Our Training Officer (Graham) would like December to include a return to the basics of search procedures. The duty crew training on Tuesday (12 December) did that... and learned (or re-learned) some important lessons.
Although the procedures are simple, it is easy to forget them when actually engaged in a search for missing boaters.
For those who have not used or recently reviewed these procedures, they are in Chapter 9 of the Crew Manual. That chapter should be consulted on details, but see below for a number of questions and answers on search procedures.
Considerable attention should be paid to preparing spotters and training them on proper procedures. It may seem that anyone can stand out on deck and look around for things… the task itself seems mundane. But the spotters are the critical resource during search operations; the mission of the boat and the rest of the crew is to support the spotters!
Q: Is there a difference between lookouts and spotters?
A: The role of lookouts is to contribute to boat safety. Their main task is to watch for other vessels and potential hazards to their own vessel. The role of spotters is to search for missing people or objects. An individual should not be given both roles: boat safety is paramount and should not be jeopardized by a lookout trying to find a person or object in the water. Spotters will generally use different scanning patterns to cover their assigned areas efficiently. Of course, lookouts may see something in the water and assist the spotters, but that should not be their main purpose. And spotters, like everyone on board, share the responsibility for boat safety.
Q: What scanning patterns should spotters use?
Scanning Out from the Boat
A: See the manual for details. Generally a spotter who is assigned to look laterally from the boat should scan in a line parallel to the boat heading moving left-to-right and then right-to-left, shifting focus and then stopping to dwell for a few seconds. Simply looking randomly in various directions is generally far less productive and may result in missing small objects in the water.
Appropriate modifications should be made if you are assigned to look in sectors that are forward of or behind your boat.
Assigned Sectors
The spotter should confine scanning to the sector around the boat that has been assigned. Looking outside of the assigned sector means that the assigned sector will not be covered to the expected degree. If the spotter’s attention has been captured by something outside of the assigned sector, that means coverage within the assigned sector will be reduced even more.
Q: Should a spotter use binoculars when scanning?
A: A person is generally more effective in detecting an object when using the unassisted eye. When not using binoculars, the spotter can use both central vision and peripheral vision. But when using binoculars, peripheral vision cannot be used and the field of view is more limited. So the unaided eye should be used to detect new objects and then binoculars can be used to identify what that object is.
I think the term spotter and lookout are sometimes thought of as the same thing. On larger boats with more crew, it is easier to differentiate the two roles. On smaller/minimum crewed boats, there is a definite crossover of roles. Lookout trumps spotter in those cases though.
ReplyDeleteCan’t state the value of peripheral vision enough. Much more acute to, especially , moving things . Natures way of keeping us safe…. “Out of the corner of my eye.”
ReplyDelete