Survival at Sea - Some classroom training
- martynmoatfarm
- Dec 20, 2025
- 2 min read
We have recently attended classroom and swimming pool training to help us survive if the worst should happen offshore. Hopefully we will have prepared the boat and planned the passages sufficiently well to avoid the possibility of a total loss of the boat, but you never know, so it’s best to be prepared, just in case.
We went on the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) Offshore Personal Survival Course run by Dorset Marine Training. The course is a comprehensive training program designed for skippers and crews, particularly those involved in offshore yacht racing. It's often a requirement for Category 0, 1, and some Category 2 races – the YM Triangle race is a Cat 3 race, but AZAB is a category 1 ocean race. The course would also be valuable for long-distance cruisers.
The course ran over two days, combining classroom theory and practical hands-on sessions, including an exciting and fun, but nevertheless very important and thought provoking pool session focused on liferaft survival. Its one thing climbing into a liferaft in a warm swimming pool, but it's a very sobering thought that it would be a very different and difficult experience in a rough sea!
Key Topics that were covered included:
Survival Techniques: Essential knowledge for staying alive in an emergency, including cold water immersion.
Safety Equipment: In-depth understanding of liferafts (including their contents, launching, and boarding), lifejackets, and other safety gear.
Man Overboard (MOB): Techniques for prevention and recovery in an offshore environment.
Damage Control: Dealing with damage, emergency repairs, and maintenance of safety equipment.
Emergency Communications: Distress alerting and the use of Survivor Location Aids for example, Emergency position-indicating radio beacons (EPIRBs), Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs), the use of flares and what to expect in the event of a helicopter rescue!
Fire Fighting: Practical fire precautions and the use of fire extinguishers.
Heavy Weather & Storm Tactics: Preparation and handling of severe weather, including the use of storm sails.
Search and Rescue (SAR): Understanding SAR organisation and methods, and procedures for giving assistance to other craft.
We had a great couple of days (including a delicious Spaghetti Bolognese on the Friday evening) and hopefully we are a little better prepared for the voyages ahead. We were very pleased to get our RYA certificates at the end of the course.
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