Skip Novak, Ullman Sails Brand Ambassador

Safety below decks is often neglected, so here are some cruising top tips for safety below.

True, you can’t fall off the boat and be lost at sea when below, but you can seriously injure yourself.  The most common injuries, other than cuts and burns from galley operations, are from falls in big seas when the boat’s motion can become violent and unpredictable.  We have all seen it happen – people being thrown across the expanse of the main salon or pilot house without anything to grab on to or arrest a fall.

Sit on the lee side for safety below deck

The classic mistake is to perch oneself on a settee on the windward side of a pilot house or salon and promptly fall, be thrown, or slide off (always sit on the lee side if you have a choice of where you can relax your body and mind).

Open floor spaces can be hazardous

The problem though is that modern yacht design is putting more and more emphasis on bigger interior modules with more open floor space, which of course is desirable for living aboard especially when at anchor or in the marina. But offshore this feature at once becomes a potential hazard.

Use removable fixtures

Planned, or even ad hoc, mitigating measures are a necessity.  One measure that can be taken is to use removable and storable fixtures that fit into brackets in the overhead and the cabin sole (the floor of your boat) when not in use to ensure safety below. Another option is to use removable pipe work bracketed to bulkhead.  The pipes can split the cabin area in two, make it easier to move fore and aft, catch falling crew, and give sailors something to hold onto in big rolling seas.

Give your sailors something to grab onto

On ‘Pelagic Australis’ when it really gets tricky we weave a spider’s web of line from pillar to pillar to grab rails in our main salon to catch our prey.  If someone stumbles or falls this web gives our crew something to grab onto rather than seeing them fall all the way across the open space.  This array, or pipe-work fixture, must be placed at chest height, not waist height as you can capsize over the top.  At chest height it is also easier to dive under to go from port to starboard.  In addition to catching those who fall, the web has the benefit of aiding someone trying to get around below. This might not look pretty, but when it comes to safety, practical solutions take precedence over aesthetics every time.