What advice would you give to boaters when putting together their first aid kit?
We don't ask them to carry a suitcase of medicines, but to have thought about what can happen on board: allergic reactions, injuries, pain... Boaters don't always understand this, but we don't send someone for a twisted ankle.
For the yachtsman, there is an official text, but with recommendations and no regulatory obligations. As a result, the equivalent of professional allocations for boaters has been declined. These documents are available free of charge on the CCMM website. All you have to do then is go and see your general practitioner before leaving to get a prescription.
| Professional ships | Pleasure craft | Endowments |
| Vessels with no time limit for distance limitation | Ocean Yachting | A |
| Ships that are never more than 8 hours from the coast | Boaters less than 24 hours from the coast | B |
| Vessels that are less than 24 hours from shore | Coastal Navigation | C |
For the recreational boater who only occasionally goes inshore, 6 or 8 medications will suffice.
Is it possible to contact you to make up his first-aid kit before a trip?
Boaters come to us asking for endowments. The idea is to be able to cover the most frequent risks. But depending on the practice they are going to have and depending on the areas they are going to cross, they may encounter additional risks and in particular infectious risks. It is therefore important to keep up to date with vaccinations and to get information from a suitable medical centre or from your doctor for additional coverage depending on the risks (malaria, yellow fever, etc.)
For children, do you need a special pharmacy kit?
The recommended allocations are also made for boaters who are required to have children on board. The risks are very little different and the illnesses are the same. The only thing that's going to be different is the dosage and the presentation of the medication.
From the official endowment, you should ask your doctor for prescriptions with paediatric presentations adapted to the weight of the children. The doses and presentations will not be the same according to the age of your children (infant / young child...)
In summary, what are your recommendations for boaters?
What is recommended to the yachtsman for his activity at sea and for committed pleasure boating: transat, even cabotage, or even a round-the-world trip.
- Getting closer to us on the one hand
- Equipping oneself with means of communication, even if it seems basic, is still a naked problem. There are now satellite standards that make it possible to communicate - at a cost - but which can be very useful.
- To leave in good health, if only the teeth. Not to leave with any pending health problems (being explored for such and such a disease)..
- To have a medical endowment to deal with anything that can happen to a healthy person
- Complete this endowment in agreement with his or her physician in relation to particular pathologies (for example, treatment for diabetes is not included in the endowment).
- In the case of a round-the-world trip or a long cruise, once their medical file/medical endowment has been constituted, send it to us by e-mail with the exact content of the endowment (which may be associated with other medicines), as well as an extract from the medical file of each person present on board to get an idea of the significant antecedents (appendicitis, treated for a particular pathology or allergy). This is useful in the event that the sick person is unable to express himself/herself. We then archive the file and in the event that the boat needs help, we have all the necessary information.
What book on the first-aid kit would you advise to have on board?
There are many books that are oriented towards the doctor in isolation. That of a colleague Jean-Yves Chauve is not badly done. This kind of tool is to empower oneself, to know how to manage on one's own. But the concern of our profession is not an exact science. There's nothing like contact with a doctor. We therefore recommend these books to learn the gestures (dressings, immobilization...), but not as a diagnostic or prescription tool.
