Thoughts on emergency equipment

Becky

Becky

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Looking through the Moody Owners Assoc web site recently, I saw on their forum a list of essential emergency equipment, which of course I looked down. It consisted of, among many other things;-
Life raft
MOB equipment
Bolt cutters
Life buoy
Handheld VHF
EPIRB
Axe
...........................Axe??
An axe- I saw in a boat test that an axe was necessary for sailing an Iroquois cat to cut the main sheet when she heeled: but really, do you think that such a weapon is necessary (weapon- that's it- it is a weapon against pirates). What about a work bench, vice (yes please, I would love a vice) lathe, welder (that could be a good idea) support helicopter like the off shore racing boats, I could go on.
So what would you guys think was essential ( and polite, no, maybe not necessarily polite)? Especially for long-distance cruising.

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Re: axes

i have actually got an axe. Axes are quite blokey. It's a lightweight camping axe that i bought to replace the useless other gear that i lost in a swamp in the lake district. Anyway, then off we went up a mountain and of course - no flippin logs to hack apaprt and burn, dammit . So anyway my axe is in excellent condition.

Can't really see too much need for one on board EXCEPT if you had a decent heavy wooden boat and could hurl the axe menacingly into various things, perhaps from a reasonable distance whioch would need some practice first, to stop intruders for example. And of course if you need to stop (or win) a mutiny, it would defintiely be best to be on the side with the axe.

Note to self - take the unused axe to the boat.

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Re: axes

"It's a lightweight camping axe "

is this some sort of gay piece of cruising equipment???

/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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Lightweight camping axe

I'm sure there's a joke about a limp wristed bloke brandishing his chopper in here, somewhere, but I can't quite put it together. And as for cruising; well...../forums/images/icons/smile.gif

<hr width=100% size=1>Je suis Marxiste - tendance Groucho
 
P.S.

I assume that the axe is for clearing away spars and/or rigging if your bolt cutters aren't up to it.

Either that, or Eric Clapton is on board and has brought his Strat. with him.........

<hr width=100% size=1>Je suis Marxiste - tendance Groucho
 
Re: Lightweight camping axe

all sing after TCM " I'm a lumber jack and I'm okay.........................."

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Re: Git!

in fact, gits! all of yer!

Note how useful an axe would be now to stop all the backchat. Thunk! and then total silence, just like in the films. In fact, i nwo think the axe would be more useful than most of the other gear...

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Bad Luck ...

....... you're attempt to discuss a serious question got hijacked.

There was also a thread on MOA where the list of essential tools got copied from this forum for comment. You remember the one? The ridiculously long list which would give you an extra half a ton of ballast if you took them all. TCM started the very long tool list, and now tells us all about his chopper on here. Funny how things go round in circles, innit?!

To answer your original question, one thing I've been thinking about buying but I never see on a list are emergency blankets. ie the large sheets of foil you wrap around somebody with hypothermia. Most likely use would be if somebody has become very cold during the night or in bad weather. Worse still if they have been overboard and are therefore very wet and cold.

They are not particularly expensive, are light and compact but could make a real difference to somebody's health and well being.

<hr width=100% size=1>I'm average size, Its just that everybody else is short.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by BIGNICK on 27/04/2004 17:47 (server time).</FONT></P>
 
Re: An Axe

is handy if you need to prevent the crew getting into the liferaft I suppose. Thats if you get to it before they do.

I know for a fact that to take your Brydon toilet apart you need a long screwdriver.
Bolt cropers might not cut your rig but they do cut chain and padlocks.
I'd rather have a 406 Epirb than a liferaft. I have a lifebuoy with light and dan buoy and one of those OSCAR recovery ropes and harness things that came with the boat. A really good first aid kit is useful. Life jackets and harness combo's with crutch straps, spray hoods and lights are essential. I don't own a handheld VHF.
Plenty of torches are good too. Flares. Little wooden plugs. Bilge pump and bucket.

The best bit of safety equipment is between your lugs. Just like all the other kit, practice using it.

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Re: An Axe

@The best bit of equipment is between your lugs'
Excuse me, but what do you mean? I don't know if I have lugs. Is it a man thing?

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Re: An Axe

Oh dear, I have just got it. Sorry.
But my Partner is looking for one of those bolt cutters that has an explosive to fire it to to the cutting- he says that to stagger along a heaving deck to clear the fallen rigging with a huge cutting tool is dangerous, so we are going to get one that needs a cartridge which I will probably drop over the side before it gets loaded. But at least I can pick the thing up!

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Re: An Axe

Well I can now reveal the secret of the axe.......
When I was a sprog yottie, I used to leave PBO lying around so my partner would read and get (stay?) interested. But all she did was to read the bloo*y monthly 25 quid horror story. One month, there was a fire on board, and this had warped the perspex washboards, so they wouldnt budge. The axe was used to hew away the surround, and thus escape. I was presented with this bloo*y axe on a friday night loading the dinghy to go away for the weekend. She said it was 'essential safety equipment' (previously an effing great pair of bolt croppers had appeared). Please be amused to note that this was a 21 foot Corribee......
So blame PBO circa 1988-89

Jim

<hr width=100% size=1>Second Chance - First Love. Ah well, Windex it is then. Hopefully it will all work when launched....
 
Big bag of mars bars .. absolutely essential .. in all seriousness!

<hr width=100% size=1>I Have The Body Of A God... Buddha
 
I have one of those...

...a decent heavyweight wooden boat....

...and I also have a hatchet.

Not for throwing at intruders, and certainly not for throwing at the boat, but for cutting firewood for the cabin stove.

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?
 
Re: Bad Luck ...

Bignick
The ali foil or all plastic blankets are definately out of fashion with the rescue services now. They found that they are not much use to someone with hypo, if you put a person thats already cold inside one all you do is keep them cold. The new all singing all dancing model is like a multi layered plasticky paper arrangement that wicks water away and really heats up under the persons own body heat.

IMHO don't waste your money on foil/plastic blankets get the new version they are really good at re-heating someone.

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the axe

an axe is quite an important piece of equipment even more so in locks,as when the lines snag around the bollord while descending in the lock,and leaves the boat suspended on one end,you grab your axe and cut your line!!all very simple and so clever.

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