Storm Trysail Club (STC), supported by the Storm Trysail Foundation (STF), created a new format for Safety-At-Sea training in 2021: “Do-It-Yourself Training Day”.  We now refer to it as “BYOB” Day – Bring Your Own Boat Day.  This on-the-water event encourages owners and crews to perform MOB Recovery and other safety drills on their own boats, with their own equipment, and their own crews. 

The BYOB Day will be held May 19 – the day after our Hands-On SAS Seminar at SUNY Maritime on May 18 – so that crews can immediately build upon the concepts they learned the day before. Newport-Bermuda Race participants may also wish to participate and fulfill some of the requirements for that race. 

BYOB Day is being scheduled to recognize that races such as STC’s Block Island Race (May 24) require that competitors practice MOB retrieval techniques before the race.  The Block Island Race NOR 4.2 stipulates: Man Overboard Practice: Annually, two-thirds of the boat’s racing crew shall practice man-overboard procedures appropriate for the boat’s size and speed. The practice shall consist of marking and returning to a position on the water, and demonstrating a method of hoisting a crewmember back on deck, or other consistent means of re-boarding the crewmember.  Accordingly, STC has scheduled a BYOB Day for May 19 so that crews have the opportunity to meet that requirement before the Block Island Race.

A core tenet of STC’s Adult Hands-On Safety-At-Sea Seminar is that we can only expose sailors to the concepts, techniques, and equipment. It is only with actual and repeated practice on their own boats with their own crew that competence can be achieved with the “muscle memory” to act properly in the moment. “Train the way you fight. And fight the way you train!” is the motto from U.S. Marine Corp that supports this practical approach.

STF will provide coaches and coach boats, our innovative MOB “dummies” (which simulate the weight of a 180 lb. crew) for recovery training, as well as pick-up sticks/tall buoys, for all event registrants.  A maximum of 16 boats will be registered.  

We recommend all participants to review the following information on MOB Recovery techniques:

MOB Recovery

MOB Recovery – MidLine Lift Video

Seamanship, Leadership and Safety at Sea Handbook

BYOB Training Day

Preference will be given boats entering the Block Island and Bermuda Races. 

NOTE:  STC/STF are not providing ANY certification through the BYOB Day event.  All skippers and crews are solely responsible for meeting the requirements of any event in which they plan to participate.

Course Curriculum

• Abandoning Ship
• Heaving To
• Several MOB Recovery techniques
• Using AIS to locate an MOB
• A week prior to the event, there will be a Zoom briefing session for all skippers and crew, and the week after the event we will provide a Zoom debrief with video.

Questions?

Contact [email protected] with any questions