2013 Adventure Safety

Man Overbiard Technology Part 2

When last we wrote, we outlined the all new Kannad R10 AIS Recovery System.
While the R10 improves your chances of being collected by your own boat, or a fellow competitor … there are situations where they can’t help, and this is where the Personal Locator Beacon comes in.
RescueMe PLB

2013 Adventure Safety

Man Over Board Technology Part 1

Notwithstanding the age old advice that the best way to deal with man overboard is to stay aboard, we thought we’d outline one of the newer solutions out there to aid in the recovery of a MOB.
If anyone has done the drill (for we don’t recommend doing it for real), locating a swimmer is not easy, and gets increasingly hard once the sea state builds. For those of us ocean sailing, the threat of falling overboard is very real, and there have been some recent advances in technology that can improve your chances of ‘retrieval’.

YA-Safety with Chris Oxenbould OA

Yachting Australia and Yachting Victoria are very pleased to be able to announce an open forum with Chris Oxenbould OA who will join us from NSW to talk about the various safety issues we currently face. Chris is the chair of the YA National Safety Committee.

Topics to be covered include
- YA’s philosophy to safety:- Why we do what we do
- How YA determines safety policy positions:- What we do when weighing things up
- Recent cases of safety changes:- Talking about changes in the Special Regulations
- Other issues people have raised

Chris is the Chair of the YA National Safety Committee, a role which he took up in early 2012 and has been a member of the National Safety Committee since 2010. He also chaired the internal Cruising Yacht Club of Australia inquiry into the Flinders Islet incident in 2009.

Prior to his retirement in 1999 he held the role of Deputy Chief of the Royal Australian Navy, the last six years as a Rear Admiral. His career included command of the Royal Australian Navy Fleet and the Australian Task Group during the first Gulf War. Since his retirement from the Navy, Chris has held CEO positions with New South Wales Maritime, Newcastle Port Corporation and Sydney Ferries.

Chris is also an experienced ocean racing yachtsman with more than 40 years’ experience sailing off the southeast coast of Australia. He has competed in 10 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Races and was the chairman of the 2000 and 2001 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Committee.

This is an open forum is open to all who are interested. It will be held in the Training Room at Sandringham Yacht Club on Thursday 11th July 2013 starting at 7.30. We look forward to seeing you at this informative evening.

If you have any questions Please contact Alex at Yachting Victoria if you are interested in attending or if you have any questions. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ORCV Response to Briggs Report

The ORCV have now produced their initial response to the Inquiry into the 2012 Port Fairy Yacht Race ( Briggs Report).

Whilst the report validates that the ORCV overall performed well in the race management and this incident, we acknowledge that there are several significant learning outcomes and various opportunities for improvement to safety.

This initial response is published here and the associated inquiry report is published here. 

The ORCV has established a number of subcommittees to further investigate the recommendations in the report.  If you have any information, suggestions or queries, then please forward them to the office at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

And if you would like to contibute the the workings of these subcommittees, then please let us know.

The ORCV would like to thank the substantial contribution of the Inquiry Panel:  Chairman Peter Briggs, and members Adam Manders, Peter Little and David Ellis with secretarial support from Sally Williams.

Donald Fraser

Commodore