April 13, 2007
Coach Boats - The Need For Safe Boating
Coach boats, safety boats, and spectator boats are becoming more and more prevalent at sailing regattas. It’s essential for those of us who operate them to remain alert and aware of our surroundings at all times. We need to not only be mindful of where we’re heading, but also of our wake and their effects on other boaters – most importantly the sailors.
I read an article this morning on the Scuttlebutt newsletter (a great daily sailing e-newsletter) with a disturbing heading “Coach Boat Accident” – obviously I read more. It talks about a recent accident at a Laser regatta in Spain in which a sailor got their hand jammed between two Lasers as a result of two coach boats speeding past their tow line. It goes on to talk about a horrific accident in Greece back in August of 2002 when a boardsailor was run over by a coach boat. Click here for a link to the article. These two instances should make us all take pause.
There’s no doubt that RIBs make excellent coach boats because of their stability, soft forgiving sides, and performance, but we must remember that they don’t make the operator invincible. When operating a RIB, or any powerboat, at a regatta (or anytime on the water for that matter) move about the course carefully and slowly making sure to always look around you. Having run and coached at countless regattas myself, there is very rarely a need to go faster than headway speed – let’s face it, most of the time a slow but steadily moving powerboat will always get from Point A to Point B faster than a sailboat.
A RIB is not much different than owning a four wheel drive SUV. Just because you’re in an SUV during a snow storm doesn’t mean you should speed down the road at full speed – the roads are still slippery and all the four wheel drive in the world isn’t going to stop you any faster. Likewise –the safety and performance of a RIB doesn’t offer any additional safety to other boaters if you’re speeding around and not paying attention to who else is out there. Like the SUV in snow – just because a RIB can handle chop and rough weather better than a hard sided boat, doesn’t mean you should push it and stop exercising good judgment.
Please remember to always stay alert and be aware. For those of us in the industry, this just points to another good example of the need for boating safety and boat handling education.
Posted by ribcraftusa at April 13, 2007 08:54 AM
Comments
Coach boats should have no more than 10 hp on an 18' vessel and certainly no more than 25 on a 25' coaching vessel.
Posted by: SafeCoach at April 17, 2007 12:49 AM
With all due respect to "SafeCoach", a proper coach boat should have enough HP to move around quickly, have a minimum of 3 POB, assist with marks, tow a few boats, etc. It's silly to suggest 'one size fits all' with regards to HP on these boats as they tend to serve multi-purposes.
More to the point, I don't know of any 18' boat - RIB or solid sided that could even move with a 10HP or a 25HP on a 25'. Talk about unsafe! A boat that couldn't even get out of it's own way . . .
Limiting HP doesn't make a boat safe if a fool is behind the wheel. Nothing wrong with power. Operators just need training, play it safe, and a tad of common sense.
Posted by: Wes at April 18, 2007 08:21 PM
I would agree with Wes that 10HP engine on an 18' and a 25HP engine on a 25' seems to be a bit to the extreme and frankly rediculous. You don't need HP as much for speed, but rather to provide enough power to be able to tow sailors. My club bought a 15' Ribcraft as a coach boat a few years ago - great boat - but we made a big mistake when we equipped it with a 25HP engine. We have found that when you want to two 2-3 420s, we can't get much more speed than 6 knots which is a problem if you're trying to beat a storm in. We've since bought a second 15' Ribcraft with a 40 and it's perfect.
Posted by: Justin at April 19, 2007 08:55 AM
Safety is paramount while coaching. Keeping your "head out of the boat" is just as important for the coach as it is for the sailors. I've met Kim a few times after her accident in Greece. She's doing pretty well, but let me just say, TBI (traumatic brain injury) just plain sucks. We haven't been able to get her sailing again on the disabled sailing circuit. I can't imagine how horrified I would be if I were responsible for an accident like that. Don't let it happen to you!
As far as power, I just repowered an Avon Searider 5.4 with a 90 hp. Do I need it for pottering around a racecourse? Absolutely not. But if I ever need to get an injured person ashore for medical assistance, or tow a string of 4-5 750 lb sailboats with their crews out of a bad situation, I'll be damned glad to have it.
Speed is handy for resetting marks on a course too. Part of a coach's job is to minimize the sailor's downtime while on the water. Responsible use is the key.
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