Coast Guard Safety Alert:
This safety alert reminds all inflatable life jacket users of the importance of performing periodic maintenance on their equipment. Instances of fatal accidents where inflatable life jackets failed to properly inflate have…
We offer several types of article covering a wide range of topics. Choose your topic or article type below:
- Feature Articles. Discussions of one or more topics regarding Seamanship, Safety, and best practices afloat.
- School of Hard Rocks. First-person narratives of ... challenging ... experiences and lessons learned.
- Safety Moments. Short items suitable for a quick read or presentation to a group.
- White Papers. In-depth dives into topics of interest.
- Travelogs. Stories of near and far journeys afloat, including selected articles from our Voyages magazine
- Videos. A growing library of streaming content, from weather seminars to member highlights.
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Preparation of Boat and Crew
Racing "Big Boats" on SF Bay aboard a classic wooden schooner highlights the need to brief crew on the specifics of their roles onboard.
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Safety Gear, Personal
The failure rate of life jackets can be alarmingly high without proper attention
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Overboard
After several fatal short-handed crew overboard incidents involving members of the Sailing Foundation in Seattle, three of the members (Fred Hayes, Dick Marshall, Doug Fryer) began to search for a solution to short-handed overboard accidents. Their…
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Emergency Signalling
Whether you call them flares, or visual distress signals (VDS), or pyrotechnics, some visual form of getting attention from boaters or rescue agencies has been a mainstay of the Federal Recreational Boat Equipment requirements for decades. And…
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Seamanship and Awareness
"What If?" is an excellent game to play onboard or ashore, with both experienced and inexperienced crew, day or night, at anchor or underway.
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Fire/Flooding, Electronics
Lithium batteries are a fact of life in this day and age, and, like so many other things aboard, we must treat them with care. When I wrote the CCA article on Fire in the Boat – Prevention, I gently danced around the issue of fires in smaller…
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Preparation of Boat and Crew
In Stephen Covey’s best-selling self-help book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, one chapter is titled “Sharpening the Saw”.
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Safety Moment
Subject:
AIS
After two major collisions with substantial loss of American lives between US Navy destroyers and merchant ships, many of us went to websites that provide histories of the movements of the ships in the area up to the minute of the collision. Using…
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Culture of Safety
On the night of November 29, 2014, while competing in the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, Vestas Wind ran aground on Cargados Carajos Shoal shortly after local sunset.
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Safety Gear, Personal
In the early 1970s, a new method of categorizing life jackets was introduced by the Coast Guard and Underwriter’s Laboratories, using five “types” and a new, strange name for life jackets: the Personal Flotation Device.
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Safety Gear, Boat, Dinghy Management
Dinghy Safety Checklist
It only takes a few minutes to verify that your dinghy is "good to go."
USCG Federal Requirements - IMPORTANT NOTE: States may have additional requirements for registration of all types of boats and young…
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Safety Gear, Boat
No one wants to spend money foolishly, and no one wants to be subjected to unnecessary risks. How do you figure out how to spend your safety dollars efficiently to minimize the risks associated with going to sea in sailboats? Risk analysis generally…
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Communications
While working with fellow CCA members on a comprehensive marine safety manual, I found that the powers that be have prospectively revised VHF channels. The changes are intended to harmonize global communications but, in the natural order of things,…
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Electronics
One of the requirements for the 1982 Singlehanded Transpac was to have sailed 300 NM, singlehanded, in the boat that you were going to take to Hawaii. For my second Singlehanded Transpac, I had selected an Olson 30, Collage, which I saw has having…
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Safety Gear, Boat
The 2015 meeting of the International Sailing Federation, now known as World Sailing, was held in Sanya, China. One of the committees that met was the Offshore Special Regulations committee, which is responsible for creating equipment rules for six…
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Getting Weather
Despite my better judgment, I was coerced into delivering a 40’ cruising sloop up the coast from Oceanside to Moss Landing in early December, a distance of 350 nautical miles. While December weather can be relatively flat and beautiful, it can also…
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Safety Moment
Subject:
Practice and Safety Training
Ah, New Year’s Resolutions. So easily conceived, so quickly neglected! Lose 20 pounds, get regular exercise, reduce intake of saturated fat, and cut out that last glass of wine in the evening: we’re very good at making promises to ourselves, and…