Emergency Drills for Your Crew: Engine Failure, Fire, Steering Loss and Man Overboard

In staged boat fires, the BoatUS Foundation found that a short guest briefing improves fire safety. Before leaving the dock, show everyone:

• Where the life jackets are, and have them put one on or keep it within reach.
• Where each fire extinguisher is and how to use it (pull, aim at the base, squeeze, sweep).
• How to use the VHF radio and where the DSC distress button is.
• How to shut off the engine and the main battery switch.
• Where the anchor is and how to let it go.
• The kill-switch lanyard and where the spare is kept.

In an emergency, each person should know their job without discussion. For most small crews:

• Skipper: controls the boat and makes decisions.
• Spotter/lookout: points at the person in the water or the hazard and never looks away.
• Radio operator: makes the call and gives the position.
• Anchor handler: gets the anchor down when told.

With only two aboard, the non-driver takes spotter and radio. Make sure at least one other person can drive the boat and stop the engine.

Post a call card by the radio. A DSC radio connected to GPS sends your position and boat identity when you hold the red distress button, which is the fastest way to raise the Coast Guard. After sending the alert, the Coast Guard's guidance is to call on channel 16 with your distress details.

Practice with the radio off. Have each crew member say the call out loud from the card:

• "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" (life-threatening: fire, sinking, person overboard) or "Pan-pan, pan-pan, pan-pan" (urgent but not life-threatening: disabled and drifting, but safe for now).
• Boat name, position (read it off the GPS), the problem, number of people aboard, and that everyone is wearing life jackets.

Mercury's radio basics are worth practicing too: set the squelch just past where the static stops, hold the mic 2 to 3 inches from your mouth, press the button and wait a second before speaking, and pause again before letting go so the start and end of the message aren't cut off. The Coast Guard will often ask you to switch from 16 to a working channel such as 22.

Also show them how to cancel an accidental DSC alert: the Coast Guard says to use the radio's cancel menu, then announce the cancellation on channel 16, and not to switch the radio off first, because most radios resume the alert when powered back on. Save your tow service's number (Sea Tow or TowBoatUS) in everyone's phone, and know the VHF channel they monitor in your area.

Shut the engine off without warning and let the crew respond:

1. Make the boat safe first. Look at what you're drifting toward. Boating Magazine's advice is to drop the anchor as soon as power is lost if the depth allows, even when hazards seem far away, because wind and current close the distance quickly. In water too deep to anchor, a sea anchor or drogue from a bow cleat helps keep the bow into the waves.
2. Then troubleshoot the easy things. BoatUS lists the quick checks: is the kill-switch lanyard attached, is the shifter in neutral, is the fuel line kinked, is the primer bulb firm, is the tank vent open, is the battery connection tight, and are the cooling water intakes clogged with a bag or weeds? If it dies when you put it in gear, suspect a line around the prop.
3. Call for a tow early. If the quick checks don't fix it, call your tow service while conditions are still good.

Time how long it takes the crew to get the boat anchored. See engine won't start for more checks once you're safe.

The anchor is your emergency brake, but only if it's ready. In this drill, the anchor handler gets it down and holding while you time it.

• Is the anchor stowed where it can be reached in seconds, not buried under gear?
• Is the bitter end of the rode tied to the boat? (Many anchors are lost overboard this way.)
• Is there enough rode for the water you usually boat in? See anchor rode and scope.
• Does everyone know to keep hands and feet clear of the rode as it runs out?

Have the skipper describe an alarm going off at cruising speed. The crew response: throttle back to idle, check the gauge or display, look for the cooling water stream (telltale) on an outboard, and shut down if it's overheating and the boat is in a safe place. Then follow the steps in overheat alarm response. The key lesson: an alarm means slow down and look, not "push on to the dock."

Pretend the wheel has jammed or gone loose:

1. Throttle to neutral right away and look around for hazards.
2. If you're close to danger, anchor (step 5).
3. If your boat has an emergency tiller, fit it. Practice this at the dock first: many owners have never found the tiller or the access hatch.
4. On twin-engine boats, practice steering with the throttles alone at idle speed.
5. On outboard and sterndrive boats without a tiller, Boating Magazine suggests a bridled bucket: a bucket with its bottom cut out, tied to the middle of a line about twice the boat's width, with each end on a stern cleat. Shorten the line on the side you want to turn toward. Rig and try it once in calm water so you know whether it works on your boat.

Then call for help. Check hydraulic steering or steering cable replacement for the repair once you're home.

The BoatUS Foundation's staged fires showed you may have only three or four minutes to make a Mayday call, use extinguishers, put on life jackets and get ready to abandon ship. Walk through it:

• Stop the boat, shut off the engine and fuel if you can, and turn the main battery switch off.
• Everyone puts on a life jacket.
• Radio operator sends the DSC alert and Mayday.
• Skipper decides whether to fight it: aim the extinguisher at the base of the flames and sweep. On an engine fire, if you have an engine-compartment fire port, discharge through it rather than opening the hatch and feeding the fire air. If the boat has a fixed engine-room extinguisher with a manual pull handle, show everyone where it is. In a BoatUS Foundation test burn, flames reached the helm seats about six minutes after an engine-compartment fire started.
• If it isn't out fast, abandon the boat upwind of the fire and stay together.

Actually handle the extinguishers during the drill (without discharging them) so everyone feels the pin and handle. In one real galley fire described in BoatUS, the nearest extinguisher was already in the flames and the crew lost seconds fighting the plastic zip-tie on the next one's pin; know how to break that tie, and keep an extinguisher at the helm or in the cockpit, not only below. At a marina, BoatUS's surveyor advice is that if one or two extinguishers don't put it out, get off, call 911 and let firefighters handle it. BoatUS also notes that a waterproof handheld VHF with DSC matters here, because the installed radio may lose power or be unreachable. See fire extinguisher care.

Toss a weighted cushion or fender overboard without warning and shout "Man overboard!"

• Shout and point. The spotter points at the "person" the whole time.
• Throw flotation right away: a ring buoy or cushion.
• Stop forward progress. The BoatUS Foundation notes every second spent moving away makes it harder to get back.
• Turn back going forward. The Coast Guard warns never to back up toward someone in the water: circle around in forward gear, keep the person in sight, and shift to neutral before they're near the propeller.
• Approach slowly, ideally from downwind, and stop the engine before bringing them aboard.

BoatUS suggests practicing first with a cushion, then with a real swimmer only with another boat standing by. Its Foundation found most overboard deaths happen on calm water, from small boats that aren't going fast, so don't skip this drill because "we only fish the lake." Also check your boarding ladder: BoatUS warns many swing-down ladders don't reach deep enough, or lack handholds, for a tired person to climb. Practice throwing the ring buoy from the dock too; it's harder than it looks. Plan how you'd actually lift a heavy, tired person aboard (see MOB recovery gear), and remember the operator should be wearing the kill-switch lanyard so the engine stops if they're the one who goes over. If your crew wears wireless MOB tags, include them in the drill: in the BoatUS Foundation's test of five devices, the alarms sounded within several seconds of a fall, but most units only alarm and do not stop the engine, so someone still has to act.

Have the skipper announce "the bilge alarm is going off." Crew response: life jackets on, turn on all bilge pumps, look for the source (start with through-hulls, hoses and the drain plug), and decide quickly whether to call for help. If the water is gaining, send the Mayday while the radio and batteries still work. Walk through boat taking on water together.

Things BoatUS's damage-control advice adds to this drill:

• Speed matters. Its example: a 2-inch hole just 1 foot below the waterline can fill a 55-gallon drum in well under a minute.
• The easy fix first. Sometimes flooding stops by closing a seacock, so everyone should know where they are and practice turning them.
• A labeled damage-control bag, sized to your boat: soft wooden plugs, rags, rubber sheet, duct tape, underwater-curing caulk, a sharp knife and tools to open up panels. Epoxy and fiberglass kits don't stop water in an emergency; they won't bond to a wet, leaking surface.
• Clues you're taking on water before any alarm: the boat feels sluggish, slower, or steers strangely.

Agree on what goes with you if you have to leave the boat: handheld VHF, phone in a waterproof pouch, PLB or EPIRB if you carry one, signaling devices, a sharp knife (Mercury lists one for cutting a fouled line or a stuck anchor rode), and the first aid kit. Keep these together in a bag near the helm. Practice who grabs it and confirm everyone is wearing a life jacket. Stay with the boat if it's still floating; it's much easier for rescuers to spot than people in the water.

Right after the drills, talk for five minutes: what took too long, what gear was hard to reach, who wasn't sure what to do. Fix those things (move the anchor, add a second extinguisher by the helm, label the battery switch) and write the date and notes in BoatMend. Repeat at the start of each season and when new regular crew join.