If a crewmember falls overboard, how confident are you that s/he can be quickly recovered? If it is you that falls over, will your crew be able to get you back? Knowing the theory is one thing, putting it into practice is something quite different.

HYC will be running another ‘Man Overboard’ course next Saturday (1 September) from 0930 to 1700hrs. The course starts with a discussion of the different ways of rescuing a crewmember that has fallen overboard. It will then be followed by some practice afloat. Howth RNLI will be generously lending us their “crew dummy” to lend realism to the rescue efforts and mimicking real life situations.

Sailing isn’t a hugely dangerous sport, and you don’t want to scare your crew, but it pays to learn and practise Man-Overboard. If you have a regular drill in place, then you could buy yourself valuable time should the unthinkable ever happen.

This will be the 3rd time that the course has been run in HYC and it is being organised by Mossy Shanahan and Susan Kavanagh. David Jerrard of Seacraft will be the instructor for this course.

The cost will be €50 to HYC members (including lunch and a donation to the RNLI) and €100 to non- members, who are welcome to take part. The design of this course means that places are limited and the course practical session (on the water) will naturally be weather-dependent. Please contact [email protected] to book.

(Top photo: Photographer Luis Fernandez captured the moment at last week’s ‘Illes Balears Clàssics’ in Palma when when one the crew from the 15m classic ‘Hispania’ fell overboard only a few meters from the finishing line and was expertly recovered by the team on their 98 foot long sailboat.)