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Anarchy CC

Keelboat & Trailer Yacht crew & event safety (race, regatta, inshore and offshore)

Crew safety briefing checklist

We have created a handy crew safety briefing checklist which can be used by skippers to brief crews on the safety prior to departure. This convenient checklist helps crew (new and old) feel more confident, which makes for a better day on the water. Of course if there is an emergency it means everyone on board is better equipped to deal with it.

The reasons behind this are:

1. Crew are becoming hard to find and a lot of people are new to sailing.

2. Crew are often not familiar with the vessel and its particular hazards.

3. It ensures skippers knowledge is passed to crew.

4. This goes some way to fulfilling skipper’s responsibilities under New Zealand maritime law.

We have left the top left of the page blank so you can add your yacht club logo. We encourage you to distribute this to your members either racing or cruising and explain the reasons behind it. A suggestion could be to print and laminate for boat owners to keep a copy on their vessel.  

2023 Keelboat and Trailer Yacht Event Safety Forum

Part 1: Bay of Islands Sailing Week 2023 Speaker: Ian Clouston – International Race Officer and PRO of Bay of Islands Sailing Week regatta. Details: Ian will share crucial lessons learned from an incident during the regatta in February 2023. The event committee has reviewed their systems and will share new safety measures for the next event in 2024.

Part 2: Event Systems Speaker: Jon Henry – Experienced event race officer for Cat 2 Round North Island and NZ races. Details: Jon will provide insights into how the SSANZ sailing committee prepares for keelboat races, emphasising effective communication of regatta information and safety expectations to competitors.

Part 3: Skipper and Crew Responsibility Speaker: John Butcher - yacht owner, ex Commander in the RNZN and a past Commodore of the Gulf Harbour Yacht Club. Details: John will share share ideas on how clubs can encourage a safety culture with their member boat owners and crews.  

Part 4: Short update Yachting New Zealand Addendum D and Document Peer Review System

 A copy of the powerpoint presentation can be found here: 


2021 Best Practice Safety Procedures for Coastal and Offshore Races

Running an event, particularly coastal or offshore, comes with responsibilities for the safety of vessels & their crew for the Organising Authorities. 

The video below is from an online zoom call with safety expert Sally Garrett where she shares case studies of best practice safety procedures for coastal & offshore races.

Sally has shared some risk management documents as templates for clubs to use: View all risk management documents here