After last year’s racing tragedies in California at the Farallones and the Coronados, San Francisco’s offshore racing authority has amended its minimum equipment and safety requirements. The Northern California Offshore Racing Council (NCORC) document can be found at http://norcalorc.org/safety-draft
Notably rule 34 states:
The person in charge and at least 30% of the crew (including person in charge) shall attend a US
Sailing sanctioned Safety at Sea Seminar within the last 5 years (6.01) (Required by the 2014
season. For 2013 at least one person on board full crew (3+) boats must be certified, single and
double handed boats are exempt until 2014)
Several Safety at Sea Seminars have been scheduled in the Bay Area and British Columbia. I have not found any in the Puget Sound.
US Sailing has a calendar here: http://offshore.ussailing.org/SAS/Seminars/SAS_Calendar.htm
BC Sailing Association has a calendar here: http://www.bcsailing.bc.ca/courses.php#SafetyatSea
In Seattle (Redmond) classes are administered by The Sailing Foundation, but they do not have a current calendar: http://www.thesailingfoundation.org/new_sas_seminars.htm
The curriculum include subjects such as man-overboard procedures, life raft handling, flare usage, first aid, etc. Given our water temperatures, proficiency these skills can be critical.
Much of this material is covered in a CG 100 Ton Masters and RYA Yachtmaster courses. It is unclear how this relates to Washington Boater Safety training requirements, though there is some sort of equivalency certificate.
I recently ran across a good book on the subject: The RYA Sea Survival Handbook