Safety & Seamanship

For centuries, navigators have been coping with two key variables that convey major consequence. The first is the quest for an accurate position fix, and the second is the hope that the chart theyre using is an accurate representation of their surroundings. Up until a couple of decades ago, cartographers were winning out and chart accuracy trumped sextant-derived fix accuracy. The tide has turned.

Heralding in a new era for electronic navigation, the U.S. Coast Guard recently published guidance that allows mariners to satisfy chart-carriage requirements using electronic charts and electronic publications instead of paper ones.

When a man-overboard (MOB) incident occurs at night, the odds of recovery become slimmer. The fate of the person in the water hinges on how fellow crewmembers respond and what the victim has intentionally or inadvertently taken with them into the water. A well-prepared offshore sailor will carry essential personal safety gear on him at all times while standing watch during a passage. At the top of the must-have list are a combination harness/inflatable personal flotation device (PFD) and a tether that can be clipped to a jackline to prevent you from being launched over the lifeline. (For an in-depth look at gear and techniques associated with an MOB incident, our downloadable e-book, Man Overboard Prevention and Recovery, is available through our online bookstore at www.practical-sailor.com/books.)

Practical Sailors testing of man-overboard lights involved both lab and on-the-water testing. Our main interest was each lights brightness (radiance), but we also wanted to see how strobe patterns might hasten or delay the recovery of a man overboard.

During our man-overboard light testing, we also looked into the effectiveness of using a waterproof flashlight as a man-overboard signal. Most offshore sailors already carry a compact flashlight or wear a headlamp during night watches-why not choose one that can do double-duty? A dual-purpose flashlight would be in some ways similar to a cellphone-a device designed primarily for everyday use, but also capable of serving a lifesaving role in the event of an emergency.

Most offshore sailors are familiar with jacklines, those long lines-typically made of high-strength, low-stretch webbing-that run along the deck, offering a convenient way for sailors to clip in with their safety tethers and still move about. They provide peace of mind when going forward, and security in the event of a misstep. In previous articles, we reviewed the use of tethers and jacklines . In this report, we take a closer look at the ideal jackline material, with particular focus on elasticity and how the best material is not the same for big boats as it is for smaller boats.

The International Sailing Federation (ISAF), the world governing body for the sport of sailing, has established clear guidelines for ISAF-sanctioned events, and these are generally applied to offshore racing-ISAF-sanctioned, or not-around the world. Among the recommendations are the following:

Material selection is just one of many details regarding jacklines that deserve careful thought. If you are re-installing your jacklines, be sure to read our 2007 report and review some of the following tips that emerged from this test.

New, single-braid, high modulus polyethylene (HMPE) lines, such as Amsteel Blue from Samson Ropes, WR2 (wire rope replacement) from New England Ropes, and Vectrus from Yale Cordage, have revolutionized the way sailors think about standing and running rigging. Bit by bit, these low-stretch ropes are replacing wire rope on board. But the changeover is not without controversy.

For testing, we used the same abrasion rig we used to test sewn eyes and rope (see PS March 2015). A modified wood lathe sawed line samples back and forth (a 3/4-inch stroke) at seven cycles per second through a 10-millimeter test stanchion hole. We tested each sample to failure, effectively condensing months or years of wear into just minutes.