World Sailing Offshore Safety & First Aid for Double Handed Sailors

World Sailing Offshore Safety

The course provides training for skippers and crews intending to sail away from protected inshore coastal waters, who may encounter rough weather and problems at sea when racing.

The enquiry following the Sydney – Hobart race noted that crews that trained together had a higher survival rate.

Format

A 2-day course, run from our dedicated classroom in Port Hamble Marina, typically over a weekend. Both days start promptly at 9am in our classroom and finish about 4.45pm.

Day one (Saturday) is classroom based and covers heavy weather sailing techniques, including rigging storm sails and use of sea anchors as well as weather forecasting, fire fighting, MOB rescue and recovery, search patterns, effective communications and a live flare demo (subject to coastguard approval).

Day two (Sunday) includes the RYA Sea Survival syllabus including a practical pool based session, with a life raft. Saturday involves a practical session on a boat rigging storm sails, and a live flare demo (subject to coastguard permission) and Sunday includes a 2hr pool session run in a nearby pool. Both days finish about 4.45pm.

World Sailing and Racing Requirements

The certificate awarded confirms crew eligibility under section 6.01 of the World Sailing Special Regulations for category 0, 1 and 2 offshore races (such as the Fastnet, Caribbean 600 or Round Ireland Race) which requires a 30% of the crew to have taken personal survival training. 

If you want a private course for your crew we can do a bespoke course on dates of your choice for up 14 persons.

Pre-Requisites

No previous experience needed.

First Aid

In a medical emergency, basic first aid knowledge and immediate action can save lives, especially in remote locations.

Our one-day RYA First Aid course covers the usual first-aid areas, but with a boating focus. It is designed to provide a working knowledge of first aid for people using small craft and addresses the associated risks, dangers and likely injuries.

It fulfils the requirements for;

• Professional skippers working under the Maritime and Coastguard Agency Codes of Practice for Small Vessels Operated Commercially
• The Senior First Aid certificate needed by offshore racers subject to World Sailing’s regulations on first aid training (OSR 4.08.4);
• The Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations, 1981 for the purposes of Emergency First Aid at Work.

The subjects specific to boating include:

• The recovery position in a confined space
• CPR, including the drowning protocol
• Cold shock and hypothermia from immersion and/or exposure
• Seasickness and dehydration
• Medical assistance or advice by VHF
• Helicopter rescue

Format

Our one-day RYA First Aid course is run from our dedicated classroom in Port Hamble Marina on a Sunday (10am start)

Prerequisites

No previous experience needed.

What’s included?

Instructor, light refreshments, RYA First Aid Manual and RYA First Aid Certificate.