The following article is a good reminder to all of us – coaches, parents, YC boards. The congestion around launch time leaves our visual command of the area challenging. Please read this article by Taylor Martin, Director of Pewaukee Lake Sailing School, and consider

1. Your yacht club’s policies related to swimming or pier use
2. Your motorboat driving habits while boats are racing or in the congested launch and mooring areas
3. Your coach and spectator etiquette while on the course

Taylor witnessed an incident at a recent X event which brought him to the point of writing this article. It shook him emotionally as he watched a “near-miss”. It reminds us all of our actions on the water especially as we approach our biggest X and Opti events. But don’t forget the adult fleets also as we tow our boats into the launch sites.

“For most programs, this week marks the halfway point of our summer sailing season. Four weeks down, four more to go, but a lot of time left on the water. Halfway through the season, many people have spent many hours sailing and coaching and watching regattas, and becoming complacent, comfortable on the water. Our goal, should never be comfortable – stay alert.

As coaches, as parents, we spend 20 to 30 hours a week at minimum driving around children. Make no mistake that when I ask for your vigilant care with our boats it is not an exaggeration. We should never become comfortable with what we are doing, confident perhaps. As drivers of power boats, especially around our sailors, we need to operate with the confidence that what we are doing will bring no harm to those around us.

Many of us are trained in safe power boat handling: not just how to drive a boat, but how to act in a rescue situation, or in general on the water around sailboats. Many more are not trained in any of this. Or consider the spectator who willingly volunteers to assist but has no real experience with sailboat racing.

Good programs have safety training before their instructors are ever allowed to teach sailing. Most programs do not. Even the instructors from these quality programs get lackadaisical in their safety practices.

Our coach boats are tools, necessary tools for us to do our job safely. Not having these tools makes our job difficult, and dangerous. However; having these tools used improperly can be even more dangerous than not having them at all. Every time we get into our powerboats, we have a choice to make. It is a choice that we need to make consciously every time we start our boat. The choice is this: do I today, operate in a way that keeps me and those around me safe? Or do I today, risk the lives of those around me?

The cardinal sins that I see committed regularly on my lake, and others – both by quality sailing instructor’s, parents, and recreational boaters – are these:

-Refusal to wear a kill cord. This is an absolute rule to assure good safety practices. The kill cord is your first line of defense when you lose control of your boat.

-Not looking backwards when you are backing your boat up. When you are reversing your powerboat is when those around you will be most vulnerable to your propeller. Make no mistake that when you are reversing a powerboat you are approaching somebody, danger looms. This is a most common practice since there are boats in front, your sailor is calling you to help AND there are boats behind which are not in your visual field — UNLESS you make a conscious effort to ALWAYS be alert when in reverse.

-Driving your boat without a hand on the wheel, and a hand on the throttle. Don’t drive a car with your knees either.

-When the boat is getting on a plane, being unaware of those in front of you. When the bow of your boat is two or three feet in the air because you are trying to accelerate, you must do so in a way that allows you to still see clearly what is happening in front of you.

-Operating on a plane through a fleet of sailboats. There is no excuse for this. Even when responding to a capsized boat or a boat in distress, operating in this manner only makes the situation for everyone else more dangerous.

-Allowing any sailor or member in the water when motorboats are near. Yacht Clubs, post your policy or monitor it during those busy regatta launch times. Heads are very low in the water. Just say no to swimming near your piers during regatta time. Consider the area when you allow your spectators to swim in the middle of the lake. Choose a time when boats are NOT in the area.

I am sure there are many more habits that we all have, that make us operate powerboats less safely. You make a choice every time you get in your boat, a choice to operate safely, or a choice to be risky.

I say all of this not to reprimand, but to remind us all that what we choose to do with our free time is not a safe thing. Every time we get on the water and off the water without incident we need to be grateful. We need to acknowledge that in a high traffic, high density situation like a regatta, or sailing school, our risk of injury and incident is extreme. Anything we can do to mitigate this risk of injury or incident needs to be taken very seriously.

Being reminded once or twice about the proper way to do things is better than having to live the rest of your life with an undesired alternative.

Taylor Martin

Director, Pewaukee Lake Sailing School