Safety procedures
If you are involved in a maritime accident, adopt the following safety procedures:
- keep calm;
- make everyone on board wear life jackets;
- get any other security equipment ready for use, including: lifebuoy, first aid kit, distress signal kit (smoke buoy, red hand flares), sound signaling devices (whistle), life raft, etc.;
- in case of grounding, turn off the engine, check if the hull has been damaged and the type of seabed: if sandy or muddy, try to free the boat by rocking the hull and moving the people on board onto the same side;
- check the stability and buoyancy conditions of the boat (degree of heeling, likelihood of sinking);
- in the event of a leak in the hull, use the means/equipment available on board to plug the leak (leak-stop paste/resin, or wooden wedges, pieces of plywood, a sail or waterproof rags);
- in the event of a leak below the waterline, try to drain the water by activating the bilge/drain pump and any manual pumps (or buckets , if necessary), while a crew member checks the water level;
- position crew members so as to keep the damaged part of the hull as high as possible;
- limit the introduction of water by continuing to sail towards the nearest landing point;
- if the boat is sinking, reach a shallow and safer place and, if possible, run the boat aground on a sandy bottom, or, alternatively, abandon ship;
- call 1 1 2 and contact the Coast Guard by radio (distress frequency VHF channel 16) providing the requested information, including: name and type of the boat, position (geographic coordinates), distance from the coast, type of problem encountered, number of people on board, presence of injured people, people who may have fallen overboard, presence of people in need of special assistance (pregnant women, children, elderly people, disabled people), port of departure, destination, current weather and sea conditions, route and speed maintained, etc.;
- report any spills/pollution at sea;
- follow the rescuers’ instructions.
