Emergency Action Plans Every Centre Needs

In an emergency, people do what they have practised and read what is in front of them. They do not remember the paragraph on page fourteen of the operating procedures. An emergency action plan is the short, clear, visible document that tells the person on the spot exactly what to do, in order, with the numbers and locations they need, for the small number of scenarios that could happen at your centre. This article sets out what it should cover, how to write it and how to make it second nature.

Why a separate plan

The operating procedures describe the normal day. The emergency action plan describes the abnormal one, and it needs to work for a cold, frightened assistant instructor on the far pontoon with a phone in one hand. That means it must be short, physically present where emergencies happen, laminated, and written as steps. It should be a stand-alone card that lives in every safety boat, by every phone, on the office wall and in the first aid station, and that every member of staff has read and walked through.

The scenarios to cover

Every centre's list is slightly different, but most should include:

• Capsize with a sailor trapped or in difficulty.
• Person in the water from a safety boat or pontoon, including a non-swimmer.
• Missing person, on the water or on site, including a child at pick-up time.
• Serious injury or medical emergency, on the water, on the pontoon and in remote parts of the site.
• Hypothermia and cold water immersion.
• Boat broken down, swamped or drifting towards a hazard.
• Collision with another vessel or a structure.
• Fire, ashore or aboard, including fuel.
• Severe weather arriving suddenly: squall, lightning, fog.
• Evacuation of the site.
• Safeguarding emergency: a child disclosing harm, an unknown adult on site, an allegation against a staff member.
• Serious incident involving the public or the media.

For each, the plan gives the first actions, who takes charge, how help is called and what happens next.

What each page contains

Keep each scenario to one side of a card. A simple structure:

1. Immediate actions: the first three or four things the person on the spot does. For a capsize with a trapped sailor: safety boat approaches, crew in the water to the sailor, right the boat or free the sailor, assess, recover to the safety boat.
2. Raise the alarm: who to call internally, by radio or phone, with the words to use.
3. Call for help: which external service, on which number, with the location in the format they need, and what they will ask.
4. Take charge: who is the incident lead and what they do: stop other activity, account for everyone, send someone to meet the ambulance, keep the group calm.
5. After: first aid, warmth, contacting next of kin, recording, notifying the Principal and insurers.

The information people will need

The plan should carry, on the front page, everything a caller needs: the centre's full address and postcode, the what3words or grid reference for the main site and for each remote launch point, the phone numbers for coastguard, ambulance, police, fire, the harbour authority, the Principal, the Chief Instructor and the Welfare Officer, the nearest accident and emergency department and the route to it, the location of the first aid kits and the defibrillator, and the VHF channels in use. Check every number at the start of each season.

Communications

Decide how an emergency is signalled on your water: a radio call with an agreed form of words, a horn, a flag. Decide who holds the radio on the shore and what they do when the call comes. Agree how to get a message to every instructor afloat at once, for example a sudden recall for lightning. Make sure the radio and phone actually work from every part of your site and water; test them in the pre-season walk-through.

Roles under pressure

In a serious incident, confusion about who is in charge costs time. The plan should state that the most senior qualified person present takes charge as incident lead, and that everyone else does what that person says. The lead's first job is to allocate: one person to the casualty, one to call for help, one to account for everyone else, one to meet the emergency services. Write these roles on the card so that a lead under stress can simply read them out.

Accounting for everyone

A reliable head count is the backbone of several scenarios. Your sign-in system should let the person in charge know, in seconds, how many people are on the water, in which boats, and who is ashore. A whiteboard by the slipway listing each boat and its crew, updated on launch and recovery, is simple and works. In a missing-person scenario, the first question is "who is actually missing?" and the answer should be on the board.

Practise it

A plan that has never been rehearsed is a plan that will fail. Run at least two drills each pre-season and one mid-season, choosing different scenarios each time. Make them realistic: a real safety boat recovering a real volunteer casualty, a real radio call, a real walk to the ambulance meeting point. Time them. Afterwards, ask what was unclear, what was missing, where people hesitated, and fix the plan. Include new staff in a walk-through of the plan and the site in their first week.

Review after every use

Whenever the plan is used, even for a minor incident, review how it went. What worked, what did not, what information was missing, what equipment was in the wrong place. Update the card, note the change and the date, and tell the team. The plan improves every time it is tested, in drill or in earnest.

Supporting people afterwards

Serious incidents affect everyone involved. Build into the plan a step for the Principal to check on staff and participants in the days that follow, to arrange support where needed, and to hold a calm debrief once the facts are known. People who are looked after after a bad day recover faster and stay longer.

The media and the public

If something serious happens, the press and social media may follow. Decide now who speaks for the centre, which is usually the Principal or a committee officer, and that nobody else comments. Prepare a holding statement that confirms an incident, expresses concern for those involved, says the emergency services were called and that the centre is cooperating fully, and gives no further detail. Brief staff that they are not to post or comment. Protect the privacy of those involved absolutely.

Keep it alive

Put a review of the emergency action plan on the annual calendar alongside the risk assessments. Reprint the cards every year with the current numbers and names, and check that every safety boat and station has one. Walk the plan with the whole team at the pre-season briefing. A plan that is read every spring and practised every season is one that will work on the day it is needed, and that day is the reason the centre keeps it.

This article is general guidance for RYA centres and clubs. Schemes, awards and requirements change — always check the latest official RYA guidance and your recognition paperwork before acting. ActivityRoster helps you run the rostering, qualifications and safety-cover side of all of this in one place.