Emergency roles on board: who does what in a crew safety brief?

Merchant ships have long worked with a muster list that tells every crew member where to go and what to do in an emergency. On a yacht the same idea is simply a sheet with emergency roles: one line per person and four columns for the situations that escalate fastest on board, man overboard, fire, flooding and abandoning ship. It is not paperwork for its own sake. In an emergency there is no time to hand out jobs, and a crew that has to ask loses the minutes that matter.

How the sheet works: for man overboard one person shouts, points and never takes their eyes off the casualty, one throws the lifebuoy or throwing line and presses the MOB button, one sends the distress call on the VHF with DSC, and the skipper handles the boat. For fire one turns off the gas, one takes the extinguisher or fire blanket, one stops the engine and closes hatches. For flooding one searches seacocks, hoses and the stern gland while another works the bilge pumps. For abandoning ship it is clear who readies the liferaft, who takes the grab bag and beacon, and who counts heads.

The safety brief is the frame around it, and RYA courses teach it as part of good skippering. Before slipping the lines, show where lifejackets, tethers, extinguishers, fire blanket, first aid kit, flares and liferaft are, and explain the gas shut off, seacocks, bilge pumps and the distress call. Everyone puts on and adjusts their lifejacket once. Practise a man overboard recovery in calm weather, brief new crew at every change, and note the date, content and names in the log. A written record helps in an emergency and shows afterwards that the skipper took proper care.

Worth remembering

A crew that knows its jobs does not have to ask.