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"Calling for Help! for non-Skippers" - RNLI Training Event

Published 10:00 on 11 Mar 2023

11^th March 2023

This excellent and very practical training session was organised and presented by Brian Masters and 5 more kind volunteers from the RNLI. It took place on a Saturday morning at The Hornet Services Sailing Club and consisted of a talk by Brian on the various safety aspects of being at sea followed by practical sessions where equipment and techniques were demonstrated and could be practised by the attendees. The session was aimed primarily at non-skippers so as to train the crew should their skipper be the one who has fallen over-board. As it turned out, many skippers turned up and got a lot out of the day.

Brian outlined his plan for the day which was to cover lifejackets and weather forecasts, different methods of calling for help and things we could all do to help ourselves. After the talk we would break up into groups for the different practical demonstrations.

The talk was very useful and amongst many subjects Brian described the types of life jackets available and their various features, the weather and the different methods used to forecast what was coming, contacting the emergency services including SafeTrx and how to use it.

Brian then covered VHF emergency procedures and the different methods for calling for help. The dangers of cold water shock were explained and how to prevent someone falling overboard in the first place. Actions to take, should someone fall in, including recovery techniques were also covered.

We then broke into groups of 4-6 people and covered practical demonstrations of:

Making a VHF Mayday call
Lifejacket Construction
Floating line
Devices to call for help
Getting an MOB on board

We used a closed circuit system so we were able to actually press and talk. This was very useful as we experienced practical problems and overcame them.

How to check the various components of a life-jacket and re-assemble one correctly.

How to throw a float and floating line, a really simple device that can be quickly used to recover an MOB.

The different devices used to call for help were shown and described e.g. mobile phone (in a waterproof pouch), handheld VHF/DSC radio, PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon), a Tracker and an AIS MOB device.

Lifting devices to get an MOB on board and how to rig one, including the dangers involved in other methods.

All told, this was an excellent, practical training session that allowed us to actually try things that could help in an emergency. We hope to repeat it at some point in the future.

The RNLI offer free 'Advice OnBoard' sessions where they go into more detail with boat owners about specific items and procedures applicable to their boats - Contact Brian Masters

Jem Nicholls