Water Safety: How to Avoid Capsizing

Well here's another fine mess I've got myself into!

Keep Your Boat From Capsizing

Most boating accidents and injuries in the United States happen because someone's boat capsizes. In fact, capsizing is the number one cause of boating injuries in the summer. It's June and people all over the nation are hitting the water in small boats. People simply over-speed, over-control, overload and over-estimate their skills.  

For some reason when people get around water, especially in the summer, their brains take a kind of holiday from thinking. Perhaps it's because no one is wearing much in the way of clothing. I don't know, but this chronic lack of thinking can lead to tragedy.  Capsizing is the most common sort of tragedy. You see guys out in little fishing boats standing up with a load of fishing gear, maybe wearing waders and a jacket in cooler weather. You see them lumbering around in their boats and then later, when you pass the spot again there are game wardens, cops and county divers searching the water. When they finally do drag them up off the bottom, they always look surprised!

There are some simple common sense rules that will help you prevent your boat from capsizing. If your boat is in danger of capsizing, you need to be prepared in advance to do some quick thinking and even quicker acting. You need a cool head and a thorough understanding of the physics of watercraft. You need to understand buoyancy and balance and the elements of how a boat floats.

Preventing your boat from capsizing happens before you even take your boat out on the water. I know most of us slept through physics class in high school, but boats, whether we like it or not, obey the laws of physics. We may disobey the fish and game laws, but boats obey those physical laws to the letter. It's critical that you understand the basic principles of the physics of small boats and even more crucial that you practice what to do in an emergency in advance.

There are four basic threats that cause boats to capsize. You need to react to them quickly to prevent turning your boat over:

Excessive speed, too little experience.

1. Overloading - There are two ways to overload your boat. One is by exceeding the weight limit of the boat. Usually, for commercially purchased boats, there's a metal plate on it somewhere that tells you how much weight the boat can carry. They're serious about that.  But total weight is only part of the threat. If you set the weight in the boat too high, you can also overbalance your boat.  Get any weight you are carrying down and centered in the boat. It doesn't matter if you’re in a yacht, a canoe, sailboat, or motorboat, weight that is being carried too high in the boat is most likely to be the cause of your boat capsizing. Especially in rough seas and high winds, get any loose weight in the boat as low as you can, especially if you are in a small boat or canoe. If things get lively have your passengers sit on the floor with their knees low and the weight centered. You don't want all the weight shifting, so tie down any loose heavy object as close to the bottom and center as you can. Fishermen should get down off those tall fishing chairs in a high wind, especially if you're moving the boat. If the boat rocks excessively, sit flat on the bottom of the boat. If you can lower your boat's center of gravity, it makes it much more difficult to capsize.
2. Excessive speed - Going too fast will kill you quick. If you've ever done a belly flop off the high dive, you know how hard the water feels if you hit it at speed. It can knock the wind out of you and even knock you unconscious. When you are turning or maneuvering or trying to move in a sudden wind, slow Down! Taking off a little speed reduces your chances of capsizing significantly. If you get caught in a sudden squall and heavy waves, don't push it. Maintain enough speed to keep your bows pointed into the waves, but resist the urge to try and jump out of the water. The wind can flip you while you're airborne, given the aerodynamic shape of the hull of a powerboat. In high waves, you want to head roughly into the wind to find shelter. If you move sideways to the wind, the waves can push your boat sideways and cause it to heel over. If you run a gunwale under the water, a sudden high wave can flip you over in a heartbeat. If you're in a sailboat, pay out the mainsheet and allow the sails to spill wind. Pull in the sails just enough to maintain headway, but not enough that the wind can flip you. In very high winds, you may need to drop the mainsail and proceed on your jib if you have one. If you're an accomplished sailor, you may be able to make your way downwind under bare poles if you're good with the tiller.  In any case, reduce sail enough to take the pressure off the sail. You can lower the sail halfway down and tie the loose sail to the mast with bungees and reduce your speed that way. In any case, you need to get to safety, so don’t stop moving. Watch your speed. Keep it down to where you can react fast enough to prevent the boat turning over, but are continually moving toward safe harbor.
3. Striking an object - The secret to avoiding striking an object is first and foremost, watching where you are going. People get out on the water and thing that because there aren't any trees around, that they can watch the girls in the bikinis in the back of the boat and only have to look ahead once in a while.  Tain't necessarily so. Floating debris can pop up in the blink of an eye. Fallen trees can find their way into your path and they may barely show above water. Lakes often have whole sections where tree stumps left from submerged wooded areas still stick up below the surface.  Know where you are going and if you're not sure how safe an area is, slow down.  Save the speed for when you are in the old river channel or in open sea where there aren't any sandbars. Most such areas are marked on charts of lakes and seashores, but things can change, so don't bet your life. There's a sandbar shallows out in the South Pacific that isn't near an island and doesn't stick up. A ship captain paying attention might spot the rollers over the spot, but they do miss it. The place is a ship's graveyard going back 300 years. It looked like clear seas and then suddenly the ships ran aground.  That can happen in almost any body of water. It's better to be careful till you learn the water, than to get cocky and wind up with a hole in your boat and yourself sailing over the windshield landing headfirst into a stump.
4. Wind and waves -  Weather has a nasty way of biting you on your nether regions when you least expect it. Check the weather before you go out on the water - always! You have no excuse these days. Smart phones can pull up weather forecasts, complete with radar so you can see storms rolling in before they even cross the horizon. Stay off the water when the wind is high. Your sailboat doesn't need that much wind. Your canoe will get blown away and your power boat can be flipped in the chop. If bad weather approaches, get off the lake. Getting cocky can get you drowned. Worse it can get the people in the boat with you drowned.

 

Even the dog needs a lifejacket!

PRECAUTIONS:
You need some things in your boat before you go out.  First of all you need enough lifejackets for everyone. People who can't swim should wear them. If you're hot-rodding around at speed, everyone needs to wear one. If you're thrown out of the boat and knocked silly without one, you can drown in a very short time.  Your life jackets should have tags showing they are Coast Guard approved personal flotation devices. The game warden or Coast Guard will check. Everyone needs at least a Type II PFD.

You need something to bail with.  Don't go out unless you have something with which you can quickly bail out your boat. A couple of old gallon bleach bottles with the bottoms cut out make great bailers. They have handles and you can secure them in the boat under a seat. Be sure to tie them to something with a long enough rope that you can bail without having to untie them. It helps in a hurry. Tie them with a bowline knot so they won't jam when wet in case you do need to untie them quickly.

Secure any loose objects in the boat. A supply of bungee cords is useful for doing that. Having coolers and tackle boxes sliding around the boat can overbalance you suddenly if you're leaning over the side or reeling in a heavy fish and next thing you know you're over the side or lying across the gunwale with water pouring in.

Keep the boat bailed out.  Water sloshing around in the boat is very heavy and the shifting weight of all that H2O can swamp you in a big hurry.  If you start taking on water, Every free hand needs to join in and bail.  Make sure everyone is throwing water over the side. In a panic, I've seen people scoop up water from the front of the boat and pitch it over their shoulder into the back of the boat. While it might feel good to be moving that much water, it's probably not helping much if it's still in the boat.  When your crew is bailing water, make sure they stay low in the boat while they are doing it. People sometimes get excited when water is coming into the boat and try to stand up in the boat. If there's a lot of water sloshing around in the bottom of the boat, standing up can lead to disaster. Always bail water from a kneeling or sitting position if at all possible.

If you’ve struck something and knocked a hole in your boat, you want to close the hole as quickly as you can.  A rag or shirt stuffed into the hole can slow the leak enough so that combined with bailing by the crew, you can make it to safety.

Head for cover as quickly as you can while maintaining a safe speed. Try to spot a sheltered cove or bay, especially if you are facing high winds and heavy seas. In a sudden squall, you'll have to crab your way toward where you want to go, keeping the bow of the boat into the wind and waves while slipping sideways in the troughs to prevent the waves from capsizing you. Angle our way across the fronts of waves turning your bow into the wave as you crest the wave. As you come down the backside you'll angle in the direction you want to go, then turn again into the wave as you rise back up on the next wave. This requires some skill at steering, but you should have already practiced your steering before you ever go out, especially with passengers. Always familiarize yourself with the how your boat responds to the tiller. If you're in a canoe, know how to steer with efficient paddle strokes. Do your practicing in calm weather in a sheltered place before you venture out into waters that can suddenly become choppy or into strong currents.

DON'T PANIC as the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy recommends in big friendly letters on the cover. If you know your boat and you've practiced with it and take the precautions we've suggested above, you should be okay. The two deadliest things, that will kill you out on the water, are arrogance and ignorance.  Be smart and be skilled and know your boat.

Have fun out there on the blue water!

© 2017 by Tom King

References:

Andrew Kim Law Firm: Common Causes of Capsizing Boats

http://www.wainjurylaw.com/library/common-causes-of-capsizing-boats-preventing-boat-capsizing.cfm

The Bass Report; Preventing Capsizing

http://bassreport.com/forum/rec.boats.t1069567.htm

The Florida Course – Boater Education: Boating Emergencies - What to Do

http://www.boat-ed.com/fl/course/p5-2_boatingaccidents_ada.htm

Should We All Become Entrepreneurs?

Changing the Way We Do Online Job Hunting:

I represent two sectors that online jobsites tend to ignore.  When I look through the list of "industries" on job sites in order to choose my particular industry, I find that there are often two industries that tend to get left out.  One is freelance commercial writing and independent publishing. It's a category that most people don't think of as a thing. The other industry is Nonprofits.


I've worked for 40 years in the education and nonprofit sector, leading teams or as a part of teams for five successful organization startups and one reorganization. I've written grants, run programs, was CEO, public relations director, development officer, educator, and program director for more than 40 years. I've been working as a consultant and freelancer for 11 of those years now.  I've taught workshops on special event fund-raising and collaborative grant-writing. I was appointed to state advisory committees and organized successful local stakeholder initiatives. I've raised millions for a wide variety of small to medium-sized nonprofits. I'm a published author with five books to my name, three dozen ghost-written books in someone else's name and more than 2000 online and traditionally published articles. I publish articles on 8 weblogs.

The trouble is that there really isn't an industry listing on most job sites for what I do.  There is an untapped market out there for workers whose skills don't show up on most job searches. Thousands of new and existing nonprofits are out there, for instance, desperately trying to address some community need or other. They have a mission. They have a vision. They know what they want to do. The problem is these groups are usually long on program operating talent and way short on development and fund-raising skills.  This is where I see the Internet coming into play.

What these startups and expanding nonprofits need is access to development and fund-raising expertise that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. There are a lot of "professional" grant writers out there that will happily charge you that arm and a leg to tell you what to do. Once you pay them, they tell you what you should do without actually helping you do it. Most small organizations can't afford people like that. Sadly many of them promise things they cannot deliver and charge prices the groups cannot afford.

What there is a need for, is a mutual cooperation network of nonprofit professionals who are willing to provide expertise to the smaller nonprofits when they need it the most. Many of us who work in the nonprofit sector are willing to work part time or on a consulting basis for reasonable fees. The don't call them nonprofits for nothing and NPO staff often have to supplement their income to continue doing what they love. I've raised millions for new organizations, often without pay, while working for other organizations. I did it mostly because the organizations I helped had no idea how much time and energy it costs to write a grant and me, being an old softie, couldn't bear to see them fail because what they were doing was such a good thing. This is how you retire without a pension in the nonprofit biz.


We need some kind of broker agency that is willing to communicate directly with both service providers and with clients about what they can rightfully expect from those providing services. Potential employers need to be educated with regard to how to insure they receive professional quality service from those they hire and what they can legitimately expect. This approach should carry with it an expectation that the moonlighting entrepreneurs will already have a level of expertise in what services or products they are offering and that they will bring that expertise with them.

The freelance commercial writing/independent publishing sector is another "industry" that gets short shrift on online job sites. Publish is changing drastically as publishers become more risk averse and less willing to try new things or publish new authors. A small independent author who gets how to do marketing can independently publish a book for relatively low cost with the aid of eBook technology and the new print-on-demand publishers. Unlike major publishing houses, these indie author/publishers have virtually no overhead, no permanent staff and can return to themselves as authors, royalties on their work five to 10 times higher than they can get with traditional publishers. The author retains control of his work, can reintroduce work from his backlist at will, and, so long as he's listed on sites like Barnes & Noble, Amazon, I-Tunes and others, will receive ongoing revenue that doesn't end when a publisher runs out of printed copies.  An author can sell five or ten thousand books and make a tidy profit, where in traditional publishing, such a book would be considered a flop and the author would receive little or nothing.

We need a jobsite willing to develop a way to broker publishing skills like book design, writing, graphic art, marketing and editing that would put together teams to publish a book the group likes and believes in. Such a collaborative approach would allow team members to either be paid up front by the author or if they think the book will be the next "Harry Potter", can share a percentage of future royalties. Each book project would be like an indie movie project in which the actors, crew, director and producers come together, create the film and then disband and move on to something else. The only difference is the end product would be a book.

I think there is a need for collaborative tools for these and potentially other industries that can use teams of independent players to accomplish specific jobs without burdening down the members of the team with the salaries and overhead of a permanent business.  I've used this approach to collaborative grant-writing and helped create funding streams for dozens of small nonprofits.  Instead of competing against one another for the whole grant and likely getting nothing, these teams of organizations work together collaboratively and because they do they increase the likelihood that they will actually win the grant. For training in how to do this, contact "A Circle of Ten", an East Texas group that teaches collaborative grant writing and program development.

I read a piece in Forbes  the other day that posits that to survive in today's economy, we're all going to have to be entrepreneurs.  In order to accomplish that, we will need tools that help entrepreneurs to collaborate. I think the industry that spawned jobs.com and monster.com needs to take a step beyond mere employment and take a hard look at work as something you create rather something you merely find.

As a baby boomer, I've discovered that for me about the only way to find a job is to create one. Employers take one look at my white hair and you can see them mentally calculating the cost of my health insurance. My situation is tougher than some, as I have to work from home because of a disability in my family and I have to stay close to the house. The thing is that, with computer technology, the Internet and a changing cultural definitions of work, people no longer have to spend two hours a day commuting to sit all day in a cubicle. My commute is a walk across my living room to the rolltop desk in the corner. I don't have to start up my car. I just put on my socks. Saves energy. It's safer and a lot more pleasant as far as my commute goes. It's true I'm a tough boss. I work longer hours and a lot harder for me than I ever would for a "boss".  I have a direct relationship with my clients and nobody to blame but myself if anything goes wrong.

I wonder whether a model similar to what Uber does where clients rate those they hire and people hired also rate their clients might be the jobs model of the future. Perhaps there should be a "partner" model rather than just a client/provider model. And what about multiple partners.  If a neutral player could facilitate the financial aspects of such temporary team partnerships for a reasonable fee, I think you'd find a market for that. I love to write. I hate bookkeeping. If somebody would do the financials for a project and send out checks with social security and withholding taken out and a W-2 at the end of the year, I think entrepreneurs like me would rise up and call you blessed.

Heck, you could even hire moonlighting accountants as team members for such projects. Give them a model for how to manage the books with this sort of on-line broker acting to insure nobody gets embezzled. It could be another way to monetize such a jobs brokerage and the members who provide services would actually get something in exchange for the 10% or whatever that one would charge for handling the bookkeeping.  Upwork takes 20% and I get nothing much for it. They're just another organization taxing me is what it feels like.

At any rate, I'd love to see somebody in the field of entrepreneurial employment do some of these things. Who knows what other industries could move away from bricks and mortar to become dominated by fast, flexible small business entrepreneurial entities. I think the times they are a' changing and this could be somebody's "Facebook" moment if they jump on it.

© 2017 by Tom King