Rescue.
Rescue is a handoff. Done right, you go from one safe place to another. Done wrong, the rescue itself becomes the emergency. Cooperate with the people coming for you — they have done this before.
Prepare to be helped.
Rescue services know what they're doing. Your job is to make their job possible — clear communication, prepared crew, controlled boat.
- 1
Confirm communication with rescue services.
Stay on the channel they put you on. Acknowledge each instruction. Repeat your position every few minutes until they arrive.
- 2
Prepare the crew for transfer.
PFDs on, warm clothes, personal documents in pockets. Anyone with injuries identified and briefed to the rescue team via radio.
- 3
Identify a transfer point on the boat.
The most stable, most accessible point — usually amidships, away from rigging and propeller. Brief crew on the planned location.
- 4
Slow or stop the boat as requested.
Rescuers may want you under way at a specific heading and speed (helicopter winch), hove-to (vessel transfer), or dead in the water. Follow their lead.
Cooperate, transfer, account.
Maintain radio contact.
The frequency they put you on, the calls they want, the position updates they request. The rescue is conducted by radio until the moment of physical contact.
Mark your position with smoke or flares as instructed.
Daytime: orange smoke or signal flag. Night: parachute flare on their approach, then hand-held as they close in. Don't use flares until requested — wasted flares are a real problem.
Brief the crew on the order of transfer.
- Injured — if conditions allow them to move safely.
- Children — held and tethered to a designated adult until called.
- Elderly and less able — next, supported by stronger crew.
- Able crew — by ability, weakest first.
- The skipper or most experienced — last, to manage the handoff.
For helicopter winch — follow the strict approach protocol.
- Reduce sail to bare minimum (or strike everything).
- Steer the course the pilot requests, usually 30° off the wind.
- Disable the radar to prevent interference.
- Let the static-discharge wire touch the deck FIRST before any crew touches it.
- Do NOT secure the winch line to the boat. Ever. If the helicopter breaks off, that line goes with them.
- Single person at a time on the winch. Brief them on the strop before they go up.
For vessel transfer — prepare for a moving handoff.
- Both vessels into the wind, slow ahead or hove-to.
- Approach side decided by the rescuer.
- Heavy fenders out on the contact side.
- Lines passed from rescuer to your boat.
- Crew transferred one at a time at the lowest contact point.
- Don't try to step at the peak of a wave — wait for the low point.
Cooperate with the rescuer's instructions about the boat itself.
Some rescues take only the crew and leave the boat. Some take it in tow. Some require scuttling. The rescuer decides based on conditions and resources — don't argue at the handoff.
Account for all crew once aboard the rescue vessel.
Gear for this moment.
The equipment we'd want aboard if this alarm went off right now. Each piece earns its place against a specific step above.
The whole rescue runs on radio until physical contact. A floating, waterproof hand-held keeps you talking to the helicopter overhead.
View gearOrange smoke by day, parachute on approach, hand-held as they close in. In date, dry, and where you can reach them.
View gearWorn before the transfer, not after. A spray hood keeps a tired person breathing in the chop between the boats.
View gearSeaWise may earn a small commission on these links — it helps keep the procedures free. We only list gear we'd carry ourselves.
Skipper notes.
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