When I tell friends and family that I am racing a sailboat to Hawaii their initial reaction is one of concern for my well being. Since safety should be our first and foremost concern I thought I would start the blog with a discussion of what we are doing to keep us safe.
Any discussion about safety as it applies to Avion has to start with a brief discussion of the 2012 OYRC Farallon Race. This is a popular race that is scheduled every year to race around the Farallon islands located 25 miles off the San Francisco coast. That year one of the yachts in the race, Slow Speed Chase, was hit by a set of waves while rounding the west side of the island in shallow waters and washed 7 crew members off the boat and 5 members perished. Avion was in that race and took the last picture of the boat before their fatal encounter with that wave set. The entire San Francisco Bay sailing community was devastated by this tragic loss. Soon after there were two additional sailboat fatal accidents off the coast of California and the US Coast Guard placed a hold on all off shore races pending investigation of the cause of these accidents. The crew of Avion stayed in close communication with the investigation team primarily to make sure that whatever went wrong couldn’t happen aboard Avion. Prior to these tragedies safety was always important but now it became paramount.
So what has the skipper and crew of Avion done about making the boat as safe as possible? Safety starts with the understanding of both the boat’s and crew’s limitations; don’t force past those limitations. From the racing and offshore practice sailing we have pushed the boat and ourselves to our limits. One thing we discovered is the boat is awesome. We have broached her multiple times, we have sailed in 40+ knot of winds with 20 foot seas, we have surfed down waves with 25 plus winds flying the spinnaker reaching speeds in excess of 13 knots and mostly she has came through the experience without incident (wait for the next post for the one exception). In the process of pushing the boat we have learned a lot about our abilities, but more importantly where we need improvement. Most of our efforts over the past year and a half has been to discover our short comings and improve our sailing ability, not just to make the boat go faster but also keeping her under control.
Each boat that enters the Pacific Cup must go through a rigorous inspection. When the inspector showed up for our initial review he brought a 34 page document listing in detail all of the items that are required. This particular inspector had a connection to Avion, he was a crew member of our closest competition during the 2013 offshore racing series. He has been doing the inspections for the Pacific Cup for a long time so he knew what he was doing and had great suggestions for us to adjust our systems to optimize our safety. At the end of the inspection he stated that this was his first inspection for this year and we have set the bar high. My comment was that we will continue that high bar all the way to the finish line.
In addition to passing the Pacific Cup inspection, skipper Tom had an insurance inspection that listed over 60 items to address. At first glance this could be interpreted that Avion had issues, but not really, they were mainly minor items that needed to be addressed so they wouldn’t become major issues. The crew spent months working on each and every item which accomplished two objectives; cleared all items off the list and allowed the crew to become intimately familiar with the boat. We now know every nook and cranny on the boat. The bottom line is that we have addressed all of Avion’s issues identified by multiple inspectors, acquired all of the safety equipment required for the race and we have performed all of the required safety drills.
Besides the boat safety equipment the Pacific Cup requires all of the crew to have personal safety gear and 30% of the crew have safety at sea certification. All Avion crew members have acquired that certification. The personal equipment that we have is the top of the line personal flotation devices, with crotch straps to keep them from hiking up over the head when deployed, whistle and a strobe light. We all have tethers that will be required to be deployed from start to finish, in other words we will be connected to the boat at all times. On the off chance that I am separated from the boat I have a personal VHF radio that has the latest technology called Digital Select Calling (DSC). Once the DSC is activated it sends a VHF signal of my current GPS location to all DSC radios within VHF radio range, which of coarse Avion is equipped.
Clothing is also an important component of safety. At the start of the race the weather will be cold and wet and at the end of the race the weather will be hot and wet. The key components here are wet and extreme conditions. Sailing is an active sport so that moisture comes from both inside and outside the gear. Waterproof, breathable, wickable and sun resistant becomes common terms when talking with fellow crew members about personal gear.
The crew on Avion has placed safety as our number one priority. Not only have I personally made that my most important priority I also tend to be hedge on the down side risk. In stead of making the best possible outcome the highest possible priority I tend to evaluate what is the worst that can happen and make sure it doesn’t. So friends and family I am doing everything possible to be as safe as I can.
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