"I am here to help, not to tick boxes" was Chris' opening remark. This was a good start in my view as we had just completed 6500 miles to get to Las Palmas and I considered Kittiwake well found on the safety front. In fact, I think I resented the check as being a criticism of my personal responsibilities as owner/skipper of the vessel.
The next 15 minutes were spent ticking boxes - buckets with lanyards, throwing lines, pump handles, fire extinguishers and blankets, life jackets, flares, life raft etc - of course I have them!
"Does that emergency tiller fit on the rudder stock?" Now that was a good question, I have never tried it. "Might be a good thing to try before setting off, might save some embarrassment later if you need it" A good point, we did and it does, but at least now we know it.
"Does the light on the Man Over Board sling work. Mmmmm..... rather than incriminate myself, I took the sling out and switched on the light - bugger, nothing. In fact, I had never taken the sling out of the bag before - a useful learning, I replaced the light.
We had a good look at the cooker to see if it could jump off the pivot and fly across the cabin (a frightening thought), it could be possible we surmised, and looked at ways of securing it. I was surprised that given the risk of fire associated with cookers and their lines and gas bottles, the ARC doesnt require a formal certificate of inspection. I did this in March of this year and was horrified at what I had inherited. Replacement hoses and test lines were cheap and gave me a lot of confidence that I, my wife, and my crew were unlikely to blow ourselves to Kingdom Come in the near future!
The final point we discussed were radar reflectors. Luckily, mine was already installed on the boat when I bought her, I have a 10m2 equvalent reflector. I have requested radar checks from nearby boats and have been relieved tht Kittiwake gives a strong radar "blip". We have seen four boats so far that have approached us from afar to within a mile that were not visible on our radar, we have tracked eight boats on radar so far - does this mean that 30% of ARC boats do not have adequate radar? Probably not, but I would suggest a radar check be requested from a neighbouring boat from time to time.
I enjoyed the Safety Check, I and my crew learned a few things that may save our lives one day, an hour of our time represents bloody good value for money - it's our lives after all.......
Tim Luker
29th November 2009