Last night was potluck with my good friends and we got to talking about what we had been up to over the past few weeks since last potluck. I had Paul with me (sea survival instructor) and everyone wanted to know what we were teaching. As I had the 150N foam lifejacket in the back of my truck I brought it in along with my spinlock deck vest. So it became a teaching session on lifejackets and radio calls.

The lifejacket in the picture is the 150N jacket which you would have to wear racing in Cat 0, 1 and 2 races if you didn’t where an inflatable. San Francisco is the only place I race where people haven’t educated themselves as to why kayak vests are not the acceptable form of flotation for racing offshore. We are changing that! A kayak type vest has about 50N of bouyancy, no yoke collar (so it won’t turn you upright) and no crotch straps (so it will come over your head).

I obviously don’t wear the foam so my offshore lifejacket of choice is the Spinlock 150N pro sensor modified with a manual inflate I have been wearing one since they first came out. Why… well it has crotch straps (a lifejacket is useless without them), it has a splash hood so I don’t die of secondary drowning and it will roll me face up.

So the courses were a great success. We got 42 people through the course and we hope it is a start to changing the culture of safety within the bay.

What does M I P D A N I O stand for? Well it is an acronym for the contents of a Mayday message you would make in grave and imminent danger.

Mayday
Identification
Position
Nature of Distress
Assistance required
Number of people aboard
Any other information
Over

That’s all for now… have a great weekend. I will be racing up to Drakes Bay on Rhumb Boogie and back on Saturday and Sunday.