Perhaps a meta-analysis of anchoring tests is the only way to get a sufficiently broad idea of what will work best for an individual. No single test proves very much, and all are compromised by the simplifying assumptions in the test protocol. Read more

The movie “Albatross” shows the impact of plastics on the albatrosses of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. The movie was made between 2009 and 2012. Midway Atoll NWR is located more than a thousand miles northwest of Honolulu and shelters the world’s largest colonies of Laysan and Black-footed albatross, along with a single pair of Short Tailed albatross.

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After an initial stage of having existing life jacket designs updated with modern labels, new life jacket designs created under a new UL standard (UL 12402) will begin to enter the market, and these life jackets may have features and innovations which are not currently allowed under the older UL standards. At least that is the hope. Read more

Sea and be Seen

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Sailors can learn from the crash of flight 8303. We can, on occasion, get into a situation that gets more and more difficult from which to recover. This can be caused by ego, or by a sudden change in the expected circumstances, or a lack of “forehandedness”, which was one of the late Capt. John Bonds’s favorite words to throw out at Safety At Sea students. Forehandedness, he’d lecture, was the ability to anticipate possible changes in the current situation and to be ready… Read more

Not just for safety anymore, DSC can be used to contact another boat for purely non-emergency reasons, such as find other boats positions and automatically plot them on your chart-plotter Not only that, you can set your radio to be part of a “group” to send and receive alerts intended for a fleet of vessels. This capability may serve any fleet, be it yacht club, regatta, race or just a group of friends. Read more

The CCA recommends that, at the skipper’s discretion, all crew should WEAR A LIFE JACKET when on deck of a recreational boat. There are various types of life jackets with advantages and disadvantages, and that are appropriate for different conditions. But the best one is the one you are WEARING. The boat's skipper should establish a culture of safety and protocols, the goal of which is: don't fall overboard. Read more

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CCA member Richard du Moulin contributes to our “Creating a Culture of Safety” series, reflecting on the essence of great leadership at sea in this article adapted from his work as a long-time leader of safety-at-sea seminars for the Storm Trysail Club.

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I like to think that the courses and articles and online tutorials are complete and easy to understand, but anyone who teaches knows that the best way to check comprehension is to listen to the questions that are asked. After my “story” in Lectronic Latitude was published, I received several excellent questions from a sailor whom is living on her boat in La Paz, Baja California. Alison Osinski, PhD, asked me the following: Read more

by Gust Stringos, Boston Station, Gulf of Maine Post

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Several years ago, I was asked to serve on the National Boating Safety Advisory Council, which is a group that (as the name suggests) advises and coordinates with the Coast Guard on issues related to recreational boating safety

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