Safety at Sea Symposium and Practical Training

Le Méridien Cambridge-MIT: A personalized website for Marion-Bermuda Safety at Sea Symposium occurring (March 18, 2011 - March 21, 2011) has been created for you.

Guests can access the site to learn more about the event and to book, modify, or cancel a reservation from January 20, 2011 to March 24, 2011.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT for Transat and Fastnet racers requiring a FULL ISAF hands-on Training session:

On Day 2 (March 20. 2011) of the Symposium weekend, we are currently offering a half day pool session which will count towards half of the ISAF personal survival training course. If you are interested in obtaining the full ISAF certificate, another half day session will be offered on April 16th. This session will be focusing on emergency communications, signaling (which will include flares and other pyrotechnics) as well as fire fighting. This 1/2 day course will be offered at Life Raft and Survival Equipment, 590 Fish Rd. Tiverton RI 02878. For more information and registration please call Dan O'Connor, Life Raft and Survival Equipment, at 401-835-3740.

Click for full-page MIT map.

This module will be presented by Dan O’Connor - a licensed and experienced instructor of Merchant Mariners. This Module will include theory review, plus hands-on, in-the-water exercises with and without personal flotation devices (PFD) and in-the-water inflation and boarding of a life raft including righting an overturned raft. Additional in-the-water drills are held with throw ropes, life slings, signal mirrors and other signaling devices. Hypothermia is described and ‘keep warm’ exercises practiced. Emergency Communications transmissions will be covered. Conducted by a USCG Certified instructor using ISAF approved curriculum.

Topics to be covered include:

• Emergency responses and seven steps to survival
• Survival Kit necessities
• Immediate and delayed onset emergencies
• Cold water survival skills
• PFD care and usage
• Boarding a life raft
• Abandon ship preparation
• Proper release, righting, and boarding survival craft
• Improving life raft stability

NOTE:

The courses will begin promptly. Participants should come a bit earlier in order to meet on the deck of the pool at the start time. You will have to check-in with the Pool Attendant to enter the pool area. Please keep in mind that MIT has a strict policy that all gear and clothing worn in the pool must be clean.

Participants should be prepared to be in and out of the pool for a full three hours. We will also ask that participants bring with them their typical sailing gear, including foul weather gear and boots, and be ready to enter the water with this equipment on. Your foul weather gear and boots affect your buoyancy in the water which needs to be understood. We also believe that any training should resemble the real situation as closely as possible. Participants should be prepared with a towel, change of clothes, and perhaps trash bags to stow their wet gear for the trip home.

We will also ask you to bring your PFD, harness, tether, and crotch straps if you have them. If you use an inflatable PFD and you do not wish to activate its CO₂ cartridge, make sure that it can be disarmed beforehand. All inflatable PFD’s can be inflated using their oral inflation tube. On a few models, it may not be possible to disarm them, and then inflate them, so please check beforehand. There will be a limited number of PFD’s available during the day of the training if you are unable to bring yours.

If anyone has any questions at all, please feel free to contact me at dan@lrse.com.

Michael Jacobs MD

Director, Annual MedSail Educational Conferences “Medicine for Mariners and Safety at Sea” 2003-present; U.S. Coast Guard licensed Captain 100 Ton; co-author of “A Comprehensive Guide To Marine Medicine,” author of chapter “Survival At Sea” in the textbook of Wilderness Medicine (past three editions). Speaker at “Safety At Sea” conferences and “Wilderness Medical Society” (WMS) conferences. Practicing physician on Martha’s Vineyard. Life long sailor with extensive ocean and coastal sailing experience. Winner of Multihull division Newport to Bermuda race aboard trimaran “Moxie.” Medical consultant to Adventure Medical Kits.

The two and one-half hour session will consist of presentations by Dr. Jacobs on topics that include sea sickness, hypothermia, dehydration, extremity injuries, head and neck injuries, surgical problems, medical conditions, the dangers of sun exposure, pain control and suggestions of appropriate medicines to have on board, followed by an open question and answer period. Handouts will be available.

• Seasickness: cause, prevention, treatment (20 minutes)
• Health Maintenance at Sea - Discussion of the “Fearsome Five:”
  Food (Energy), Fluids (Dehydration), Fahrenheit (Sun exposure, hypothermia), Fatigue (sleep deprivation, watch schedules), Fitness (Illness and injury) (45 minutes)
• Marine Medical Kits - Discussion of some essential supplies, goals of onboard care, and discussion of common medical problems. (45 minutes)
• Telemedicine - Concept of telemedicine and how to report a medical problem. (10 minutes)

Ken McKinley, Locus Weather, Camden, Maine

Ken McKinley earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Atmospheric Science from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY in 1980, and did graduate work in meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. He has owned and operated Locus Weather, based in Camden, Maine, for 20 years. A significant portion of his meteorological consulting work involves providing custom weather forecast services to ocean voyaging yachts worldwide, both racers and cruisers. He has supported clients in the Marion Bermuda Race, the Newport Bermuda Race, the Marblehead Halifax Race, the Bermuda 1-2, the Chicago-Mackinac Race, the Caribbean 1500, and the Fastnet Race as well as other local and regional races. He is also involved in meteorological training and education, serving as a USCG certified instructor at professional maritime schools in Florida and Maryland. He has taught undergraduate meteorology courses at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, ME. He has also presented several two day weather courses to recreational mariners. He has published several articles in Ocean Navigator and Ocean Voyager magazines.

Frank Bohlen, Professor of Oceanography Emeritus

Frank Bohlen is a Professor of Oceanography Emeritus in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Connecticut. For the past forty years he has been studying ocean and nearshore currents and transport using a variety of field and laboratory techniques. He is currently part of the team maintaining the Long Island Sound observatory (MYSOUND.uconn.edu). In addition to his scientific work he is an experienced ocean sailor and navigator and has sailed transatlantic four times and participated in 16 Newport Bermuda races and 10 Marblehead-Halifax Races. He received the Mixter Trophy as navigator of the winning yacht in the 1986 Newport Bermuda Race (Puritan - IMS). Since 1998 he has been presenting Gulf Stream Tutorials for the Newport Bermuda Race. Past editions of these can be obtained at Bermudarace.com.

This session will be presented by Ken McKinley, a professional meteorologist specializing in forecasting for ocean voyaging yachts, both cruising and racing, and Frank Bohlen, an oceanographer, Marine Sciences professor at the University of Connecticut, and an experienced offshore racer/cruiser and navigator.

The weather portion of the session will start with an overview of some basic meteorological concepts, then will focus on the formation and development of mid-latitude lows and their fronts, the types of wind and weather they produce, and how they affect the coastal waters of the U.S. and Canada and the western Atlantic. Information about the weather charts which are available and how they can be used will be presented, and a discussion of typical weather patterns which prevail over the waters between New England, Atlantic Canada, and Bermuda will take place.

The Gulf Stream portion will include a discussion of the factors governing the Stream, and similar warm water ocean currents, its structure and dynamics, characteristic variability in space and time, and the use of a variety of satellite data for trip planning purposes.

For portions of the session, both presenters will be working together to present information about how weather systems and warm water currents, such as the Gulf Stream, interact and the conditions that can result.

Juanita Allen Kingsley

W-EMT, Century Health Systems

The Heartsaver First Aid Course teaches you how to treat illness and injuries onboard your boat (or ashore) until professional assistance is available. This course includes First Aid, CPR and AED (Automated External Defibrillator) instruction. This course is specifically designed for those who need to be prepared in the event of a first aid situation, cardiac emergency or serious life threatening injury.

All participants completing the course will receive a certification that is good for 2 years.

Juanita Allen Kingsley is an EMT with Wilderness Certification. She is also certified as an Instructor and Instructor Trainer by the American Heart Association and trains approximately 1800 people a year in CPR/First Aid/Defibrillator Training and Wilderness First Aid. Juanita is the Director of Business Development at Century Health Systems (the parent company of the Natick Visting Nurse Association).

Note: The 2010-2011 ISAF Offshore Special Regulations section 6.05.2 requires one or two crew members (cat 2 and cat 1 races respectively) to hold a “Senior First Aid Certificate”. In the USA, this American Heart Association Heartsaver Course meets that definition.