Instruction manual

PROFICIENCY IN SURVIVAL CRAFT AND RESCUE BOATS OTHER THAN
FAST RESCUE BOATS
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be taken when in the water
If go into the water, never go in without a lifejacket, and an immersion suit
or thermal aid.
However, warm clothing will trap air and air provides warmth.
You cannot swim far in heavy clothing, neither can you swim far in a
lifejacket.
Do not try to swim unnecessarily, it uses vital energy and assists
hypothermia to set in.
Try and take something buoyant with you into the water to assist you to
keep afloat.
If you are only scantily clothed, you will certainly die of exposure either in or
out of the water.
Wet clothing is far better than no clothing.
In cold weather is a survival craft, remove and wring out the top layer of wet
clothing and put it on again as quickly as possible.
If you have to go into the water from a survival craft, perhaps to help rescue
another survivor.
Be sure to take a line with you. A survival craft will drift far faster than you
can swim, without a line to help you to get back to the survival craft, you may well
find yourself unable to get back to safety.
Survivors in the water should hang onto lifeboats, liferafts, and buoyant
apparatus by putting their arms through the loops of the lifelines, rather than hold
onto them, for the hands get numb and let go.
- Avoid staying in the water for one second longer than you need to.
Body heat will be lost to the surrounding water more rapidly than it can be
generated. This leads to hypothermia (cold exposure), unconsciousness and
death.
- Wearing extra clothing will help delay the start of hypothermia.
Get into the liferaft as soon as possible.
- When you are in the water, whether or not you are in a liferaft, try to
stay near the boat. It may not sink and you may be able to re-board. If it stays
afloat, searches will be able to spot it more easily than they can spot you. Staying
close to the boat also keeps you closest to the position reported in your distress
call.
- If you cannot get into a liferaft, do not swim aimlessly; swimming
increases heat loss. Remain as still as possible using flotation to keep you high
in the water. Heat loss occurs much faster in water than in air, so the more of
your body you can keep out of the water the better.
- Now is the time to inflate the external bladder on your exposure suit by
means of the mouth tube. You may be able to get on top of floating debris (a
lifebuoy, a board, even a dead body) to help keep you out of the water.
- If you don't have an exposure suit, use the H.E.L.P. (heat escape
lessening posture) technique. If your exposure suit of PFD has a whistle
attached, use it to attract attention.