Every race committee has a role to play keeping competitors as safe as reasonably possible. Having an excellent risk management plan on the shelf is one thing. Having race officials, volunteers and staff who know what to do is another. Especially if there is an incident.

Clubs and classes vary on where responsibility sits. Sometimes there is a sailing manager or sailing committee, in many national or international events key race officials are parachuted in and volunteers come from far and wide. In any case, the race committee should communicate with the team running the event about the risk and incident management procedures that are in place. In certain circumstances, even conduct training and induct newcomers on the club’s safety facilities and equipment, and any procedures specific to the event or class being raced.

A good practice is to conduct a briefing specific for competitors in advance of racing so that they know what should happen in the case of an incident. And then another briefing specific for race officials, volunteers and any staff, also in advance of racing. These briefings should cover, in the least, the higher risk safety problems and how to deal with them, and what equipment or facilities relate to them. Following that up, each day the race committee should debrief on any safety problems that have happened in the preceding day’s racing.

Not everything goes to plan. But what can be seen by looking through incident reports is that clubs whose people know how to respond to emergencies and activate the incident management plan handle things far better than those whose people do not. That’s almost common sense.

Resources about risk and incident management plans are here.
Click here to do a short online induction about a clubs’ role in safety.
Incident reports can be read by clicking here.

By Glen Stanaway