TSA safety page

                                 TOPIC AREAS
       1 - CAR
       2 - TRAILER (And infomation about NOSE WEIGHTS.)
        3 - BOAT (And information about R N L I Sea Check service.)
        4 - CREW
        5 - ROAD JOURNEY (Plus a TRAVEL CHECK LIST.)
        6 - VOYAGE     You may be interested in the web site
                                                         of the COAST GUARD'S services.

1 THE CAR

Cars, be they saloon cars, estate cars, or 4x4 cross country vehicles, all need to be serviced.
          When this is done, it is a good idea to ask the garage to examine the tow-ball mountings, looking for any signs of
          previous over-loading as well as loose bolts. Ask for confirmation of their findings in writing, as it will be the
          cheapest bit of insurance you can ever buy. If they refuse to confirm it in writing, draw your own conclusions

Check the maker's handbook for instructions on towing, which frequently suggest changes in tyre pressures, then check the tyres are at the right pressure, and are sound.
          Tyres with thin treads do not grip wet roads very well, and when there is trailer behind the car, their ability to grip
          the road will be tested more than they are ever tested during the most violent swerve.

Loading the car is not a casual activity, where success is measured by the ability to find a space for everything, and that which is left over can be put in the boat.
          Firstly, you need to know what the upper weight limit the car will accept. This can be found in the owner's handbook,
          but has to be displayed on the car's VIN plate. (VIN - Vehicle Identity Number) There is more than just the weight of
          the car on the VIN plate, as it has to also give a list of other information, most of which comes as incomprehensible
          numbers, without any explanation as to what they refer to. In some cases even the units of measurement are not given.
          However the LAW SAYS you should understand and abide by the information on the VIN plate.

LINE ONE       1,234 (Kgs even if not stated ) is the MAXIMUM WEIGHT OF THE FULLY LADEN VEHICLE
LINE TWO      1,234   (          ditto               ) is the MAX WEIGHT OF VEHICLE PLUS BRAKED TRAILER
LINE THREE 1,234   (          ditto               ) is the MAXIMUM WEIGHT ON THE FRONT AXLE
LINE FOUR    1,234   (          ditto               ) is the MAXIMUM WEIGHT ON THE REAR AXLE.
                                                                                     (Some cars allow for a higher rear axle loading when towing.)

The trailer's nose weight will bear down on the tow ball, and the tow ball is a long way behind the back
axle.
          Like a see-saw, with the back axle acting as the pivot point, the weight on the tow ball will try to lift the front of the
          car up. Loading heavy items into the boot, or back of an estate car, is only going to make matters worse. Matters
          that could end with so little weight on the the front wheels, that they will have very little grip on the road, or ability to
          control the car's direction.

         This is bad news if the trailer decides it wants to start veering from side to side, and thus attempt to start steering
         the car like the Worlds Worst Back Seat Driver. (See loading the trailer, below.)

The sensible way to load up your car is to place the heaviest items on the floor, in front of the back axle,
and then end the task with the lightest ones at the top and rear of the car.
        If things go badly wrong, a tool box left in a handy place on top of everything in the back of the car, could come flying
        forwards, and crack a front seat passenger's head open. Stowed low, like well placed ballast in a boat, the same tool
        box will be trapped by the softer and lighter things above it, and help stabilise the car.

2) THE TRAILER

Maintaining a trailer properly is a grubby and greasy job, easily put off to another day.
       The trailer lives a sad life. At home, the owner looks at the boat with admiration and pleasure, not the trailer.
       Travelling, the trailer is always behind the owner, who is more concerned that the boat is OK. Then when the boat is
        launched, the trailer is left behind as the owner uses the boat.

       There is not much to do in order to maintain a trailer properly. Certainly not enough to always justify the expense or
       inconvenience of taking the trailer to a specialist. Just a few bearings and bits like brake mechanisms that all need
       effort to get at, but if done at home, may leave doubts in the owners mind that the job has not been done properly.
       However, the specialist may be good at maintaining horse boxes, caravans and car transporters, but being inland, have
       almost no knowlege of boat trailers that get submerged in sea water. Therefore, having paid good money, you need to
       ask some searching questions before there can be peace of mind that the right lubricants have been used to protect the
       wearing parts.
              (There are only a few ' waterproof ' greases that can both protect steel bearings and operate at road speeds.
              Duckhams Keenol grease, which seems able to protect road going wheel bearings against salt water, is almost
              unknown away from the coast. Inland substitutes are probably intended for industrial applications - not trailers.)

      Even if you have no intention of doing the simple servicing yourself, acquiring a Torque Wrench for the wheel nuts is still
      a prudent course, as the alternative means of checking they are still done up properly usualy involves giving them a
      slight extra turn. Each time this is done, the nut can be progressively over-tightened, and one day the wheel studs will
      fail from metal fatigue. (This is not a threat, it's a promise. The studs will fail if over-tightened.)

      The prudent skipper will carry a jack that can lift up the trailer to allow a wheel to be changed whilst trailing. The honest
      skipper will hope that it will never be needed. Come the day it is needed, it is at risk of being an un-familar bit of kit,
      adding stress to an already stressful situation.   Using the same jack as part of the trailer's maintenance removes the
      stress, and proves that it, and the skipper, can safely lift the trailer when carrying the boat.

       Safely means that the trailer will not be at risk of tottering when the wheel is removed. Obviously, nobody in their right mind
       would rely on even the most stable jack to hold the trailer up, not whilst there was the slightest risk of it falling over
       when they were working on any of it's parts. Bricks and wood can be piled up in a stable pyramid under the axle, and
       then the jack lowered slightly to lock the pile in place. With the wheel off, the brake hubs should be easy to remove,
       and the brake assembly examined. If a big hammer is needed to get the hub off, it is better done then, rather than leave
       matters as they are. When the job has to be done, an even bigger hammer will be needed. (See comment below
       about rusty brake drums.)

       Removing the brake hub frequently reveals the bearings. If they shown sign of rust, change them and the shaft seal that
       let water get into them. Shaft seals are normaly better at stopping a fluid passing by them one way than the other, and care
       must be taken to insert the new seal the right way round, or the grease will escape and stop the brakes working.
               Outboard motors have two seals on the prop-shaft, fitted back to back, so one keeps the oil in the gearbox,
               and the other keeps water out of the gearbox. Unfortunately, trailer hubs with space for two seals are not readily
               available, perhaps because boat trailers are such a small part of the general trailer and caravan market.

       Re-assembly, with the aid of a torque wrench, provides the peace of mind that nothing will come loose during the road
       journey. Disposable gloves help during such a routine check.

       Some people, those with trailers that need to be submerged into the water in order to float the trailer off, argue that the
       shaft seal should be put in 'backwards' This, they claim will keep water out during launching and recovery, which is
       more important than keeping grease in, as the grease is constantly thrown away from the seal by centrifugal force.

       (Outboard motors have two seals on the prop shaft. One keeps the oil in the gear box, the other keeps water out of it.)

.All brakes function by pressing a high friction material against a moving iron surface.
       The iron surface gets highly polished as a result.
       Everybody has heard their car's brakes make a grinding noise when first used after an over-night weather change, from
       very cold to warm and damp. This is caused by water condensing on the polished iron surface of the brakes, which
       being a bare surface, has no protection from the water, and immediately begin to rust. The layer of rust is very thin,
       and wears away within moments of first applying the car's brakes.

       Trailer brake drums also rust.

       Only they do not get used the following day, and can be left for weeks whilst the rust layer thickens. If the trailer was
       parked with the hand-brake applied, the rust layer can easily lock the brake hub to the brake shoe, and the wheel will
       refuse to rotate. Reversing may help release the grip, if there is an auto-reverse mechanism, but wheels that refuse to
       turn can be very bad news, and it tends to be a poor start to a holiday, if the boat's trailer refuses to travel anywhere.

       The prudent skipper has wheel chocks that get used during launching, and knows that it is better to use them, rather
       than the hand-brake, when parking the trailer for any period of time.

        If the brake drums have been exposed to salt water, washing them out with fresh water is a prudent idea. As is towing
        the trailer for a short distance with the hand brake applied. Water is a form of lubricant, and the brakes will not work
        very well as a result. When the water starts to evaporate, the iron drums warm up, and the warmth in the iron helps
        to dry off the clean water, before rust can start developing whilst the trailer is parked.

LOADING THE TRAILER

A boat trailer, or any trailer for that matter, has to be properly 'balanced' in order to be stable.
      There is a concept that the nose-weight, meaning the weight of the tow hitch resting on the tow ball should be no less
      than 5% and no more than 7.5% of the trailer's total weight. (The nose weight is discovered with the aid of bathroom
      scales placed under the jockey wheel, with the tow hitch at the same height as if it was resting on the tow ball.)

      A LACK OF ADEQUATE NOSE WEIGHT IS THE MOST PROBABLE CAUSE OF TRAILER INSTABILITY, and the
      second most probable cause is speed. Think of how badly balanced wheels on a car can be OK up to a certain speed,
      then suddenly start shaking badly. Applying the brakes when the steering vibrates in a car is a satisfactory response,
      but is one that would be far from satisfactory if there is a trailer swinging out of control behind a car, as braking then makes
      matters worse. Braking hard will probably result in the trailer trying to over-take the car. The only answer is to slow
      down slowly. It is a myth that by accelerating, one can steady the trailer again. It might work if you have a 500 HP
      engine in your car, but if you do have so much power, I'll stand well clear as I watch whilst you perform the experiment.

      The VIN plate tells you the maximum weight of a trailer fitted with brakes that the car can get moving away from rest
      when setting off up a 12% incline. This is not the LEGAL MAXIMUM WEIGHT - JUST A STATEMENT OF THE STRENGTH
      OF THE VEHICLE AND IT'S COMPONENT PARTS. The car maker's hand-book tells you the maximum weight of
      un-braked trailer that it can tow, which may well be a lot less than the legal maximum of 750 kgs.

      There is the concept that, when the trailer exceeds 85% of the tractor's weight, extreme caution is needed in order to
      assure a trouble free journey. (See also details about driving licences on the NEW TO TRAIL-SAILING page.)

      These thoughts will be in the mind of the prudent skipper when it comes to loading the trailer. As will the concept
      developed by the skippers of racing boats, who go to great lengths to keep weight out of the ends of their boats.

      TWIN AXLE TRAILERS are more difficult to balance, but tend to be more stable when towed.
      The need for adequate nose weight remains important, but is not so easy to measure.

      This is because, when the rear of the car sinks under the weight, the leading axle of the trailer resists the sinking of the
      trailer's nose. Perhaps one way of knowing the nose weight is correct is to use the car's suspension as a form of
      spring balance. If you are looking for, say 63 kgs of nose weight, ask somebody who weighs 10 Stone to stand on the
      tow ball. Then measure how much it sank under the person's weight. Loading the double axle trailer to obtain the
      same amount of sinking means the nose weight is 63 kgs. Making a note of how far the tow ball sank provides a simple
      way to check when your 10 stone friend is not available.

      In practice, few people bother with such details. Twin axle trailers carry heavy boats, and heavy boats mean
      specialised 4x4 towing vehicles with heavy duty suspensions. Provided that there is enough nose weight to need the
      jockey wheel to raise the hitch, people seem satisfied, as too much nose weight is much better than having too little.

RETURN TO TOPIC INDEX

3 THE BOAT

It has been said that Neptune treats a smartly turned-out boat with more kindness, than one he can see
with a grubby hull.
          The truth behind this sort of comment is that the boat with a brilliantlly polished hull, is nearly always also the boat
          which has seen the best of maintenance care. Hull polishing is one of the lower priority items on any Jobs List.

         There are endless articles in Yachting Magazines about how to care for, and maintain a sailing boat. The bottom line
         of all the advice is that if an item of kit is carried on the boat, it should work properly. A trail-sail boat, moored at
         home with all the resouces of home immediately available, is the easiest to maintain. Simply working on the boat
         can provide the satisfaction of doing something 'boaty' when the weather stimulates the urge. It is not as good as
         going sailing with the boat, but does at least provide a good reason to be on board.

         There is no space here to even start looking at how to maintain a boat. This web site can not compete with Yachting
         Magazines access to detailed information and clever graphics.

         Spare parts, such as shackles, nuts & bolts needed to convert from trail to sail, fuses and other replaceable items
         should be carried as a matter of course. (Things that can go 'plop' over the side, always do so at inconvenient times.)

A few thoughts about the colour of a boat.
        Many boats are painted white and blue, naturaly pleasant colours. If a boat gets into difficulty because of the press of
        the weather, and needs to call the Coastguard for help, somebody will be sent to find the boat, and render assitance.
        The searchers will be looking for the pleasantly coloured boat amongst white horses and blue water.
        What colour is the boat they are looking for ?

        Come the day you hope will never arrive, do the Coastguard know what your boat looks like ? You can tell them
        today, using the CG66 scheme, where you fill in boxes of information about your boat. The information sits in a
        computer, and no matter where you are, if you tell them you have filled in a CG66, they will know what to tell the
        searchers.

LINK TO COAST GUARD WEB SITE

RNLI SEA CHECK SCHEME

The RNLI Sea Check scheme is aimed at all users of the sea - including an active interest in trail-sail boats which are kept in places far from the sea. This is a large number of boats, but there is a logic to the scheme, based on the fact that call-outs are expensive, urgent, and at times, quite dangerous. Sea Checks are much cheaper, and leisurely enough to be done at any convenient time, yet statistically are a more effective way of reducing the number of lives in peril on the sea. (Which is better than the Coastguard CG66 forms mentioned above, as they only get used when somebody is already in peril on the sea.)

A visit from a Sea Check volunteer involves working down a 'check list' of items carried on board, at the end of which your boat gets a small sticker stating it's category of pass - a gold sticker means an exceptionaly well equiped boat ! Many boats, not just trail-sail boats, carry Gold Award items, yet lack others on the Basic List, which only goes to show that, when spending their money, different people have different priorities.They also have different ambitions. In real life, sailing does not seem to attract the duffers of this world.

If you know that your boat lacks an item on the 'check list', the lack does not mean that you will be wasting anybody's time by asking for a Sea Check. Quite the reverse in fact, because when you use the boat at the moment, being a prudent sort of soul, you allow for the lack of kit. The real problems arise when you get caught in a situation where you have not made any allowance for the lack of something else. Something you have not thought about. The 'check list' is only a tool to help you and the Sea Checker remember to look at everything on board. It is easy to over-look something whilst having a friendly and sociable chat with somebody who has the same interests and attitudes as you. It is the lack of an item that you do not make allowance for, that puts you at greater risk of becoming a negative statistic.

The RNLI does not perform some sort of maritime MOT on your boat, where the lack of any item sees a demand that you must not use the boat until the deficiency is fixed. Such an approach is employed in other countries, and simply does not work as well as the British system of basing safety on education rather than legislation. (For example, in France some life-rafts are padlocked to the boat's deck to prevent theft. Their Laws require the paper-work on the life-raft to be up to date, if the boat is to be considered 'safe' to go a certain distance from the coast without it's owner being fined,. No French Official checks that the padlock's key is on the boat each time it puts to sea, or even if the padlock has not rusted solid ! If the life-raft is preasent, and the paper-work correct, the heading gets an official 'tick' on the list of items needed.)

After the visit, you will be asked to report on it's value to you, and how you felt about the Sea Checker. The constant feed-back lets the RNLI improve the whole Sea Check process.

Hopefully, after reading this section, you will want to know more about arranging a Sea Check.
If so, simply click on

LINK TO THE RNLI SEA CHECK WEB SITE.

IIf you are interested in finding out more about the sort of extra items of kit that are carried on board a serious Trail-Sail boat, there is a list on the page EQUIPMENT CARRIED You might find it interesting to think about the items that were not carried, as everything has to be paid for.

4 THE CREW

The crew are the most important bit of kit on a boat. A good crew sets off fit for the expected voyage, and remains fit during the voyage.
           Even if none of them have ever shown signs of sea-sickness, it is a good idea to carry a packet of suitable pills.
           (Try them out on a nice day first, to make sure that there is no adverse reaction, such as making you too sleepy
           to make good decisions. A natural desire for sleep, because of not having had a proper amount of sleep, is another
           cause of poor judgement, although it is much harder to fall asleep holding a boat's steering stick than it is when
           holding a car's steering wheel. Even so, it can be done for long enough to gybe the boat accidentaly!)

The sun is lethal to an un-prepared crew. The most biggest danger is heat, and not being to escape from getting over-heated.
           Soft drinks are important at such times, as drinks like beer with alcohol in them do not re-hydrate the body
           efficiently. The alcohol in a single bottle or can of beer may not affect your judgement, but it will make you sleepy on
           a hot day - see comment on sea sickness pills above.

The less obvious danger is the ultra-Violet light radiation that hits the crew from three directions as soon as they put to sea.
          The strongest uV comes directly from the sun, but more gets reflected from the sails whose curve can act as a
          lense, focusing the reflection on the crew. Yet more is scattered off the surface of the sea. Liberal applications of
          anti-sunburn lotions prevent sun-burn and subsequent skin cancer. The backs of hands, ears and noses need the
          most protection. A hat with a good peak protects the head. Thin shirts on hot sunny days are prudent.

Cold ruins crew efficiency, the enjoyment of a voyage, and in the extreme, the ability to make rational decisions. Carrying some warm clothes, even if they are not used, is prudent.
          The sun does not heat air directly. If it did, no warmth would reach the ground. A hot day on the land is due to the
          air being heated by contact with surfaces that have absorbed the sun's heat. Surfaces that are also radiating their
          heat at you. As the air leaves the land, it rapidly cools down as it passes over cold water, and there are no buildings
          to radiate their heat at you. All of which gives rise to the phrase "It's always cooler on the water !"

Most heat is lost through head, so wearing a hat makes sense.
         The Breton style hats work well, as they are padded, which makes up for the loss of home-grown insulating hair.
         A good application of a tent sealing spray, such as Fabrisil, renders them water-proof yet free to 'breathe'. A hat
         that is slightly on the small side may look naff, but remains in place. (Neptune does not have any Style Police. His
         examiners are more interested in the functional weaknesses of the boat and crew.)

        Part-leather sailing gloves, with the index finger and thumb exposed are expensive, but value for money in that when
        dirty, can be washed and then soften again rapidly with wear. The hand holding the tiller is constantly exposed to
        cooling wind, yet blood flowing to the fingers is restricted by the grip on the tiller, and white-finger can rapidly develop.

        Wind removes heat from the body very efficiently, and cockpit dodgers are a great help in keeping it out of the
        cockpit, along with rain and spray. A dodger can be so effective on some points of sailing, that bare feet can be warm,
        whilst shoulders need the help of a furry jacket to avoid being chilled.

        A spray hood over the companion-way is perhaps better value for money than electronic gadgets such as GPS, as it
        provides a good lee to shelter behind. Charts can be stuffed under it without risk of blowing away, and wet shoes can
        dry out under it over-night. Clearly, a spray hood can not be left in position on the boat whilst trailing, but the time
        spent messing about putting it on and taking it off is amply rewarded. Anchored, with bows to the wind, the cockpit
        suddenly becomes a lot warmer place to sit in. Even in a marina, where mooring with the bows pointing into the wind
        may be dificult, a spray hood will help for as long as the wind is forward of the beam. It also gives privacy - important
        on a small boat.

INSTANT ENERGY
        It is not always practical to empty a Thermos flask filled with hot liquid when the going gets cold and rough, and the
        crew needs warming up. A Mars Bar, or similar source of sugar that can be enjoyably consumed, will provide the
        'instant energy' needed to help warm a cold and hungry crew.

        If it can be found where you live, KENDAL MINT CAKE, is even better to carry on any boat, big or small, as not only
        does it provide sugar in an instantly absorbable form, but it is also very good at settling an un-happy stomach.
                    (Kendal Mint Cake is produced by a small number of companies in the Lake District, and is sold in packets
                    that lack the gaudy 'shelf appeal' of other sweets. Most of the packaging seems to be covered with
                    certificates, listing important mountaineering expeditions that relied on the product to keep the climbers
                    going in sub-zero conditions. More importantly, it does not go 'off ' when carried on a small boat.)
       If you see Kendal Mint Cake offered for sale, complete with it's uninspiring packaging, have no hesitation in buying
       a couple of slabs, as you can be certain that the day will come when you are glad you had the foresight to carry it on
       your boat. (It is not sold as such, but it is reported to be a good cure for hang-overs as well, so could be beneficialy
       consumed in the winter, if you were lucky enough not to get cold in the summer.)

RETURN TO TOPIC INDEX

5 ROAD JOURNEY

REMEMBER -
Braking whilst moving fast down hill, and going round a bend is the best
formula for inviting the trailer to over-take the car.
Or if not over-take the car, start the trailer swaying or 'snaking' behind the car,
making steering impossible to control. At best, it is a very frightening experience,
and at it's worst,you can only hope that your next of kin will arrange a good funeral for you.

.
Extra time needed.
The maximum speed at which you can tow any trailer is 60 mph. This suggests
that the journey to the launcing site can be done in much the same time as doing
70 mph to get there. WRONG. Unless you are towing a light dinghy, and even that
should demand extra care, towing a large boat requires a lot of concentration.
There must be a bigger gap than normal between your car and the vehicle in front,
because breaking hard is an invitation to loose control of the car and trailer.

The little table shows how the amount of energy that the brakes have to deal with
increases dramatically once speed rises above 50 mph. The same numbers could
represent the power of the car and trailer to smash their way through a solid object,
and no car has crumple zones able to protect the passengers if it is being shoved
into the solid object by a heavy trailer !

PLAN ON GOING SLOWER, and also plan on having several stops. Not because
you expect to get tired, but because the human brain is not a computer, able to
concentrate on one muliti-element task for long periods of time. It is inevitable that
concentration will lapse, so allow for this human effect, and stop for a few minutes.
.
Pause to check tyre, brake and bearing temperatures.
Trailers have wheel bearings that get exposed to water in a way that ordinary car
wheel bearings never experience. (It's even worse if the trailer has to be submerged
to float the boat off on onto the trailer.) Rusty bearings get hot, and if the
lubrication film fails due to the heat, the resultant rapid failure is described by
Engineers as 'Catastrophic Wear'.

Under inflated tyres get hot, and hot tyres are not reliable tyres.

Brakes can bind slightly, and the brake drums heat up. This heat is transferred to
the bearings, and can wreck the best of greases. It also wrecks the performance of
the breaks as a means of stopping.

Fatigue and Deep Vein Thrombosis
When people are tired, they make mistakes, and can even fall asleep whilst driving.
Deep Vein Thrombosis is a medical condition that kills passengers with cheap air-
line tickets, because they are forced to sit for several hours without moving. (Just
as the driver of a car moving steadily down the motorway sits motionless whilst the
passengers shuffle about.) In both cases, blood flow to the lower limbs can be
restricted, and in a healthy person, static blood forms a clot. When the person
does move, the clot becomes free to be pushed up the legs, and either reaches the
heart or more probably, the tiny blood vessels in the brain. This causes what is
known as a 'stroke', which can leave a person dead, or disabled.

Pausing to walk round to check the trailer and load is a good way of avoiding deep
vein throbosis, wakens the tired mind, and builds up a picture of what is 'normal'
when feeling how hot the trailer and car's wheel etc are getting. However, it also
adds to journey times.

Heavy traffic
Crawling along in heavy traffic is good for neither the car's cooling system, nor the
driver's peace of mind. Leaving a sensible space between one's own car, and the
vehicle in front, is an invitation for incompetent ~~arseholes~~ to swerve into it. The
best way of dealing with such bad driving is to consider it to be an indication that
you have got your positioning more or less about right. If there is no space for an
~~arsehole~~ to suddenly occupy, you are probably too close to the vehicle in front.

Watching the speed, and self imposed speed limits.
People with shiny buttons tend to dislike people who exceed speed limits, and
having stopped the offender, will naturaly look for anything else they can find
objectionable. A self imposed speed limit, below that of the maximum allowable,
tends to give the owners of shiny buttons the opinion that the driver with a boat
trailer is probably got a safe trailer, and is thus not worth stopping.

Passing lorries and side blasts of air.
The effect of large vehicles passing can be disconcerting. The best answer is to be
constantly aware of what is about to overtake you, and then avoid the temptation to
'fight' the effect. Road positioning, chosen before the large vehicle reaches the
transom on the boat, and affects your serene progress, is the best defence.

6 THE VOYAGE

The whole trip may start with a road map, and continue with a chart bought after launching..

Whilst the tides determine the advisability of all voyages, the prudent skipper only ever starts a voyage after a check on the weather.
          Tides, like taxes and excessive marina charges are predictable. The weather is far from predictable. Given the right
          weather, people have paddled across the English Channel to France in bath tubs. Had the weather changed for the
          worse mid-Channel, the outcome would not be quite so humerous !

          There is a new requirement under the SOLAS V regulations that all craft carry a passage plan and that it's skipper can
          demonstrate that all aspects of completing the voyage safely have been properly considered. Carrying a 'tick list' that
          can be filled in prior to departure can meet most of the SOLAS V requirements, and more can be met if the weather
          forecast is written down on the tick list, along with a note of the source and the time it was issued.

It is because the weather is so important to all small boats, that Trail Sailing is better than marina based sailing, as the trail-sail boat can always be taken to the best weather. Having said that, things can change fast, and yesterday's promise of fine weather can turn into today's strong wind. Strong winds bring big waves. Big waves bring big trouble to small boats

Charts and navigation
This heading could be expanded into two years of Night School courses. The RYA run such courses, and it is a fact that in Britain, where attending such courses is entirely voluntary, the number of accidents is significantly less that countries where it is a statutory requirement to pass exams before puting to sea. If you have read this far down the page, then you will be the sort of person who is interested in learning more.

Also, if you have reached this point,
there is a fair degree of certainty that you not a duffer, only fit for being drowned.

The TSA is an affiliated member of the Royal Yachting Association.