a matter of urgency.’
As to when they should be worn, a sensible rule of thumb is that harnesses, like life jackets, make sense on sailing craft whenever somebody feels safer by wearing one, or according to ship’s standing orders. Typical policy might be to clip on before leaving the cockpit in weather when the mainsail would normally carry a reef, and in any conditions after dark. Watch keepers in the cockpit, especially alone at night, may be well advised to clip on in some circumstances; in heavy weather, anyone exiting the companionway should probably reach out and clip on while still below decks.
Emergency Equipment
This encompasses the gear that must be at hand when all safety measures and good seamanship have failed – whether by bad luck or bad judgment is immaterial. Fire extinguishers are dealt with in the section (see page 113) on handling a conflagration. The liferaft and its attendant kit, including flares and ‘Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons’ (EPIRBs), are described in the advice on abandoning ship, while the humble softwood bungs find their lifesaving place in ‘Flooding’.
Specific Emergencies Flooding
When a boat starts taking on catastrophic amounts of water, you either know why straight away or you don’t. If you have just run into something, the first task after starting the pumps is obviously to investigate the damage. Where the source of the leak is a mystery, then you must activate a pre-planned series of actions to determine the root of your trouble. When the bilge is filling steadily, begin by tasting the contents, no matter how unpalatable, to see if the water is fresh or salt. If it’s fresh, you have a damaged water tank or water line. You may end up thirsty, but you aren’t going to drown. If it’s salty, find the leak.
Bilge pumping
With an emergency-grade leak, a couple of big electric pumps will free up your crew to help source the problem, but because electricity cannot always be relied upon, all small craft should have at least one hand bilge pump. Any pump should have its bilge suction pipe protected from debris with strum boxes. An extra boost to the outflow may be to disconnect the main engine cooling pump from the sea cock (after first closing it) and allow the engine to draw cooling water from the bilge. Every little can help when your back is to the bulkhead. At the last ditch, there’s an old saying with a lot of truth in it that the most reliable pump is a frightened person with a bucket!
Finding the leak
Skin fittings and stern gland – Whatever the material of hull construction, the greatest probability is either that a skin fitting has failed or that the stern gland is giving up on you. A glance is enough to decide about the shaft (pages 34-35) because there won’t be more than two, but
• Tapered wooden bungs are ideal for hammering into failed skin fittings. Ideally, these should be hung from the fitting, but they must at least be stowed accessibly in a dedicated place. They aren’t needed often, but when they are, there is not a moment to be lost.
112 | MANUAL OF SEAMANSHIP
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