Sorry in advance for the long post. With safety being such a hot topic lately, especially 1st change safety, I though I'd give my impressions of how the new 1st changes rules worked for the Na Wahine O Ke Kai. This is primarily from the perspective of the escort boat I was on, but I talked to a few other people who seemed to agree.
The new stuff was basically:
-The #'s of the canoes in the back pack were announced over the radio 20 minutes into the race.
-The #'s of the canoes in the front pack were announced 25 minutes into the race.
-If your # wasn't announced yet, you can assume you're in the middle.
-30 minutes in, escort boats are allowed to approach and follow their canoe, but no changing yet!
-45 minutes in, 1st change allowed.
We had already found our canoe before they announced #'s over the radio, but I think it would have been pretty useful otherwise, especially since they announced which crews were north and which were south. I'm sure this helped prevent some escort boats from zipping around all over looking for their canoes.
The idea of holding the 1st change until 45min but allowing the escort to go to the canoe at 30 mins was great. Having 15 minutes between the time the escort boats go to their canoes and make the first change helped a lot. Instead of trying to do a change while escort boats are running around at speed trying to find their canoes, creating an obstacle course, adding chop, and the increased risk of running paddlers in the water over, the escort boats were already with their canoes when everyone did the first change. We were also out far enough to be in less choppy water, which would have made an even bigger difference if the conditions weren't mellow.
Additionally, Luke's suggested change protocol (see Sept 9 blog on kamanucomposites.com) was included in the race packet. One key thing that was missing from the written change protocol was how to approach the paddlers in the water in relation to the wind. Often times a novice boat captain will approach on the upwind side of the paddlers thinking it's good to let the boat drift towards the paddlers to save them from swimming. No! A boat generally drifts faster in the wind than a swimmer so there's too much potential for the boat to smash into the paddler or even for a paddler to get pushed underneath and get drowned or propped - even in neutral a prop can still do some serious damage. I think an escort boat should always approach the paddlers either downwind or parallel to swimmers and can throw a line if the swimmers are having a hard time swimming to the boat. It's also nice to hold onto a line while you pee.
Many thanks to those responsible for the new 1st change policy and getting a change protocol in writing. I hope we get the same new rules for the Molokai Hoe. And remember, until we have some kind of formal requirement to driver education (if that's ever practical) every crew needs to take the initiative to educate their driver on how to safely do a change.
Submitted by MalikoJunkie on Mon, 09/26/2011 - 3:48pm
Thank you Maliko for the rundown on Na Wahine. Awesome to see that there were some new safety measures.
It sounds like OHCRA is definitely trying to do whatever they can to make the race safer. But, unfortunately, it seems that they are handicapped by the liability concerns of their insurance. Because they lack the ability to enforce a lot of the proposed safety measures, they aren't able to mandate them. For example:
So, while I believe that the two best safety measures are the two above, and it's hard to make an excuse when it comes to safety, I do understand their fear of being held liable. They are doing the best they can with other peripheral safety concerns.
I really hope that every crew sits down before the race with their driver and discusses exactly how they're going to do the changes. It will take five minutes of a crew's time to go over a protocol. The combined effect of everyone doing that will likely save a life one day. It's really not worth it for anyone to die or receive a life-time handicap because a crew felt they were experienced enough to skip over the protocol. Like Maliko said, with OHCRA being handicapped by liability the burden is on each of us to be safe.
I imagine only 1/5th or so of the competitors in the Hoe actually read this forum. So not only is it up to each of us to set up a protocol, it's also up to each of us to spread the word on the importance of setting up a protocol.
Goodluck to everyone doing the race. And, please be safe.
#1 Fri, 09/30/2011 - 12:18pm