What a new report on yacht-to-yacht rescues teaches skippers

What happened

The Cruising Club of America has published a report on yacht-to-yacht rescues, according to PBO. It comes from a review team formed a year ago, working with the Bermuda Race Foundation and US Sailing.

The report is described as "eye opening", with "life-saving insights". It analyses a range of real-life crew rescues between yachts, each with different circumstances. The article also points to incident reviews after the 2024 Newport Bermuda Race.

Round-the-world sailor Kirsten Neuschäfer wrote the foreword. She won the 2022-2023 Golden Globe Race and, in 2022, rescued fellow competitor Tapio Lehtinen after his Gaia 36 sank and he spent over 24 hours adrift in the southern Indian Ocean. She says that every sailor, offshore or near-shore, must contemplate finding themselves in distress or being called upon to assist another vessel.

The small things that mattered

Neuschäfer says that an extra pair of reading glasses in Lehtinen's grab-bag would have made it much easier for him to send satellite text messages and to read the instructions for deploying his flares.

She also says smoke flares for daytime signalling would have greatly helped her find him as he drifted in his life raft with the bright, rising sun behind him. And she notes that seeing his raft drift away as it was deployed added unnecessary shock and adrenaline to an already life-threatening situation.

These are matters of preparation rather than dramatic seamanship. As Neuschäfer puts it, it is nearly impossible to gain practical experience in every type of emergency, so the most valuable source of information is the hard-earned experience of others.

What it means if you are learning to skipper

If you are working towards your Day Skipper theory, the lesson is not that you will be crossing the Southern Ocean. Neuschäfer calls preparing for the unforeseen a fundamental responsibility, and says that in such moments quick and accurate decisions rely on seamanship skills and "theoretical understanding of the unforeseen".

Some practical questions follow from her account. Does everyone aboard know where the grab-bag is and what is in it? Could a tired, stressed crew member read the instructions for the flares? Would your signals be visible by day as well as by night? These are worth talking through before you set off.

The article also mentions the age-old law of the sea, which Neuschäfer says requires assisting others in distress. A skipper could therefore think about two roles: being the vessel in trouble, and being the vessel that goes to help. She urges all sailors to read the report's "gripping accounts", which are on the Cruising Club of America's website.

Where Sail Academy fits

Theory is a safe place to rehearse decisions you hope never to make. Sail Academy covers all 18 modules of the RYA Day Skipper theory syllabus, with a film for each, three boat-handling simulators and a mock exam.

Sail Academy is theory only. It is not a substitute for practical training on the water, so use it to prepare your thinking, then get afloat with a qualified instructor to build the hands-on skills.