Schools' Head of the River 2008

Safety Plan

Safety Launches

Twelve safety launches are situated at strategic points along the river with the sole role of providing rescue and removal of casualties to the nearest landing place or ambulance point. They will be positioned in accordance with their marked location on the rule 223 map.

In addition to the rescue craft there will be a large number of marshal and umpire launches which may be able to offer assistance to competitors in an emergency. All launches will carry safety net radios, megaphones and mobile phones.

Co-ordination of the craft will be by radio by the safety officer at base control in Ranelagh Sailing club, Putney.

The RNLI lifeboats will be positioned up river of the long start and down river of the finish and will be in contact with the RNLI

adviser at base control. Marshal and Umpire launches can attract the attention of the rescue craft by sounding the airhorn or by radio via control.

Ambulance and First aid

Mediforce will provide an ambulances and crews at:

Emanuel School Boat House [W4 2SH],

St.Pauls Boathouse [SW13 9JT] and a fast response medical vehicle on the Putney Embankment [SW15 1LB] .

The event doctor will be located at base control in Ranelagh Sailing Club.

First aid may be summoned by calling to any Marshal or Umpire.

Race Communications

The radio safety net includes all safety craft, marshals, umpires, race officials, PLA, RNLI and Police and is co-ordinated by the safety officer at Ranelagh sailing Club, Putney Embankment. Mobiles will be used as back-up.

If the Emergency Services are required dial 999 and ask for coastguard and use the nearest landing place post code as a position indicator.

Landing places: In addition to the landing places above emergency help may be summoned to:

Barn Elms Boathouse SW13 0DG

Lower Mall Hammersmith W6 9DJ

Corinthian Sailing Club W6 9TA

Chiswick Pier [RNLI] W4 2UG

Small Profits dock Barnes SW13 9QG

TTRC boathouse W4 2SH

TSS Boathouse W4 2SH

Ship pub SW14 7QR

Quintin/MAA boathouses W4 3UJ

Putney Town RC TW9 4EN

Univ London BC W4 3TU

Procedure in the event of bad weather Pre-boating

In the event of bad weather, a decision to postpone or cancel the race will be taken at 12.15 . This will be broadcast over the public address system at Putney

and the following boathouses will be informed by 'phone by 12.30:

Barn Elm St Paul's School Latymer Upper School Emanuel School

Thames Tradesmen/Quintin/MA&A University of London

Please do not use the telephones in these boathouses between 12.15-12.30 except in emergencies .

SHORR '08 ABANDONMENT PLAN

INSTRUCTIONS TO MARSHALS AND UMPIRES

The Chief Marshal is in absolute control in the event of abandonment. He will state over the radio:

“RACE ABANDONED, RACE ABANDONED, RACE ABANDONED”.

From this time strict radio silence must be maintained unless a response is requested by the Chief Marshal or a request requiring an immediate safety response is required.

Marshals will immediately sound their air horns with continuous short blasts, and, if possible, wave their red flag at the same time. If the race has already been started, this will be maintained until every crew in the race has stopped.

ALL CREWS ARE TO BE HELD UNTIL INSTRUCTED OTHERWISE BY THE CHIEF MARSHAL (unless there is an immediate safety concern in which case the Marshal in the vicinity will contact the Chief Marshal and seek assistance).

Once the cause of abandonment has been ascertained the evacuation process as follows will be implemented, subject to:

a) In the case of an obstruction, weather conditions or other difficulty putting one or more Divisions at greater risk than others, those Divisions will be dispersed first - using the same general approach as set out below if safe to do so.

b) If there is an obstruction downstream of the marshalling area, requiring a detour past it, the Chief Marshal will re-locate enough marshals' and umpires' launches to direct any previously racing, or returning crews before ordering the dispersal.

c) The Chief Marshal may, as an alternative, order a suspension of racing, but this should not normally last more than 10 minutes before abandonment is declared or normal marshalling/racing resumes.

d) Given the possibility of injury and a need to land crews quickly, the areas around the Barnes and Chiswick clubs to be kept as clear as possible.

e) In the event of a radio base-station or relay failure (due to a power cut), handsets will still work on battery power. In this case, the Chief Marshal will pass instructions to the Lead Marshal for each division for cascading down.

Crews at the lower sections of the marshalling area/river will be dispersed first.

Marshalling Division 2 below Hammersmith Bridge

If the race is abandoned while the Div 2 crews are marshalling:

Those crews already in marshalling position should be told to tuck into the bank and hold position. Any Div 1 crews moving up should be told to stop and tuck in where they are.

Those crews paddling downstream from above Hammersmith Bridge should be told to move as far to Surrey as is safe to avoid the rough water, and only be allowed to spin once they have passed the last marshalling crew.

ONCE ALL CREWS ARE TUCKED INTO THE BANK, DULWICH MARSHALS ARE IN CHARGE OF THE CREWS. DIV 2 MARSHALS SHOULD ASSUME THEIR SECONDARY (OR TERTIARY IF APPLICABLE) POSITIONS ABOVE HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE, AS PER THE USUAL RACE PLAN.

Once all crews are tucked into the bank, Putney crews should be told to spin and head back, starting with those crews nearest Putney and working up the line of boats. If conditions require it they should be told to stay as close to the bank as they can; if not they should follow the Tideway Code. While the intention should be to get all the crews off the water quickly, it will ease landing at Putney if the crews are spun with gaps in between them.

Crews from above Hammersmith Bridge with no Putney crews upstream of them may then proceed up through Hammersmith Bridge. Attention should be paid to the queue downstream of the St Paul's Ramp. If this area is getting too congested, hold crews below Hammersmith Bridge.

THE DULWICH MARSHALS SHOULD HOLD THEIR POSITIONS AS THE CREWS MOVE UP. THEIR JOB INCLUDES KEEPING DIV 1 CREWS RETURNING TO PUTNEY SEPARATE FROM DIV 2 CREWS.

DIV 2 MARSHALS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR LANDING CREWS ABOVE HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE.

If safe, those who boated from Latymer, or from rafts in that vicinity should be allowed to cross. If returning crews from Div 1 are in sight, however, these Div 2 crews should NOT be allowed to cross, but be told to land at St Paul's.

All other Div 2 crews should be landed at St Paul's Boathouse, regardless of whether they boated from there. No crew should be allowed to continue upstream.

AFTER ALL DIV 2 CREWS HAVE BEEN LANDED AT ST PAULS, THE DIV 2 MARSHALS WILL THEN BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MARSHALLING RETURNING DIV 1 CREWS IN THAT AREA (THREE MARSHALS WILL GOVERN THE QUEUE FOR ST PAULS, ONE WILL GOVERN THOSE SPINNING AND CROSSING TO LATYMER, AND ONE WILL GOVERN THOSE SPINNING AND LANDING AT THE MIDDLESEX HAMMERSMITH RAFTS).

THOSE MARSHALS LANDING CREWS AT ST PAUL'S WILL NEED TO DECIDE WHETHER CONDITIONS ARE SO SEVERE THAT CREWS ARE SAFER LANDING DOWNSTREAM. IF SO, THE QUEUE SHOULD BE FORMED SOME WAY UPSTREAM OF THE RAMP, AND NEEDS TO BE CAREFULLY MONITORED.

If the race is abandoned once racing has commenced:

The procedure will be similar to above. Marshalled crews should be kept into the bank. Racing crews should stop racing on the sounding of the airhorns. These crews should be told to paddle down towards Putney, starting with those closest to Putney, and either continue down to Putney or to spin once past the last marshalled crew and join the line to head back above Hammersmith Bridge. Once all racing crews are off the racing line, the line of marshalled boats should be dealt with as above.

Marshalling Division 1 Crews

It is of crucial importance that all Putney crews are downstream of Hammersmith Bridge before crews landing above Hammersmith Bridge attempt to do so.

Equally, do not allow crews heading back downstream to bunch up. This will put pressure on the landing areas. A steady stream is safer.

If the race is abandoned while the Div 1 crews are marshalling:

DIV 1 MARSHALS SHOULD ASSUME THEIR SECONDARY (OR TERTIARY IF APPLICABLE) POSITIONS, AS PER THE USUAL RACE PLAN, TO CREATE A LINE OF MARSHALS FROM CHISWICK BRIDGE TO HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE. THOSE MARSHALS WHO HAVE NO SPECIFIED SECONDARY POSITIONS BELOW CHISWICK BRIDGE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THOSE CREWS MARSHALLING ABOVE CHISWICK BRIDGE.

As soon as the race is abandoned, all crews should be told to stop and tuck into the bank. Any crews paddling downstream should be told to stop and spin into the safest bank. If safe, they should be permitted to make their way back to their boathouse. Crews who boated from Putney, if safe to do so, should be told to spin and head back down. They should be told to stay as close to the Surrey bank as possible.

All other crews who are upstream of their boating area should be held until the Chief Marshal gives the go-ahead for them to start moving back downstream. The reason for this delay is to clear the Hammersmith landing areas of Div 2 crews. Crews for the Hammersmith landing areas should spin first, then Barnes, then Chiswick and above. Once all crews who are upstream of their landing areas have spun, crews who are downstream of their landing areas which the marshals have decided to hold should be allowed to paddle back up.

If the race is abandoned once all the Div 1 crews have marshalled:

MARSHALS WILL NEED TO STAY ALERT AND WORK AS A UNIT. LEAD MARSHALS SHOULD ALSO BE AWARE OF THE NUMBER OF CREWS STILL UNDER THEIR CHARGE. AS THE NUMBER THINS, SPARE MARSHALS SHOULD BE SENT DOWNSTREAM TO COVER THE STRETCH OF RIVER BETWEEN BARNES BRIDGE AND ST PAUL'S.

Working upstream from the crews marshalling nearest Barnes Bridge up to those marshalling above Kew Rail Bridge, crews from Putney should be told to spin and head back. These crews should be instructed to paddle slowly, and to stay into the Surrey bank.

If the Chief Marshal has been told that all Div 2 crews are off the water, he will instruct the marshals to spin crews landing at Hammersmith, again working from Barnes Bridge upstream. Once these crews have gone, crews from Barnes boathouses should be spun. Finally crew from Chiswick should be spun. Once all these crews have gone, crews marshalling downstream of their boathouse should proceed upstream.

If the Chief Marshal is informed that Div 2 crews are still landing at St Paul's, he may instruct crews from Barnes, and then Chiswick to spin before them, if he deems it safe to do so.

If the race is abandoned once Div 1 crews have already started racing:

All racing crews should stop on hearing the airhorns. Putney crews should be allowed to continue downstream. All other crews should be told to spin into the safest bank. If safe, crews downstream of their landing areas should be told to paddle upstream until they join the bottom of the line of boats still marshalled. Hammersmith crews should be held until the Chief Marshal has been informed that all Div 2 crews are off the water. Once the Hammersmith landing areas are clear, these crews may spin again and head downstream.

Those crews still marshalled, and those crews who had been racing but have now been spun should be handled as above, working from Barnes Bridge to Kew Rail Bridge, spinning those crews from Putney first, then those from Hammersmith, then Barnes, and finally Chiswick. Crews downstream of their landing area may then paddle up.

Returning Crews

Normal post-Race navigation rules and procedures will apply in the absence of instructions to the contrary. If crews coming down the course are being told to stay on the Surrey bank, it must be stressed to them that they will have to move out if they encounter crews coming up from Putney, so that they pass Bowside to Bowside.

Under no circumstances will any crew coming downstream be permitted to pass on the Surrey side of the Putney moorings, or cross the line of the moorings.

Schools' Head of the River Race 2008