Australian Sailing has issued two amendments to the Special Regulations. One regarding the Safety and Sea Survival qualification and the other for medical kits.

Inline with the World Sailing amendment to the Offshore Special Regulations, Australian Sailing has amended the Special Regulation 6.01 to include an update to the Safety and Sea Survival (SSS) qualification.

Prior to the SSSC amendment there was no limit on the time between when a sailor’s SSS qualification expired and when they are required to complete a Refresher Course. World Sailing have put a limit on that time to two years past the qualification’s expiry. If a sailor has not completed a Refresher Course in the two-year period since their qualification expired, they will now be required to undertake a full course again.

The medical kit amendment will transition boats over almost four years from the classical format used to date with different kit contents for each race category, to one designed to be simple and modular. The four year lead time allows boat owners to time-out existing medications rather than have to buy new ones immediately. The new medical kit has four modules, so that as the race duration increases, additional medical kit modules are added.

The modules are:

• Inshore Kit
• Coastal Kit 1
• Coastal Kit 2
• Offshore Kit

Race committees will choose which kit is required for their races which shall be specified in the notice of race.

Boat owners, race committees and equipment auditors may have many questions. Australian Sailing has endeavoured to help by providing responses to frequently asked questions in a Safety Information Notice here.

Associate Professor David Austin and Will Oxley must be credited for the changes to the medical kit. Associate Professor David Austin has developed the modular medical kit after sailing for 58 years, working as a doctor in an outdoor environment for many years, including 40,000 ocean miles. He has trained as a dual specialist – both an Intensive Care Specialist and an Anaesthetist. Will Oxley is an extremely highly regarded professional yachtsman with 350,000 ocean miles and five “Around the world races” included in his CV. Australian Sailing would like to thank each for their work on this important reform.

The amendments to the Special Regulation can be found here.
Click here to read the FAQ for the medical kit.
The Special Regulations are on the Safety Hub.

By Glen Stanaway