As the only (current) professional mariner on the site (as a BM³ in the US Coast Guard), I feel it my duty that I comment on maritime survival solutions- IE, using boats and ships to escape (such as for Island Survival Scenarios).
First- Don’t. The average survivor (that’s you) simply does not collectively have the skills necessary to competently handle a vsl. If you comprehend nothing else, get this: YOU. ARE. GOING. TO. DIE.
Assuming you REALLY don’t have another choice, such as being chased by skin jobs off a dock, there are several factors you must contemplate and prepare for:

Powerplants:
Tri Power (motor, sail, and oar power) is the best, and really ONLY, way to go. A fine, and largely current example of such a ship would be Captain William KIDD’S Adventure Galley. In her own era, galleys were obsolete as a general rule, however Adventure Galley was able to continue to sail in dead calm- An advantage most of her contemporaries did not have. In this example, one would simply take her, add some sort of engine (even a steam engine beats no engine at all), and ‘bob’s your uncle.’
Though rare to find, such a vsl could be obtained by modifying a ‘standard’ sailing vsl with a motor (probably a gasoline powered outboard) by the fairly simple expedient of tying oars to the manlines or gunnels.
If there is an option to select a vsl with a mast that can fold down, try and take it; This will give you the opportunity, when foul WX approaches, you can do so, lowering your center of gravity, making capsizing unlikely, and in the event that you do capsize you can more likely right yourself far more readily.
Alternative Solutions:
Galleys, though rare, are designed from the keel up specifically for oar power; Installing a mast may prove to be a challenge if one is not already installed, but not an insurmountable one. Most modern galleys are designed with sail power in mind.
US Coast Guard Regulations require all vsls using sails as a primary propulsion system to have auxiliary machinery power under certain conditions (when I toured Hawaiian Chieftain, the boat’s Boatswain gave me some shit for that, when he saw I was a Coastie). Therefore, finding an engine-equipped vsl should be fairly simple (finding one with FUEL, on the other hand, may be a challenge).
Navigation:
Know how to get from A, where you are, to B, where you want to be, without going up and down the ocean/lake/river/etc endlessly. Equally as important is to HAVE a “B”, that is a final destination, in mind- Just hopping in some asshole’s boat and head for some island which may not even exist, and even if it does you may or may not find it crawling with enough skin jobs to form their own union is NOT a survival plan. Know where you are going before you go- “Anywhere but here” is delaying the inevitable, not surviving.
When in doubt, sail due east or west, NONSTOP- Sooner or later, you will reach either land or ice. Either way, it’s better than sinking (if not necessarily by much).
In the first few days (maybe even year) after the rise of the skin jobs, GPS may well continue to function; If your boat is so equipped, by all means, ¡USE IT! Also, it is best used in conjunction with, and preferably overlaid by, radar.
Classes:
Take them. NOW. I would not go so far as to submit that you must pass Deck Watch Officer or even NavRules, though one would be in no way poorly profited by passing such a course, but realistically, you would therefore be the only fucking person to bother trying, and every idiot out there wouldn’t know what the Hell they are doing. Consequently, keep in mind these three most critical of navrules: Unless told otherwise, pass (moving towards each other, then past each other, without crashing) port to port (left side to left side), overtake starboard to port (the faster vsl will be on the slower vsl’s right), and when in doubt, 5 (or more) short blasts (3 to 5 second blasts on the ship’s horn) mean ¡STOP, YOU’RE GOING TO HIT ME YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKER! (Think about it simply- When some jackass cuts you off, ¿what do you do? You start beating on your car horn.)
Distance:
The shorter the distance you are going, the better. If you can simply cross a rvr and get to safety, such as might be my case, then you should do exactly that.
Crew Selection:
The bigger the crew the better. Switch out helmsmen, topsmen (the people actually handling the sails), oarsmen, and engineer every hour if possible, with mandatory 2 to 3 hour naps between watches if possible. Realistically, however, you will not have the ability to make such a choice.
Lifevests:
Wear them. Obsessively. To the highly limited exclusion of bathing, wear them at all times. If, like me, you prefer to bathe in raw water, thus sparing potable water for more critical operations (such as DRINKING), you should continue to wear your vest, opening the front just enough to lather up your chest. When you eat, you wear it. When you work, you wear it. When you sleep, you wear it. When you fuck, ¡WEAR IT! 10 seconds in the water may be all that is required to take your life, without even the cold; If you fall overboard with a vsl going at flank (full) speed, unless your helmsman and captain really have their shit together and can come about quickly enough, your hopeless flailing can cause you to drown. Never, ever, allow yourself to believe that it’s ok; The ocean is, itself, a living, breathing, man-eating animal, and she is waiting to kill you. 10 seconds is all she needs to kill you.
Rafting-Style Helmets:
As you work on deck, accidents can and WILL happen. I was there when my old BM³ got hit in the head with a 10# sledgehammer while setting a buoy; It’s an accident that clinically could not happen, ever, at all, period- The problem is, it did happen every once in a while (it had happened to another buoy tender a few weeks before that). His ⅛th thick piece of plastic was he only thing that stopped him from dying, and barely at that.
On board your boat, swinging yardarms, etc, can strike you, you can be knocked to the deck, etc, and the law of averages says you won’t die quickly- No, you will die over the course of about a week, and in enough pain that you will end it yourself. Therefore, whenever you work on deck, or are in foul WX, wear your helmet just as gravely as you wear your lifevest- Ignore bathing if the WX is so bad you can’t even stand up straight, and unless you have an iron stomach, you will learn how futile eating is.
Deck Knives:
Many people say you should only carry a pocketknife, worn on your belt at your side. I should know, because I’m one of them. In this limited case, I categorically refute this; A straight handled, heavily serrated, and blunt tipped knife, worn on your weak-hand side, with the edge pointed outboard and the tip pointed up on your vest- Yes, the “cool guy” Rambo-rig. In this case, and this case only, you should wear your knife in this fashion. Further, you should attach it to lifevest. If you are so fortunate as to be able to purchase, make for yourself, or have made for you a sheath, count yourself blessed. A multi-tool sheath, with the sheath itself upside down, over the deck knife. This places both of your most critical tools for use while on deck. Placing them on your weak-hand side places them where they will be easiest to reach with your strong hand when you need it in a hurry (try it- grab a ruler, place it to your chest pointed up, and you will see that you hand naturally positions itself on your weak-hand side- if like me you’re right handed, it will be at or near your left shoulder, southpaws just the opposite). There isn’t inherently a deficit to placing a blade on BOTH shoulders, but this isn’t necessarily the most efficient use of resources unless you have quite a bit of surplus gear- And if you do, you are either highly blessed or hoarding, either of which is potentially disastrous.
My own deck knife is a diver’s knife with a a double-blade, 11 inches with a 6¾ inch blade, of which the 2¼ inches closest to the hilt are serrate

Andy’s Own Deck Knife.

d. The pommel is flat, allowing it to be used as a hammer, and in the included photo I ran a length of shot line through the lanyard hole to make it easier to identify; However, normally you would not do so. I was told by my dad (who actually bought it and sent it to me while I was at ACACIA) that he bought it at a US Navy base, suggesting that is militry standard issue; However, I have seen that exact same knife in divers and outdoorsman’s stores and gun shops from time to time, and therefore IS commercially available. I elaborate on this point at length because other references suggest the ‘only’ one you should use is essentially a rounded-tip meat cleaver or a very long-bladed, short-handled deck axe. The knife such as I described herein is, I believe, the best possible design.
Use Of Propulsion:
As a general rule, try and use your sails as much as possible; When the winds fail you, use your oars first. Use your engines, with their highly limited fuel, as little as humanly (or otherwise) possible, preferably only during foul weather (or trying to escape foul wx), when tying up, or when outrunning an enemy.
Commentary On WX:
As a general rule, storms in northerly latitude move from southeast to northwest (bottom right to upper left), whereas southerly latitudes storms move from northwest to southeast (upper left to lower right). Consequently one would wish to steer either northeasterly or southwesterly to escape one.
This is NOT a hard and fast rule; Storms, most notworthily the 1999 Halloween storm, have been known to travel sideways and even backwards, but such events are fortunately rare.
Other Dangers:
Rouge Waves: Rogue waves are massive waves that form contrary to the normal physics of hydrography, that is to say a monster wave that seemingly comes out of nowhere. RMS Flying Enterprise was famously recorded as taking a couple WEEKS to capsize, after being hit by such a wave (which, at the time, weren’t believed to exist by hydrographers and meteorologists who lacked the benefit of sea time, resulting in the captain and crew being blamed for her eventual sinking). A SHARP lookout will aid in your survival: You can not outrun them. Rather, turn INTO the wave, taking her dead bow-on, and surf it out. It should be noted that I myself do not have the level of seamanship necessary to survive a rogue wave, except largely by luck- An attribute every sailor needs in large quantities anyways.

MANDATORY READING:
Bowditch
T

Also Known As:	“Bowditch” Publication Number Nine.
Purpose:	Encyclopedia of navigation, valuable handbook on oceanography and meteorology, and contains useful tables and a maritime glossary.
Publication Frequency:	Irregular
Published By:	United States Defense Mapping Agency Hydrographic Topographic Center (DMAHTC).

he American Practical Navigator, written by Nathaniel BOWDITCH and better known as Bowditch, is an encyclopedia of navigation, a valuable handbook on oceanography and meteorology, and contains useful tables and a maritime glossary. In 1866 the copyright and plates were bought by the Hydrographic Office of the United States Navy, and as a U.S. Government publication, it is now available for free online. It is not only a notable book but is considered one of America’s nautical institutions.
History: The most popular navigational text of the late 18th century was The New Practical Navigator by John Hamilton MOORE. Edmund M. BLUNT, a Newburyport, Massachusetts publisher, decided to issue a revised copy of this work for American navigators and convinced Nathaniel BOWDITCH, a locally famous mariner and mathematician, to revise and update it with the help of several others. BLUNT’S The New Practical Navigator was published in 1799, followed by a second edition in 1800.
By 1802, when BLUNT was ready to publish a third edition, Nathaniel BOWDITCH and others had corrected so many errors in HAMILTON’S work that BLUNT decided to publish it as the first edition of a new work, The New American Practical Navigator. The current edition of the American Practical Navigator traces its pedigree to that 1802 edition. Edmund M. BLUNT continued to published the book until 1833; Upon his retirement, his sons, Edmund and George, assumed publication. The elder BLUNT died in 1862; his son Edmund followed in 1866. The next year, 1867, George BLUNT sold the copyright to the government for $25,000. The government has published Bowditch ever since. George BLUNT died in 1878.
Nathaniel BOWDITCH continued to correct and revise the book until his death in 1838. Upon his death, the editorial responsibility for the The New American Practical Navigator passed to his son, J. Ingersoll BOWDITCH. Very few significant changes were made under him. Editions from 1837 through 1880 are nearly identical in content. Ingersoll BOWDITCH continued editing the Navigator until George BLUNT sold the copyright to the government. He outlived all of the principles involved in publishing and editing the Navigator, dying in 1889.
The U.S. government has published some 52 editions since acquiring the copyright to the book that has come to be known simply by its original author’s name, “Bowditch”. Since the government began production, the book has been known by its year of publishing, instead of by the edition number. After the first major revision, a total overhaul of the book’s content completed in 1880 under the direction of Commander Phillip H. COOPER, USN, the name was changed to American Practical Navigator. Much of BOWDITCH’S original content, including his methods for clearing lunar distance observations, were dropped in 1880 (though a new method for clearing lunars remained in an appendix until the early 20th century). After numerous incremental revisions and printings in the period from 1914 to 1944, Bowditch was extensively revised between 1946 and 1958.
The present volume, while retaining the basic format of the 1958 version, reorganizes the subjects, deletes obsolete text, and adds new material to keep pace with the extensive changes in navigation that have taken place in the electronic age.
This 1995 edition of the American Practical Navigator incorporates extensive changes in organization, format, and content. Recent advances in navigational electronics, communications, positioning, and other technologies have transformed the way navigation is practiced at sea, and it is clear that even more changes are forthcoming. The changes to this edition of Bowditch are intended to ensure that this publication remains the premier reference work for practical marine navigation. Concerted efforts were made to return to Nathaniel BOWDITCH’S original intention “to put down in the book nothing I can’t teach the crew.” To this end, many complex formulas and equations have been eliminated, and emphasis placed on the capabilities and limitations of various navigation systems and how to use them, instead of explaining complex technical and theoretical details. This edition replaces but does not cancel former editions, which may be retained and consulted as to navigation methods not discussed herein.
The former Volume II has been incorporated into the primary volume to save space and production cost. For similar reasons, the book is now published on a larger page size. These two changes allow the publisher to present a single, comprehensive navigation science reference which explains modern navigational methods while respecting traditional ones. The goal of the changes was to put as much useful information before the navigator as possible in the most understandable and readable format.
Contents: Part I, Fundamentals, includes an overview of the types and phases of marine navigation and the organizations which support and regulate it. It includes chapters relating to the structure, use and limitations of nautical charts; chart datums and their importance; and other material of a basic nature.
Part II, Piloting, emphasizes the practical aspects of navigating a vessel in restricted waters.
Part III, Electronic Navigation, covers the primary means of positioning of the modern navigator. Chapters deal with each of the several electronic methods of navigation, organized by type.
Part IV, Celestial Navigation, contains techniques, examples and problems and a chapter on sight reduction.
Part V, Navigational Mathematics, includes chapters relating to such topics as basic navigational mathematics and computer use in the solution of navigation problems.
Part VI, Navigational Safety, discusses aspects of the new distress and safety communications systems now in place or being implemented in the next several years, as well as navigation regulations, emergency navigation procedures, and distress communications.
Part VII Oceanography, contains chapters on practical oceanography of use to the mariner.
Part VII Marine Meteorology, incorporates weather routing and forecasting methods as well as color plates of the Beaufort Sea States.
Bowditch can be found HERE (warning: this is a .pdf file, requiring adobe acrobat to read); To my knowledge, hardcopy is no longer available (it isn’t even printed in the traditional sense of the word anymore), but I have seen CD’s with the APS. Either way, you can download the manual and copy to a disk, save to memory, and/or print it out. Fair warning- Bowditch is HEAVY reading- Literally and figuratively. The book itself weighs several pounds, and excluding purely or largely mathematical documents, is probably the most technical documentation in the English language, and certainly the most technical manual before the advent of the steam engine created the Industrial Revolution. However, this truly is simply a reflection of how critical it really is- It’s GOT to be that big to cover all the things it does, and it must be that long to fully cover the material at hand without missing something. (Indeed, it is that extensive because it’s been around over 250 years and been revised dozens of times.) If possible, take a hardcopy of this document with you.

SUGGESTED READING
“Arts Of The Sailor; Knotting, Splicing, and Ropework” by Hervey Garrett SMITH: A highly useful document which I purchased for $10. Keep mindful, however, that Mr. SMITH is NOT a professional mariner, but a gifted and experienced amateur (recreational boater), and therefore one would be well profited to read over the text a few times, and not just once- One is never profited to snub the advice of someone who’s book has successfully sold for over 4 decades, without benefit of professional training. (I myself was inspired to create this for you after re-reading the book for about the third time.)

“Knight’s Modern Seamanship”: Originally Modern Seamanship, was written in 1901 by Admiral Austin M. KNIGHT, US Navy. The 18th Edition was revised by Captain John V. NOEL, Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.) with Associate Editors Commander Frank E. BASSETT, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Dr. Carvel BLAIR and Prof. Dee FITCH. Steer by this venerable guide to shiphandling and safety and you’ll easily see why, since publication of the first edition 83 years ago, it has been the single-most trusted “beacon” for millions of pleasure boaters and professional seamen alike. Now in its eighteenth edition, Knight’s Modern Seamanship continues the salty tradition of its predecessors. It supplies all the navigation techniques, safety laws and procedures, and maintenance practices you need to make each ocean-going trip safe and enjoyable. Typhoon up ahead? Knight’s explains the effects of weather on ocean travel and spells out exactly what you have to do to avoid dangerous weather systems. What kind of communication equipment should you have on board? A new section on ship communications tells you how to select and operate modern communication devices. This eighteenth edition also provides you with new sections on channel marking, towing and salvage, and the maritime buoyage system. Updated guidance is given on:
Rules Of The Road: You get clear explanations of right of way, the use of radar to avoid collisions, and the law in fog; included is the complete text of the Inland Navigational Rules Act of 1980. Every vessel over 12 meters in length is required by law to have a copy of these rules on board.
Shiphandling: You’ll find expert discussions on docking, mooring, and anchoring; Helicopter operations; And ice seamanship.
Ship And Boat Operation: You get concise explanations of ship structure andstability, propulsion and steering, ground tackle, and cargo handling and underway replenishment.
You’ll even learn the art of knotting and splicing. Without a doubt, Knight’s Modern Seamanship is a masterful guide to mastering the lore of the sea. It is an indispensable reference source for pleasure boaters, merchant marine personnel, and anyone who needs expert seagoing advice, and is a standard US Navy and Coast Guard refrence manual.

It is critical to your survival not only to your survival, but to your effective escape, to know the proper names of the parts of a boat. This applies whether you are escaping the skin jobs, or enjoying a “quiet” afternoon with family. Hull: The main body of the boat. Mast: Any long pole that reaches up from which sails are hung. Rudder: The vertical plane that makes the vsl turn left and right. Prop or Propeller: The mechanical device, ussually looks like a weird screw or airplane propeller, that drive the vsl forward in the water. Sails: Large sheets of cloth material, ussually canvas or a related material, that allow the vsl to move forward in the wind.

Click On Image To Enlarge.

Though this is not an all-iclusive list, it is many of the more common nautical terms:

Bow	Front of boat (the “point end”)	Topside	Up (you “Go topside” as you climb higher, all the way to the top of the mast, hence “tops” or “Up top”)
Stern	Rear of boat (the “roundy end” or “flat end”)	Below	Down (you “Go below” as you go further down in the vsl)
Starboard	Right (the Norse hung a modified oar, called a “Steerboard”, off the right sides of their longships, thus the “steer board side” of the boat)	Port/Starboard Quarter	Left or right of directly abaft
Port	Left (the Norse had to tie up on the left side of their boats because the pier would damage the steer boat, hence the “porting side” of the boat)	Head	Were you go to defecate and urinate (so called because in ancient times, they were located at the bow, or “head” of the vsl)
Aft/Abaft	To the stern	Inboard	Towards the centerline of the vsl
Forward	To the bow	Outboard	Away from the centerline and towards the water
Heave/Heave Around	Pull (usually line)	Currently Open	This Space Intentionally Left Blank.
Avast	Stop an action (usually said in an emergency)	Currently Open	This Space Intentionally Left Blank.

Throughout this document, you may have noticed a theme: You are as good as dead as soon you SEE water, without even touching it, to say nothing of actually BOARDING a vsl- Ya, that’s the theme you better have gotten. ONE mistake, your fault, their fault, nobody’s fucking fault at all, and you’re dead. That’s it, it’s over. Hopefully, by this, you can reduce you lack of survivability from 10%, that is to say 90% of you will DIE, to a survivability rate of 50%- Half of you will still die, but that beats a basic guarantee of dying. If it's get in a boat and sail for your life or DIE, get in the boat. Otherwise, try to AVOID the water at all costs.

Any reference (including this very document) should be treated as a starting point, not an end point.