Boaties need to bone up

Just how prepared are our boaters to cope with an emergency? Not well enough, says Carol Forsyth, field officer with Coastguard Boating Education.

She made her verdict after observing competitors in the inaugural Marlinspike Seamanship Challenge at Paihia in the Bay of Islands earlier this month.

"Most skippers and their crew handled a wide range of seamanship tasks well," she says. "But in the man-overboard drill some serious shortcomings were revealed. One yacht had three attempts before managing a successful retrieval. That's just not good enough, particularly as these were all experienced skippers sailing traditional and heritage craft.

"They all knew the man-overboard drill was one of the tasks that they had to perform and I would have expected them all to have mastered it.

"The worry is that other less-experienced recreational sailors are on the water and are not properly prepared to undertake this basic emergency exercise.

"Man overboard is not something that only sailboat skippers and crew should be able to cope with," she warns. "It is also an emergency powerboaters can be faced with in a whole host of situations, including being able to effect a rescue even if the skipper goes overboard.

"Many of the people who go boating don't think through the possibility of an emergency at sea and take into account the fact that help can be hours away. They must be prepared for medical emergencies as well as distress situations."

The CBES field rep also managed a plug for boating education: "Most recreational boaters don't know about day or sound signals or the signposts of the sea, markers and buoys. Doing a course with an experienced tutor can make your boating experience safer and the increased confidence means more enjoyable boating."

Jay Lawry, tutor at the NZ Maritime Restoration School, who organised the challenge with Terry Dunn from Great Escape Charters at Opua, was also a tad unimpressed.

"The yacht that missed the first two attempts to get their man aboard went from first place to last on that point alone. Overall we're pleased with the standard of sailing skills and knowledge the contestants demonstrated, but there is a lot of room for improvement."

The 15 questions that each of the competing yachts had to answer included a few curly ones including:
* Name four of the 10 ropes found on a sailing vessel. Most named halyards and sheets, but the judges were looking for four of these: bell rope, bolt rope, foot rope, man rope, bull rope, back rope, guest rope, keep rope and buoy rope.
* What is a parbuckle? Only one boat got it right. The correct method of raising a cylindrical object.
* What is the overtaken vessel obliged to do? There was some confusion of this one. Maintain course and speed was the correct answer.
* What was the name of the first Pakeha-built vessel in New Zealand? The Herald, of about 70 tons, built by the missionary Henry Williams on the beach at Paihia in the 1830s.
* What time is seven bells? 0330, 0730, 11.30, 1530, 1930 and 2330. One boat answered "Run Time" but missed out on points.

The winner of the first Marlinspike Challenge was Chris Powell and his crew aboard the 38ft Herreshoff leeboard ketch Tern. They won a polished marlinspike set on a piece of kauri.

The next challenge will be on November 4. Lawry expects more starters from the Bay of Islands and Auckland.

The man overboard drill in 2006 will use live crew to give an added element of reality.