The Sailing Safety Gear Most People Forget Until It’s Too Late
Safety Tether Caution: https://www.practical-sailor.com/safety-seamanship/safety-tether-caution/
Sailing safety gear can mean the difference between a bad day on the water… and never coming home at all.
In this video, we walk through the sailing safety gear most people forget — the equipment that actually matters when things go wrong offshore or coastal, not just what looks good in a catalog or satisfies the bare minimum regulations.
We start with one of the most important — and misunderstood — pieces of sailing safety equipment: the EPIRB. These emergency beacons operate on the COSPAS-SARSAT satellite search and rescue system, a global network that has helped rescue over 63,000 people worldwide since 1982. We explain how EPIRBs really work, why registration and GPS matter, and how a distress signal turns into an actual rescue.
From there, we cover a practical, real-world sailing safety checklist, including:
• Life jackets and PFDs with built-in harnesses
• Jacklines and tethers for staying on the boat
• EPIRBs vs AIS vs personal locator beacons
• VHF radios and communication redundancy
• Life rafts and ditch bags
• Man-overboard recovery gear and planning
• Bilge pumps, fire extinguishers, and emergency steering
• Cutting tools, lighting, and foul-weather gear
This isn’t a fear-based video, and it’s not about buying everything under the sun. It’s about understanding how far away help really is when you’re sailing — and what equipment actually bridges that gap when something goes wrong.
Whether you’re day sailing, coastal cruising, or preparing for offshore passages, this video will help you think more clearly about sailing safety gear that saves lives, not just checks boxes.
If you sail, this is worth watching.
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