How safe are we, as a group?
I thought I knew it all. Well maybe I had forgotten some, but I thought there was nothing I needed to learn or brush up on, concerning boating safety.
Then I joined the local RCM-SAR. Now I know that I don't know it all. I know that I should be constantly brushing up on my knowledge, and that I am not the only one who needs a tune up from time to time.
I see many posts here from some TF members whose commercial activity is directly related to boating safety. I know they are at the top of the scale for knowledge of what makes a safe boat, what habits are safe and which ones not. Those TF members have helped reinforce safe practices with every one of their posts.
The rest of us sometimes expose our ignorance of safe practices, less frequently expose habits that are unsafe, and sometimes expose an attitude of complete indifference to improving the safety of our practices.
How seriously do we take safe practices?
At the top of my list, and what prompted me to post this, is hypothermia.
Years ago I took a Basic First Aid course, when I joined the CCGA. My First Aid certification expired 3 years later, so I needed to take the course again, which I have just completed. The content of the MBFA has changed dramatically in the 19 elapsed years. Very little was left in my memory of that first course,but no matter, very little of the course content in the current course was taught back then. Studies of hypothermia were done then, but even that science has progressed dramatically.
Where we like to cruise, in the warm summer months, the water is comfortably warm for swimming. But before we get there, we live where the water is not comfortably warm, and some times we pass through those warmer waters and choose to cruise where none of us would dream of jumping in for a swim, as the water temperatures are much too cold. Do we also change our habits appropriately when we are in those colder waters? Do we even realize how much the dangers have changed?
How often do we neglect to wear the right clothing when we are running around on deck in cold weather? SOP for my SAR station is to wear no cotton. What? I can't wear blue Jeans? This one item got me thinking about what I wear on my own boat. I didn't have a single pair of pants on my boat that were not made entirely of cotton. I had only a couple of pairs of shorts and a couple of bathing suits made entirely of other materials. Now I will try to wear polyester pants aboard. A small thing, I know, but changing practices that I have been following all of my life are done one small step at a time. Each one brings me one small step towards a safer experience.
How about PFDs. Years ago, spending way more than I thought I should, I bought a mustang Cruiser Class jacket. I was heartened to see that it is exactly the right kind of jacket to wear while outside on my own boat.
On the SAR RIB, I have the choice of a PFD, a cruiser suit or a dry suit with a PFD over it. In hot weather, the PFD over long, polyester shirt and pants, is the minimum. In colder weather, the dry suit over a wool onesey. It hasn't been really cold yet, and I am snowbirding to the south soon, but should there come a time for more, I will be wearing more. Warm is good.
Back to TFers. How many of us wear the right level of warmth and a PFD whenever we are in the conditions that they are designed for? I know my own habits have been to wear too little warm clothing until I am cold, then to layer up. Now I will try to go to the other end, and wear warmth until I am too warm and wear the Cruiser jacket in preference to the inflatable PFD, until it is too warm a choice.
On the subject of hypothermia, there is a You tube that I found particularly valuable. A 30 minute full version was shown to our MBFA class, but the 10 minute version is still valuable.
There are many more aspects to personal safety that I would like to explore, but this is enough for this post.
I thought I knew it all. Well maybe I had forgotten some, but I thought there was nothing I needed to learn or brush up on, concerning boating safety.
Then I joined the local RCM-SAR. Now I know that I don't know it all. I know that I should be constantly brushing up on my knowledge, and that I am not the only one who needs a tune up from time to time.
I see many posts here from some TF members whose commercial activity is directly related to boating safety. I know they are at the top of the scale for knowledge of what makes a safe boat, what habits are safe and which ones not. Those TF members have helped reinforce safe practices with every one of their posts.
The rest of us sometimes expose our ignorance of safe practices, less frequently expose habits that are unsafe, and sometimes expose an attitude of complete indifference to improving the safety of our practices.
How seriously do we take safe practices?
At the top of my list, and what prompted me to post this, is hypothermia.
Years ago I took a Basic First Aid course, when I joined the CCGA. My First Aid certification expired 3 years later, so I needed to take the course again, which I have just completed. The content of the MBFA has changed dramatically in the 19 elapsed years. Very little was left in my memory of that first course,but no matter, very little of the course content in the current course was taught back then. Studies of hypothermia were done then, but even that science has progressed dramatically.
Where we like to cruise, in the warm summer months, the water is comfortably warm for swimming. But before we get there, we live where the water is not comfortably warm, and some times we pass through those warmer waters and choose to cruise where none of us would dream of jumping in for a swim, as the water temperatures are much too cold. Do we also change our habits appropriately when we are in those colder waters? Do we even realize how much the dangers have changed?
How often do we neglect to wear the right clothing when we are running around on deck in cold weather? SOP for my SAR station is to wear no cotton. What? I can't wear blue Jeans? This one item got me thinking about what I wear on my own boat. I didn't have a single pair of pants on my boat that were not made entirely of cotton. I had only a couple of pairs of shorts and a couple of bathing suits made entirely of other materials. Now I will try to wear polyester pants aboard. A small thing, I know, but changing practices that I have been following all of my life are done one small step at a time. Each one brings me one small step towards a safer experience.
How about PFDs. Years ago, spending way more than I thought I should, I bought a mustang Cruiser Class jacket. I was heartened to see that it is exactly the right kind of jacket to wear while outside on my own boat.
On the SAR RIB, I have the choice of a PFD, a cruiser suit or a dry suit with a PFD over it. In hot weather, the PFD over long, polyester shirt and pants, is the minimum. In colder weather, the dry suit over a wool onesey. It hasn't been really cold yet, and I am snowbirding to the south soon, but should there come a time for more, I will be wearing more. Warm is good.
Back to TFers. How many of us wear the right level of warmth and a PFD whenever we are in the conditions that they are designed for? I know my own habits have been to wear too little warm clothing until I am cold, then to layer up. Now I will try to go to the other end, and wear warmth until I am too warm and wear the Cruiser jacket in preference to the inflatable PFD, until it is too warm a choice.
On the subject of hypothermia, there is a You tube that I found particularly valuable. A 30 minute full version was shown to our MBFA class, but the 10 minute version is still valuable.
There are many more aspects to personal safety that I would like to explore, but this is enough for this post.
