VIDEO – The safety equipment you must have in 2023

Safety equipment on a cruising boat, should be explained by the skipper at the beginning of each sailing. In the fifth video-episode of SAILING SCHOOL we see how in a short time we can show their placement inside the boat.

Mandatory safety equipment

The safety equipment to have on board, depends according to Italian regulations, on the sailing distance of the coast. The complete list is provided by the Coast Guard and you can download as a pdf
updated table of safety equipment
valid in 2023. Mandatory equipment includes:

• Life belts, also known as Lifejackets, approved, of appropriate size and weight, for each person embarked. Each lifebuoy should have a whistle, and if you are sailing at night, it is good to have an automatic light.
• Sound signaling devices
• Lifebuoy ring with rope and light buoy ready to be launched overboard.
• Smoke buoys, fireworks and flares, valid and in the prescribed number based on the distance from the coast.
• Self-inflating life raft , mandatory over 6 miles, ocean type over 12miles.
• Marine VHF for navigation beyond 6 miles, (and related valid license, expires every 10 years, and RTF Limited Radiotelegraphist certificate).
• Compass and deviation tables beyond 6 miles, (except for vessels that are exempt from the deviation table up to 12 miles).
• First-aid kit, Watch, Barometer, Binoculars, Nautical charts, charting instruments, GPS, radar reflector mandatory over 12miles,
• Fire extinguishers and emptying pumps ( CE have pumps)

In today’s video, the skipper shows his crew the placement of safety equipment, physically pulling the various devices out of the lockers and naming them by name. This is a good time for the crew to ask questions.

Ancillary safety equipment

You will notice in the video that in addition to some mandatory safety equipment, some daytime signals and respect spares are also shown, which, while not mandatory, are part of those incidental safety equipment that every good sailor always carries on board.Respect and incidental equipment are for example:

• Man overboard recovery devices, such as an auxiliary emergency ladder (CE boats must have a removable emergency ladder at the stern)
• Headlamps and waterproof depth flashlight, emergency thermal tarp
• Engine spare parts such as belt and impeller, Diesel tank and emergency clean drinking water ,
• Coulter cones, Basic and sail repairtoolbox,
• Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors for the cabin
• Auxiliary manual bilge pumps, as well as sponges, sass, bucket, etc.
• Respect bar, respect lines and tow, respect half sailor etc…

Please note, some equipment that is not mandatory in Italy is mandatory in France, for example, so it is also interesting to read the table of French safety equipment

The fifth episode of Sailing School.

The fifth episode of SAILSCHOOL, The Safety Equipment is also available on the SAIL Newspaper youtube channel where you will findall the episodes of SAIL SCHOOL, including beginner and expertepisodes!