March 2012 - Fairwind Yacht Club

One of the most difficult things the Club ever has to deal with is selling a boat. We love them all, and each
one has it’s own unique group of supporting members. So we have decided to conduct a two-part survey of the
membership. Part I will be to invite comments from all interested members, i.e. supporters of Seaweed and
supporters of Blue By U. We will then share all comments received (provided they are courteous and relevant)
with the entire membership and then we can all vote in Part II of the survey. The results of Part II will
determine the answer.
The other motion that was on the floor concerned member’s financial responsibility. This did not change
much from what it has been in the past but it did clarify the position so there are no misunderstandings.
Members are responsible for the first $1,000 of any damage caused during the period of their reservation. That
applies to club boats and to the property of others. Your total responsibility is limited to $1,000. The only
exception is that when sailing the Catalina 400, Angelsea, your financial responsibility is increased to $2,500.
3 Recent Incidents Point To Need
For Extra Vigilance On The Water
By Marc Levine
Safety Officer
Hello, members. The following is a heads up on safety issues. Daylight savings time is just days away with the
promise of great sailing. Unfortunately, we have seen three accidents already, which we all need to learn from.
In my opinion, an accident or incident, while being a negative experience, can be a positive benefit to our
organization if we all can learn from it. Even the most experienced of us still need to be aware and reminded to
be vigilant sailors and skippers to minimize the risks involved in handling boats and navigating our coastal
waters.
I will be intentionally vague in my comments. My intention is not to embarrass or expose anyone, so names
and some information will be omitted. The point is to learn and gain experience as well as to reinforce what we
may have forgotten. One of our club’s greatest assets is that we can learn from each other.
The first incident involved towing a hard fiberglass dinghy to Catalina Island. While on approach to an
anchorage, a strong following wind caused the dinghy to collide with the hull of the tow vessel causing damage
to the dink and the hull of the tow vessel.
Our fleet captain has offered up some very good towing guidelines, which will be made available to the
membership shortly and should help provide guidance on how to tow dinks.
Also, before you decide to tow a dink, you should practice it first for a few hours at different angles to wind
and swell. All dinks have different towing characteristics, making a long passage with an unfamiliar dink behind
you a potential safety risk.
The second incident occurred when one of our boats collided with another vessel a few miles out in the bay.
Both vessels were singlehanding. Each skipper lost sight of the other one due to jib blind spots.
Our vessel was on a port tack so it had an extra burden. The damage was minor and fortunately no one was
hurt and the property damage was minimal. So what went wrong here? Neither skipper sounded any warnings to
the other. Once our skipper saw the other vessel the only thing that could be done was a last-second decision to
turn away from the unburdened vessel to deflect the collision impact as much as possible. This was the right and
only decision our skipper could have made. This was commendable and lessened the damages considerably.
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