Sea Survival Handbook – The RYAs complete guide to survival at sea

The RYA Sea Survival Handbook is designed to complement both the RYA Sea Survival Course and the ISAF Offshore Course.

This book is ideal for anyone taking to the seas, whether on a motor or sailing vessel, and gives in depth advice and information about safety at sea.

The handbook teaches all there is to know about preparing to go to sea, emergency procedures, safety equipment, life saving signals, handling heavy weather and choosing the most suitable life jacket or buoyancy aid.

Providing the most up to date information on all the above items, this book is written by Keith Colwell, RNLI Sea Safety Coordinator and is illustrated by Steve Lucas. The foreword is written by Mike Golding.

Colwell is in a strong position to write about these matters. Following lengthy stints on a range of boating magazines, he is currently employed by the RNLI as a divisional sea safety officer, providing training to a team of RNLI volunteer safety advisors.

The introduction stresses that boating is one of the safest leisure sporting activities, however we all know that at sea there is always the potential for danger. This can almost always be offset by careful preparation, which is the message at the heart of this book. The first chapter contains a safety brief and importantly a safety brief checklist. It encourages mariners to make a plan and think about what can go wrong in order to reduce the severity of an incident should it occur.

Chapter 5 talks about lifejackets and buoyancy aids. This includes products available on the market and makes comment on lifejackets commonly available to the boat user. It includes instruction on how to perform lifejacket maintenance and checks and how to don equipment.

The handbook is brought to life by a number of fascinating real life examples of boaters dealing with emergency situations.

RYA Members get a 15% discount on all RYA Publications as well as free postage on all UK orders over £20 and international orders over £30.