The Storm Trysail Foundation held it's Hand's on Safety-at-Sea Seminar at SUNY Maritime College on Saturday, April 18th. Mother nature was very kind and over 250 Sailors had an action-packed day!
The above photo has Moderator and Past Storm Trysail Commodore Rich du Moullin discussing, "Leadership, Seamanship & Heavy Weather". Other speakers included current Storm Trysail Commodore Lee Reichart and past U.S. Sailing President and America's Cup sailor Gary Jobson who discussed the release of his upcoming film, "Fastnet 1979", which will be aired on June 5 at 6 pm EDTon ESPN.
The attendees were broken into four manageable groups for instruction and participation in Fire Fighting (by STC Member and Firefighter Brook West and AIG's Carl Lessard) and Pyrotechnics (by Joe Richter of Sea Safety Inc. and Storm Trysail member) and Damage Control (by well known yacht builder Eric Goetz and Cove Haven Marina's Manager Mike Keyworth), In Water Pool Demonstrations of Life Vests and Life Rafts (by Dan O'Connor), and On Board Man Overboard Drills (led by STC Member Dick York).
The Storm Trysail Club and the Storm Trysail Foundation wish to thank US Sailing Offshore Director Dan Nowlan and Safety at Sea Committee Chairman Chuck Hawley for their effort with Storm Trysail in preparing the training videos and quizzes which allow the seminar attendees to qualify for ISAF safety certification after the one day Hands on Safety at Sea Seminar.
The following is a review reprinted with permission from Scuttlebutt Sailing News Monday, April 20, 2015 — Issue 4314
Safety Taking a Giant Step Forward
Amid the constant (and healthy) debates about what’s right and wrong with sailing, here’s one example of a group that got it very right. On Saturday (Apr 18), I attended a hands-on Safety at Sea Seminar, hosted by the Storm Trysail Foundation, at SUNY Maritime, just north of New York City.
The hands-on aspect involved rotating the participants through four sessions during the day – man overboard drills on the water while sailing on STF members’ boats, in-water PFD/hypothermia/liferaft training in the pool, damage control & emergency steering, and the use of fire extinguishers and flares. Many of the traditional powerpoint presentations were replaced by an extensive event website with videos from US Sailing and other sources.
Here’s the amazing thing: All of this was done for over 250 participants in a one-day event. Nine boats were provided with owners and instructors onboard; multiple launches, run by SUNY Maritime students, ferried participants to/from the boats quickly; everyone got in the pool with full foul weather gear, and into a liferaft; everyone lit off two types of flares and put out a fire. It was professional-level training made available to amateur sailors, and obviously took a huge level of planning, volunteerism, coordination and expertise.
I’ve been to a few Safety at Sea Seminars over the years, and all have been informative, but this one was a giant leap forward – a clear example of accomplished sailors going to great lengths to give back to the sport. Congrats to everyone involved on a fantastic new format and an amazing event!
- Paul Grimes; Portsmouth, RI