Improving safety attitudes in dinghy fleets is something three clubs have turned their attention to.

Led by Chris Morgan in QLD, and Paul Buchholz in Victoria, the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, Royal Geelong Yacht Club and the Elwood Sailing Club are making an impact on the attitudes and culture around off the beach boats and the sailors, particularly youth, that participate in these classes. By checking boats for their safety equipment and sailors’ lifejackets, the sailors are gaining a greater understanding why this equipment is important.

Off the beach boats have been an issue for the RQYS simply because of the numbers registered to race including school boats are in excess of 300 boats. To overcome the practical difficulties of connecting over safety with this many boats the RQYS trained "Club Safety Officers" from their experienced volunteers and club coaches. They now have eight Club Safety Officers and they roam the rigging lawn and check equipment, speaking with competitors and checking out boats. Chris Morgan recognises it is a powerful start but says that they still have a lot to do.

In the case of the RGYC, it was about getting the message across to the young kids that there is a safety aspect to sailing. Paul Buchholz, a safety leader at the RGYC sought to make sure that youth understood why the safety features about their boats are important. The conversations looked at things like rudder pins, why the centreboard has a safety strop attached, buoyancy testing, and sealed masts. This process helped get the kids into a positive mindset and will transfer to other boats in the future helping a positive approach to safety become the norm.

The ESC is 8 kilometres south east of Melbourne’s city area with strong fleets of monohull and multihull off the beach boats such as 125s and Sabres, A Class and Paper Tiger catamarans. The ESC invited Paul Buchholz to come and train some of their sailors on the Special Regulations for Off the Beach Boats. The participants in the training were a mix of ages, most 50 and up. But all were still very active dinghy or catamaran sailors, with some being class representatives. To encourage a measured perspective on the day Paul hosted an ‘Open Forum’ seminar so that participants’ awareness and attitudes could be gauged. Paul said it was enlightening for all concerned as discussion covered past incidents which helped explain why the Special Regulations and clubs’ risk management procedures are in place.

This work being done by Chris, Paul and others at the clubs are helping raise awareness about safety and improve culture in the off the beach fleets.

In the immediate future, Australian Sailing is going to have a look at whether or not to regulate personal safety equipment worn on foiling off the beach classes including helmets, impact vests or other body protection. Paul observed the recent Nacra 17 events held at the RGYC and had discussions with many of the competitors on what their concerns were. Sailors reported concerns around injuries that were sustained with these foiling boats and what they do to protect themselves. Besides the ‘mundane’ capsizes or being catapulted whilst on trapeze wires, the main concern was thigh damage and laceration due to the foils on the rudders blades.

The sailors typically wore lifejackets with impact protection elements, wetsuits that had extra padding in the thigh area and helmets. The Nacra 17 website at https://nacra17.org/safety/ has information on this.