Vic Stevens: Hi.
I'm Vic and I'm a skipper of Northern Moment and this week we're at Hamilton Island for
Hamilton Island Race Week.
Today we're gonna give you some tips on sailing safely.
Vic Stevens: We're cruisers, but I think everybody should race because it forces you into situations
that stretch you.
It pushes the boundaries.
The other bit I like about racing is there's different categories of racing.
Each category requires a safety compliance to that category knowing that you've met a
recognized standard of safety allows me to sleep.
Vic Stevens: Fire extinguisher here and a fire extinguisher upstairs in each of the
cockpits.
We have an EPIRB here and a second EPIRB on the topside here.
Emergency fuel cut off, if it is required.
We also have emergency gas cut off.
This boat is also fitted with a gas alarm, should we have a leach of gas and a fire alarm
as well.
We're equipped with a lot of redundancy here.
Instead of having one radio, we have two.
Instead of one chart plotter we have two.
Everything is duplicated in case something fails.
That's all about a long trip we're going on.
That's why we've got two EPIRBs and so on.
Just introduce you to some of the personal protection gear that's necessary on our little
trip today.
Firstly, gloves.
One of the biggest hazards we've got is potential rope burns of people allowing the nylon rope
to go through their hands.
Vic Stevens: We come to the life jackets.
Life jackets are more than life jackets.
They actually are harnessed life jackets.
Actually a built a harness as well.
One of the greatest hazards out there is man overboard, particularly when you're travelling
short handed.
If it's just the two of us on board, if one of us goes over, it'd be quite easy for the
other not to have noticed immediately.
Each of us carry PLBs, personal location beacons.
They're like an EPIRB.
What they will do is send a signal to the satellite to the response center and they'll
organize our rescues.
Vic Stevens: This boat is fitted with AIS which is Automatic Identification System.
It's compulsory on commercial vessels and optional on private vessels.
What it allows you to do is for you to see other boats fitted with AIS and for them to
see you.
With that, we can actually zoom in to those individual boats and we can actually see some
parameters speed and direction they're going at and also their call signal.
We're able to call them up and notify them what our intentions are should there be an
imminent collision.
This is a throw bag, this is required.
It's throw line.
Again, that safety rating, I need that.
So this is a dan buoy that is thrown over.
Behind you is actually a sling that is used to recover a man overboard.
Vic Stevens: Safety first on this boat.
There's too many bodies found with their fly undone.
We just don't want a man overboard.
Simple rule on this boat, you need to pee, there's a toilet there.