Safety audit

Safety Audit

How to tackle the safety equipment audit for the up-coming season, by Bob Ross.

SPRING is the time when the need to pass a safety audit makes yacht owners and crews focus on the selection and maintenance of safety equipment.

It’s also the yearly prompt to get sailors thinking about the use of the equipment and their own preparedness for an emergency; time perhaps to also sign up for a Sea Safety and Survival course and certainly so if you plan on racing offshore.

It’s time to get the life raft and fire extinguishers serviced and to check whether the flares and items in the medical kit are still within their use-by date. PFDs also need to be checked annually for serviceability.

Read carefully through all the regulations concerning your boat and style of racing, as well as just ticking off the items on an audit form. Class rules and state government boating regulations should also be considered.

The boat-owner or skipper, besides using a re-read of the regulations to reinforce understanding of his own responsibilities towards safety, should involve the crew in preparing for the audit. That will show them where each item is stowed and help familiarise them with their need and use.

The auditors, many of them volunteers, deserve your courtesy and consideration. Save them time by firstly being totally aware of the safety equipment requirements as set out in Yachting Australia’s Special Regulations as published in the “Blue Book”: Yachting Australia Racing Rules of Sailing 2009-2012.

The preamble tells us: “It is the purpose of these Special Regulations to establish uniform minimum equipment, accommodation and training standards for racing boats and as a guide for cruising boats.

“These Special Regulations do not replace, but rather supplement, the requirements of government authority, the Racing Rules of Sailing and the rules of Class Associations and Rating Systems.”

The preamble also spells out: “The safety of the boat and her crew is the sole and inescapable responsibility of the owner, or owner’s representative, who shall do their best to ensure that the boat is fully found, thoroughly seaworthy and manned by an experienced crew who have undergone appropriate training and are physically fit to face bad weather.

“He must be satisfied as to the soundness of hull, spars, rigging, sails and all gear. He shall ensure that all safety equipment is properly maintained and stowed and that the crew knows where it is kept and how it is to be used.”

Be aware that the Special Regulations do not replace government safety equipment regulations; they supplement them. If an item is not in the Special Regulations but is included in the government regulations, it must be carried.

For example, NSW government regulations demand that a 406 MHz EPIRB must be carried if a vessel is two nautical miles from shore while YA Special Regulations do not require EPIRBS to be carried in category 4 races. Every state of Australia has different government requirements, which must be met.

Help the auditor

Before you make an appointment for a safety audit, be sure that all of your safety equipment is on board and in service for the ensuing year. You don’t want a few missing band aids, appropriated without your knowledge from the medical kit during the season, to require a second visit by the auditor.

Be aware that the auditor’s role is to help you understand and comply with your obligations to meet the safety requirements; the emphasis is on “your”.

If you are in dispute with the auditor over a ruling, you can seek a second opinion from the club’s senior auditor. You have the right to seek redress under RRS 62 (redress) if an audit is refused in circumstances you believe to be unreasonable.

You will assist and hasten the progress of the audit if you have each item laid out on the boat or on the dock, in the order they are to be checked. Touch and tick off each item on a spare audit form before the auditor arrives. Make sure you have all the necessary documentation on board.

The equipment list is lengthy, with more than 150 items to be ticked off for category 1 races like the Sydney-Hobart and more than 50 for category 7 inshore races for small keelboats.

Sydney-Hobart winner Roger Hickman, past chairman of Yachting NSW Special Regulations Committee, says: “To the new boat-owner the audit can be daunting. In the second year it’s easer and after half a dozen more audits on the same boat, it becomes quite familiar.”

Every State MYA has a different approach to audits and inspections. Some even allow just self audits. Be prepared to satisfy the requirements of the MYA or club if you are competing interstate.

Recent and upcoming changes

Besides the changes to the Special Regulations in the 2009-12 edition of the Blue Book, are incremental changes foreshadowed beyond 2010.

There are also continuing interpretations. A valuable source of information is on the Yachting NSW web site under Special Regulations. The site www.nsw.yachting.org.au carries monthly updates prepared by the secretary of the Special Regulations committee, Jim Orrell.

Orrell, a long-time safety inspector based at Lake Macquarie, said one of the biggest problems has been the temptation for owners, after stowing the safety equipment at audit, to change or move it.

The Yachting NSW Special Regulations committee recently recommended to the board that the “grandfather” clause allowing yachts with an age or series date before 06/2001 to stow life rafts below decks adjacent to the companionway, be removed.

Another issue the committee has recently raised is the common practice of passing sheet or halyard tails through open hatches, portlights or inspection hatches to the interior of the hull. “This practice compromises the watertight integrity of the cockpit and the safety of the vessel if an unexpected wave is taken on board or a knockdown occurs,” the committee says.

After quoting the regulations this practice infringes, the committee concludes: “As an equipment auditor is unable to monitor the use of equipment when a boat is racing, it is the responsibility of the skipper aided by the crew to ensure the safety of the vessel is not compromised by incorrect or improper use of equipment.”

Recent changes and interpretations include:

• Down-flooding analysis, categories 1 and 2 (SR 3.07.2c): For boats with an age or series date of 07/2010 or later, a down-flooding analysis certificate from the designer or manufacturer is to be carried on board.

A boat’s down-flooding angle is the angle of heel at which water can first enter the boat through an opening, including windows, port lights, hatches and doors.

• Low companionway step/sill (SR 3.07.03, cat 1-4): Open stern cockpits with the companionway sill below the local sheerline, previously banned, are now permitted with blocking devices (washboards) in place in the companionway.

• Companionway hatch securing (SR 3.07.04, cats 1-5): Previous regulation is clarified. The sliding hatch is to be operated from above and below with a separate securing device independent of washboards, which are to be separately secured in place by bolt or latch and in addition secured to the boat by a lanyard.

• Open pulpits and forestay position
(SR 3.12.3a): Previous doubt on the permitted forestay position is clarified. The gap in the pulpit opening is not to exceed 360mm, except when the forestay is in the opening, when the space on either side of the forestay is permitted to be 360mm each side.

• Lifelines (SR 3.12.6a): Moulded coverings are prohibited for all lifelines; previous grandfather clause of installation dates removed. Lanyards used to secure/tie off lifelines to be replaced annually (SR 3.12.6d).

• Minimum lifeline wire diameters, extended to categories 5-7: LOA under 8.5m, 3mm (1/8in); 8.5-13m, 4mm (5/32in); over 13m, 5mm (3/16in). Metal rod is not acceptable.

• Buckets (SR 3.20.9) all categories: Capacity reduced to eight litres. Local law may require a minimum of 9 litres.

• Inboard tanks for outboard motors (SR 3.24.9) are now permitted subject to installation, venting and other requirements.

• Fire extinguisher (SR 4.4.1a): All extinguishers to be rated 10BE. 10 refers to the time discharge rating of 10 seconds. B means it is suitable for B-class fires of flammable liquids and gases. E means it is suitable for E-class fires from energised electrical equipment.

If your boat is timber or fitted out in timber, an extinguisher rated ABE is highly desirable. B and E are the classifications mentioned above; A means it is suitable for combustible materials like wood and paper.

• Fire extinguisher servicing (SR 4.04.01): First service is now required two years from date of manufacture, instead of one as previously.

A fire blanket is now required only if cooking facilities are carried.

• Demountable anchors (SR 4.05.1c) are now permitted providing the primary anchor is carried assembled.

• Flashlight: Spare battery and bulbs (SR 4.06.3) now not required for categories 6 and 7.

• Medical kit content cat 1-7 (SR 4.07.8): Numerous items were added or replaced and deleted in Special Regulations 2009-13. Refer to the detailed regulation.

The face shields referred to in Emergency Medical Equipment (page 237 Blue Book) are not those that incorporate a one-way valve, which are also acceptable, but plastic sheet face shields, which are less bulky and easy to fit flat into a medical kit. They come in singles or packs of ten.

• EPIRBs (SR 4.18.1): The requirement to carry EPIRBs (406MHz) has been extended to category 3. AMSA registration tag is to be attached. www.amsa.gov.au/beacons.

The number of EPIRBs to be carried (not less than the number of life rafts) is extended to category 2.

The YA of NSW Special Regulations committee has drawn attention to the requirement that the EPIRB should be stowed in a dry place. “A recent incident occurred where an EPIRB of the self-activating type, while stowed its bracket became wet, which caused the EPIRB to transmit a signal without the crew’s knowledge.”

• Lifebuoys (SR 4.21), cats 1-4: Colours must be in the safety orange-red color range. They must have hand-holds around the perimeter. The life-ring type must have an internal diameter of 400mm and the horseshoe type un-stretched dimensions of not less than 400mm on one axis and 300mm on the other axis. The periphery beckets or hand-holds shall have a minimum clearance of 150mm between the hand-holds and the lifebuoy.

Lifebuoys of kapok or cork construction or of hollow construction made from non-buoyant material are not acceptable. Inflatable lifebuoys are not permitted.

• Personal flotation devices (PFDs) SR 5.01.1: Over-the-head type (“Mae West”) is banned for category 1-4 events.

From 07/2011, all PFDs for these categories shall be at least 150N buoyancy, arranged to securely suspend an unconscious person face upwards at approximately 45 degrees to the water surface.

• Overseas PFDs: Cats 1-7, equivalent overseas standard acceptable.

• Inflatable PFDs (SR 5.01.5): Gas inflation is mandatory. Each inflatable vest-type PFD Type 1 shall be checked and serviced at the intervals prescribed by the manufacturer. Each PFD that is not inflatable shall be checked annually for serviceability by the owner.

• Spare PFDs cats 1-4 (5.01.7) One spare PDF must be carried for at least ten per cent of the crew.

• Safety harnesses and lines (tethers) SR 5.02.2, cat 1-4, gives preference to the three-clip tether: Two metres long with a clip at each end and a manufacturer’s fitted third hook fitted to the line one metre from the wearer as this is the only type of tether to be carried from July 2013.

• Personal lights (SR 5.03.1): A personal location light (either strobe or complying with SOLAS LSA 2.2.3) is to be carried by or attached to each member of the crew when on deck at night, extended as mandatory for categories 1,2,3 and 5.

• Personal locator beacons (SR 5.05): 406 MHz mandatory for cats 1 and 2, for each member of the crew when on deck, shall have the current registration label attached.

Disposal

Disposing of out-of-date flares has been a problem for boat-owners over many years’ especially since the authorities have frowned on their use in training exercises because of the risk factor. And it is illegal to fire off old flares unless in an emergency.

In NSW out-of-date flares can be left with NSW Maritime Coastal Service Centres. For locations see www.maritime.nsw.gov.au/locator.html

South Australia and Victoria ask boat-owners to hand expired flares into local police stations for disposal. Tasmania and Queensland have designated flare disposal locations:

Tasmania: Contact Workplace Standards Tasmania, ‘phone 03 6233 7657; email, wstinfo@justice.tas.gov.au

Queensland: See www.msq.qld.gov.au/Safety/Flare-disposal-locations.aspx

WA: www.dpi.wa.gov.au/imarine/19165.asp#Disposal

Victoria: Contact nearest police station.

EPIRBs similarly need to be disposed of carefully to avoid triggering false searches. In ordinary rubbish, they may go off in landfill, when being compacted. Battery World stores around Australia provide free disposal of unwanted EPIRBs.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority provides information on disarming and disposing of unwanted EPIRBs on its web site; www.amsa.gov.au/beacons or call 1800 406 406.