Boats & Canoes · 8 min
Capsize, rescue and weather on the water
Why this matters
The outline lists capsize procedure and rescue of others as their own topics, and they are the ones clients most want to know you have practised. Cold water makes New York's version of this urgent in a way that a warm-water course does not convey.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- Run the capsize drill and explain why you stay with the boat
- Perform the standard rescues in order of risk to the rescuer
- Read wind, waves and lightning from a small boat
If you capsize
- Account for everyone. Heads first, gear later. Call names
- Stay with the boat. A swamped canoe still floats, it is far more visible than a head, and it holds people up. Swimming for a shore that looks close is how people drown in cold water
- Get as much of the body out of the water as possible, onto the hull, to slow heat loss
- Hold on to paddles if you can, and keep the group together
- Only swim for shore if it is genuinely close, the water is warm enough, and the boat cannot be recovered. In New York that combination is rarer than people think
- Once ashore: shelter, dry, insulate from the ground, treat for hypothermia even if they seem fine
Cold shock is the first minute: an involuntary gasp, then hyperventilation. If your head is underwater during that gasp, you drown, and it is why the PFD matters more than swimming ability. Get the breathing under control, then act. 1-10-1: one minute to control breathing, ten minutes of useful movement, an hour before unconsciousness.
Rescuing someone else
The order is fixed, and it is ordered by risk to the rescuer.
| Step | Method |
|---|---|
| Reach | Paddle, pole, branch, or your arm while lying flat and anchored. Never a standing reach from a bank |
| Throw | Throw bag, ring buoy, cushion, anything buoyant on a line. The Type IV exists for this |
| Row | Take a boat to them, approach into the wind or current, and bring them in over the bow or stern, not the side, which capsizes small boats |
| Go | Enter the water. Last resort, trained rescuers only, and always wearing flotation and taking flotation to hand to them |
The reason this order is drilled: a drowning person will climb their rescuer. More would-be rescuers die in this country every year than the people they went in after.
Weather from a small boat
- Wind builds waves with fetch. A long lake with the wind down its length is a different body of water at 14:00 than it was at 08:00. On the big Adirondack lakes, and on Lake Champlain and the Great Lakes, this happens fast
- Cross open water early, when the wind is usually lightest, and hug the shoreline once it builds. Never make a long crossing with a party that could not manage a swim
- Lightning: get off the water immediately and away from the shoreline and the tallest trees. A person in a boat is the highest point on a flat plane
- Waves are taken bow-first or slightly quartering, never beam-on. A beam sea is what rolls small boats
- Know your bail-out shorelines before you launch, the same way you plan bail-outs on land
Invasive species, which the outline names
New York asks every boater to clean, drain and dry, and it is unlawful to launch or leave a launch with visible plant or animal material attached. The organisms to know by name: zebra and quagga mussels, Eurasian watermilfoil, hydrilla, water chestnut, spiny waterflea, Asian clam and round goby.
- Clean all plants, mud and organisms off boat, trailer, paddles, anchor and waders
- Drain the bilge, live wells, bailers and any water carried
- Dry everything thoroughly, five days if you can, or disinfect. Spiny waterflea and mussel larvae travel in a few drops of water
- Use the boat launch stewards and wash stations where they are provided, and let clients see you doing it
A guide moving between waters in one week is exactly the vector these programmes exist to stop. Doing it properly in front of clients is also the cheapest conservation education you will ever deliver.
From the field
A client goes over on a windy crossing. You do not paddle to them and reach over the side. You come alongside into the wind, throw the bag, get them to the stern, and bring them in over the end of the boat while your bow paddler counterbalances. One swimmer, not three.
This lesson is part of the NYS Licensed Guide Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.