ARC safety regulations

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marcot

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Arc's Safety equipment regulations requires also

1. One manual bilge pump securely fitted,operable from on deck with companionways and hatches shut: Hallberg Rassy boats don't have it .

Any suggestion apart a hole in the cockpit of a new HR48?


2. A recognised secondary or alternative method of
navigation.


Arc's veterans have any experience on it?
 
A hole in the cockpit is probably the only way to go. The handle can be stowed out of the way using two expanding horseshoe clamps. Drill a hole in the handle and use a piece of line, long enough to reach the pump, to secure to one of the clamps.

Open CPN would be a useful secondary nav system, or if using Navionics cards for your primary, then a small Lowrance plotter would be a relatively inexpensive option.
 
Patay do a manual bilge pump with a deck seal so should comply but you will have to cut a hole somewhere in the deck/cockpit.
Sextant? or a Garmin GPS 72/76 with a good supply of batteries, not expensive.
 
marcot said:
Arc's Safety equipment regulations requires also

1. One manual bilge pump securely fitted,operable from on deck with companionways and hatches shut: Hallberg Rassy boats don't have it .

Any suggestion apart a hole in the cockpit of a new HR48?


2. A recognised secondary or alternative method of
navigation.


Arc's veterans have any experience on it?
Click to expand...
My Hallberg Rassy 34 has manual bilge pump operable from cockpit, why can't yours have one. Fit one of these.
 
Last edited:
my previuos HR38 has the yard fitted one in the cockpit locker and externally operated.
the HR48 doesn't. only one manual pump inside (plus two electrical)
 
marcot said:
Arc's Safety equipment regulations requires also

1. One manual bilge pump securely fitted,operable from on deck with companionways and hatches shut: Hallberg Rassy boats don't have it .

Any suggestion apart a hole in the cockpit of a new HR48?


2. A recognised secondary or alternative method of
navigation.


Arc's veterans have any experience on it?
Click to expand...

The answer is as an ARC veteran SIGN THE WAIVER yes thats right all your crew can sign a waiver to say that although you do not have a bilgepump operated from the cockpit all crew are happy with the seaworthiness of the boat to not install one.... Next question.. Oh Sextant!!

I thought about it when we did it and a whale pump on a plank of wood that could be wedged in the cockpit under the hardtop roof with pipes long enough would have been ideal. Buy a big pump that can really shift some water or not at all
 
I checked with WCC, they accept a second GPS as an alternative nav system.

My HR42F has a cockpit bilge pump mounted in the cockpit locker with a handle from the cockpit. Don't know if it is original.
 
Like Stork III, my H-R 31 has a Whale Gusher 10 mounted in the cockpit locker side. It is fitted with the standard seal and causes neither inconvenience nor concerns about watertight integrity. Certainly the arrangements passed the RORC inspection for the Fastnet Race.
 
Same with an island packet the answer is to mount a pump on the outside of the wash board, tube down the companionway, handle obviously cockpit side - arc have confirmed this meets the regs. No screws to the glass fibre and of course a spare wash board does away with the pump when no longer needed. One ip completed the arc with this arrangement.
 
FWIW the regulations for commercial small craft also require a bilge pump operable from the deck - but make the additional requirement that it needs to be capable of being operated from the helm position.

Its seems such an eminently sensible requirement (and one that our current boat meets without modification - where's the smug smily..) that I don't know why anyone would want to avoid fitting a proper pump. What's all the 'avoiding drilling holes in the GRP bit?' Whale do some pumps that are flush fitted and maintain perfect watertight integrity. Neat and with the handle on a bit of string clipped to the underside of a locker lid you meet all the requirements.

i.e http://www.whalepumps.com/marine/pr...D=10009&Product_ID=10004&FriendlyID=Compac-50
 
I might be sticking my neck out here, but if you are crossing an ocean with the potential for a dangerous land fall then you should have an alternative to electronics/electrical and depending on someone elses satellites that may not always be available.

DR doesn't work over those distances seeing as someone suggested it.

I've experienced electronics failure but at the time I had the sun and stars as a back up, the sextant also gives you a very accurate distance off when needed. I had a fixed and two battery hand helds, they all gave up for different reasons within 36 hours of each other.

Pump wise why wouldn't you fit a large manual (as well as the biggest electric pump you could fit in) pump that could be easily used from the cockpit for some time comfortably whilst your crew find the leak and try and sort it.

I've also experienced a flooding from a failed engine hose (pumping water into the boat) by the time it was noticed we'd killed batteries and electrics in salt water. This boat was steel and had an enclosed engine room with no bilge alarm (not mine I was delivering)

Going proper offshore then you need to think about self reliance for 3 or 4 weeks if anything goes wrong. Back up and spares of anything that keeps you afloat or helps keep you moving in the right direction.

Hopefully you'll never need it.
 
john_morris_uk said:
FWIW the regulations for commercial small craft also require a bilge pump operable from the deck - but make the additional requirement that it needs to be capable of being operated from the helm position.
Click to expand...

Wasn't aware of that and can't find it in the code. Requirement is that it should be capable of being operated with all hatchways and companionways closed.
 
I note that the requirement for a manual bilge pump "permanently installed" is also part of the ISAF & ORC regulations for any race that is beyond sheltered water. In other words, temporary pumps on a spare washboard or a board you wedge across the cockpit wouldn't be permitted.

The actual regulation reads:
a) two permanently installed manual bilge pumps, one operable from above, the other from below deck. Each pump shall be operable with all cockpit seats, hatches and companionways shut and shall have permanently installed discharge pipe(s) of sufficient capacity to accommodate simultaneously both pumps
Click to expand...

The code for small craft used to indicate that the one above deck needed to be capable of being operated from the helm, and it might still say that - but I haven't got my copy of the regulations to hand to check.

I am still left slightly bemused at the reasoning why people would sail the Atlantic without such pump(s) in place. I know that one doesn't have to comply with the above regulations if you are not racing (and there are a lot of the regulations that it would be a pain in the backside to comply with) but the fitting of permanent manual bilge pumps capable of being operated above and below deck seems eminently sensible.
 
I was surprised to read in the original post in this thread that the ARC only requires one manual bilge pump.

As John_Morris mentions above, some races require two.

In the Fastnet for example you must comply with the ISAF Offshore Special Regulations for Category 2 (more than 60 miles from shore)... These need the two manual bilge pumps, one operable from above and the other from below deck with all hatches closed.

ISAF offshore-special-regulations for Cat 2 Monohull
 
Martin_J said:
I was surprised to read in the original post in this thread that the ARC only requires one manual bilge pump.

As John_Morris mentions above, some races require two.

In the Fastnet for example you must comply with the ISAF Offshore Special Regulations for Category 2 (more than 60 miles from shore)... These need the two manual bilge pumps, one operable from above and the other from below deck with all hatches closed.

ISAF offshore-special-regulations for Cat 2 Monohull
Click to expand...

Is the ARC an ISAF/'an other', organised event, where these should apply?
 
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