Every question here gives you a situation and a clock: a crew in the water, smoke, a lee shore four cables off. Know the first action, and work out how long you have.
1 · Man overboard
Mark, point, come back
What should I do first when someone falls overboard?
Shout, throw the danbuoy and lifebuoy, press MOB at once and put one crew on pointing, doing nothing else. If he is out of sight or it is dark, send the DSC alert and a MAYDAY.
Prevention first. The skipper may be the casualty, so every crew member must know the drill.
Before a night passage
Everyone can send the DSC alert, not only you
Clip on before the hatch, then to the jackstay
Lifejacket indicator red: re-arm before use
Seasick crew: cockpit, clipped on, watched
Seasickness pills hours before sailing
Raft: room for everyone, service in date
MOBMan overboard
Shout · throw the danbuoy and lifebuoy
Press MOB now: 3 min at 6 kn is 0.3 M late
One pointer, who does nothing else
Out of sight or dark: DSC alert, MAYDAY
Spinnaker up: get it down, then turn back
Before the engine: no lines in the water
Under sail, the quick-stop tacks at once with the jib left sheeted, so she stops nearby; reach-turn-reach sails off on a beam reach, tacks and returns. Approach on a close reach, where letting the sheets fly stops her.
Under sailclose reach
Under powerneutral alongside
The MOB waypoint is fixed to the ground; he drifts with the stream. A danbuoy blows downwind faster than a swimmer: search upwind of it. His AIS beacon shows on your plotter; a PLB, held high, aerial upright, calls the rescue centre by satellite.
2.0 kn × 15 min: look 0.5 M down-tide.
2 · Recovery and first aid
Lift him level, warm him gently
How do I lift someone back aboard after a long time in cold water?
Lift him level, in two strops on a halyard or rolled in a sail: after long immersion a vertical lift can cause collapse. At a stern ladder, stop that engine first.
Cold shock makes him gasp in water in the first minute; a sprayhood protects the airway. After long immersion lift him level, in two strops on a halyard or rolled in a sail: a vertical lift can cause collapse. At a stern ladder, or a catamaran's stern steps, stop that engine first; never bring him between the hulls.
Casualty
What you do
Shivering, conscious
Dry clothes, insulation, warm sweet drinks
Cold, unconscious
Flat, gentle handling, insulation; no drinks
Not breathing
Five rescue breaths, then CPR 30:2; MAYDAY
Inhaled water
Medical advice: trouble can follow hours later
Scald
Cool water 20 min, then loose cling film
Knocked out, confused, vomiting
PAN-PAN for medical advice
Broken forearm
Splint as found, sling, check fingers
Seasick for hours
Sips of rehydration fluid; medical advice
Before you call for medical advice
Pulse, breathing, temperature
What happened, and when
Medicines already given
What is in your first-aid kit
Your position and ETA
Tired and seasick? Anchor, rest, and enter by daylight.
3 · Fire, gas and fumes
Fuel, air or heat: take one away
How do I put out a pan of burning cooking oil on a boat?
Smother it with a fire blanket and turn the gas off; never use water. Keep an extinguisher by each exit, so you fight any fire with the way out behind you.
Fire
First action
Pan of oil
Fire blanket, gas off; never water
Engine
Stop engine and fuel; extinguisher through the fire port
Electrical
Batteries off, then CO2 or powder; never water
Cushion (class A)
Water or foam, to cool it
Keep an extinguisher by each exit, to fight with the way out behind you.
LPG is heavier than air and sinks into the bilge, so the alarm sensor sits low and one spark is enough. Headache, drowsiness and nausea in a closed cabin with the heater or engine running mean carbon monoxide: everyone into fresh air.
Smell of gas
Shut it off at the cylinder
Touch no switch: a spark ignites it
Open up and ventilate
Pump the bilge with the hand pump
Find leaks with soapy water, never a flame
4 · Water and damage
People first, then the hull
How can I tell where the water in my bilge is coming from?
Keep pumping and check whether it is fresh or salt: fresh, with the pressure pump running by itself, is your own tank; salt means a seacock, a hose or the stern gland. A sheared seacock takes the softwood bung tied beside it.
After a collision, grounding or lightning strike, check the crew, then look for water: lightning can blow out a through-hull. In a thunderstorm keep the crew below, clear of the mast, with a spare handheld VHF and GPS in the oven.
Water below: pump and hunt. Fresh water with the pressure pump running by itself is your own tank; salt means seacocks, hoses, stern gland. A sheared seacock takes the softwood bung tied beside it. Holed in the port bow, sail on port tack: she heels to starboard and lifts the hole.
Can the pumps keep up?
Inflow about 70 L/min
Electric pump: 30 L/min
Manual: 0.6 L × 45 strokes = 27 L/min
Engine intake hose in the bilge: 40 L/min
Out 97 − in 70 = 27 L/min in hand
Aground
Tide falling: astern at once, along your track
Crew out on the boom to heel her
Holed on a rock: stem the leak and call before the rising tide floats her off
Steering gone: stop or heave to, then ship the emergency tiller. Try it once in harbour first.
5 · Sea room
Distance ÷ drift is the time you have
My engine has died off a lee shore: how long do I have?
Divide the sea room by your drift: rocks 0.4 M off at 1.2 kn give 20 minutes, so anchor now, then call PAN-PAN. With 40 minutes and sails ready, hoist them and claw off instead.
0.4 M ÷ 1.2 kn = 20 minutes: anchor now, then call PAN-PAN.
With 40 minutes and sails ready, hoist and claw off instead. Disabled in a shipping lane: PAN-PAN to ships and the VTS. Dragging onto rocks half an hour away: MAYDAY. Take a tow on a bridle round strong points, led over the bow roller.
Before a gale reef and rig the storm jib early, and head offshore: a bar breaks in an onshore blow. Ride it out hove to, or run off with a drogue holding her stern to the seas. Never lie a-hull: beam-on, a breaking crest rolls her.
How long does the sea room last?
A gale for 10 h, 30 M of sea room: bare poles 5 kn = 50 M · hove to 1.5 kn = 15 M
A gale for 6 h, 21 M of sea room: running at 7 kn it lasts 3 h; with a drogue at 2.5 kn, 8 h 24 min
6 · Calling for help
Alert by DSC, then speak on 16
How do I send a distress call on a DSC VHF radio?
Press the red DISTRESS button, even with no position on the set, then call on channel 16: MAYDAY three times, name, call sign, MMSI, position, nature of distress, help needed, persons aboard, OVER.
MAYDAY means grave and imminent danger to the vessel or a person; SÉCURITÉ warns of a hazard, such as a container awash. Send the DSC alert even with no position on the set, then give it by voice on 16.
The alertred button
MAYDAY on 16
MAYDAY ×3 · THIS IS Selene ×3
MAYDAY Selene, call sign, MMSI
Position: 220°T from the light, 4.0 M
Nature of distress · help needed
Persons aboard · other information
OVER
The callposition first
Do not acknowledge another vessel's alert by DSC: listen on 16 and, if no coast station answers, acknowledge by voice. SEELONCE MAYDAY keeps you off 16 until SEELONCE FEENEE. Cancel a false alert on the set, then tell all stations.
Flare
Use
Red parachute rocket
Far from help; under low cloud, 45° downwind
Red handheld
Help in sight at night; hold it downwind
Orange smoke
The same by day
White handheld
Collision warning, not distress
A coast station hears VHF only in sea area A1; beyond it, ships nearby and the EPIRB. To be seen, hoist the radar reflector high in the catch-rain position and fit an AIS transponder, not just a receiver.
How far does your VHF reach?
Range ≈ 2.2 × (√h1 + √h2) M, h in metres
Masthead 16 m, station 81 m: 28.6 M
Dismasted, aerial at 4 m: 2.2 × 11 = 24.2 M
A1: some 20–30 M from a coast station
70 M crossing, 25 M each side: 20 M outside
7 · Abandon ship
Step up into the raft
When should we abandon the yacht and get into the liferaft?
Only when she is sinking or burning: a sound hull is bigger, warmer and easier to find than a liferaft, so if you are dismasted but dry, stay aboard. Call for help early.
A sound hull is bigger, warmer and easier to find than a raft: dismasted but dry, you stay. Call early, but leave only when she is sinking or burning.
Into the raft
Painter made fast to the yacht first
Launch to leeward · on fire: to windward
Pull the painter to inflate; step in dry
Take grab bag, EPIRB, water, warm clothes
Cut the painter, get clear, stream the drogue
EPIRB stays on · SART high on its pole
A raft upside down: stand on the gas-bottle side and lean back on the righting strap. In a deck cradle a hydrostatic release frees it a few metres down. A SART paints 12 dots on a searching radar; the nearest marks the raft. A capsized catamaran floats: stay with it.
Helicopter
Stow the bimini and loose gear: downwash
The pilot briefs you on 16: course, speed
Let the hi-line touch the sea first
Take it in by hand · never make it fast
The lift may be from the dinghy, towed astern
Practice questions
Questions from this topic, as the app asks them. Open one to see the answer.
1800Safety briefing
Crew of 5, two first-timers
Night passage, 48 M
Only the skipper has used the VHF
You brief a crew of five at the pontoon before a night passage. Only you have used the VHF before. Who do you show how to send a DSC distress alert?
Every crew member — the skipper may be the casualty
Nobody — the skipper makes every distress call
Only those who hold a radio licence
Only the mate — one operator besides you is enough
Show the answer
A. Every crew member — the skipper may be the casualty
The skipper can be the one overboard or injured; everyone aboard must be able to raise the alarm.
All 100 questions of this topic are in the app: practice by topic with the reason after every answer, your mistakes brought back, and a timed mock exam. Free, no sign-up, in the browser or in Telegram.
