Because it’s a Vic-Maui/Pacific Cup year, safety at sea seminars are again being held in the northwest. These seminars are required for the crew in these races and are recommended for cruisers, so spaces are limited!
The seminars are being held in both Canada and the US and are designed to provide participants with a better sense of how to react during emergencies at sea. They are unique in that they involve hands-on use of emergency equipment like life rafts and PFDs in a pool. The content of the seminars, in both the USA and Canada, is substantially identical, as one would expect in a world-wide sailing approved course. However, the US seminars usually offer hands-on use of pyrotechnics (typically impossible to arrange in Canada) and a live demonstration of a USCG helicopter dropping and retrieving a rescue swimmer.
BCA cruisers who have taken the seminar have found it a very useful confidence booster.
Seminars being are held at:
- Royal Vancouver Yacht Club
Offshore Personal Survival Course (2 day, Sail Canada – World Sailing Approved)
Saturday-Sunday, November 17-18, 2018, Vancouver, BC - The Sailing Foundation, Vancouver Washington
U.S. Sailing two-day Safety at Sea seminar (world sailing approved)
February 9-10, 2019
These seminars fill up, register early!
Currents PDFs
The Vancouver BC course sold out at the beginning of October. Another course has been added in Victoria on March 23-24, 2019; registration opens Dec 1 (https://www.vicmaui.org/sas-2day).
I did Safety at Sea two years ago. Wished I had done it sooner. Learning how to get into a life raft while in the water by practicing in a pool was one of many highlights for me.