Danger Areas on a Boat
When you take ASA 101 Basic Keelboat Sailing, your instructor will reinforce many safety lessons in the curriculum. You will become so well versed in …
Category: Safety
Toxic Sunscreen: A Sailboat Captain’s Experience
By Kim Walther, ASA Instructor Working as a boat captain, I see a huge variety of sunscreen brands. It’s always interesting to check out what my sai…
7 Tips for Night Sailing
Night sailing is a bit of a different animal so we’ve cobbled together seven tips to keep in mind as you sail off into the wild black yonder.
Spring Safety
As the days get longer and the weather gets nicer, droves of new boaters are flocking to local chandleries to obtain the “required safety essentials…
Bite Sized Lessons : Hypothermia
In this lesson we take a look at some of the do's and don'ts when it comes to hypothermia and how to prevent a life-threatening situation.
Gone In An Instant
Falling overboard at night is every sailor’s worst nightmare. This exact scenario played out last July during Chicago Yacht Club’s annual Race to …
ASA Instructor Tip: Setting The Hook
Knowing that your boat is securely anchored will give you the peace of mind to leave the boat while you are ashore and allow you to sleep soundly.
Seasickness Stinks!
6 tips to avoid seasickness! With the proper preparations and/or medications it doesn’t have to affect your day of sailing.
Knots Made Easy: The Fast Bowline
One of the most beautiful and useful sailing knots is the bowline. The bowline forms a temporary eye, or loop, in the end of a line and is commonly us…
ASA Affiliate Blue Pacific Yachting Deals with Coronavirus
As we merge from the pandemic crisis Sailing schools across the country and around the world have had to adapt to a changing landscape. One…
Ask Lauren: What Do I Do If I See an Animal Tangled in Plastic?
It is always exciting to encounter marine animals in their natural habitat- the vast diversity of creatures in the ocean both pull at our heartstrings…
USCG Marine Safety Alert
The U.S. Coast Guard has received reports from crews, ship owners, inspectors and other mariners regarding poor reception on VHF frequencies used for radiotelephone, digital…
Bracing for Impact – A Quick List of Hurricane Protection Reminders
A short list of some important, and maybe commonly overlooked, precautionary ideas to keep in mind when trying to protect a boat at the dock during a …
Safety At Sea – A Sailing Instructors Perspective
We talked to Mike Rice, an eight time recipient of the ASA's Outstanding Instructor honor, about his views on sailing safety at sea.
Figuring Out Flares
We know we need flares (visual distress signals / VDS) on board to both be safe & to satisfy the requirements of the law, but it can be a bit confusin…
What’s a Float Plan?
Sailing involves Mother Nature and that can sometimes trigger a change in plans. For that reason, we strongly advocate the use of a “float plan.”
8 Actions to Help A Hypothermic Sailor
Falling overboard while sailing in cold weather is the express train to hypothermia - the lowering of the body’s core temperature due to exposure...
Knots Made Easy: The Rolling Hitch
The rolling hitch can be used to connect two lines in order to transfer the load from one line to another - ideal for fixing that winch override...