Mondays 08/30/2010 Question and boating safety tip ANSWERED

[CaptainScott]

Safety Tip:
Man overboard! Have you ever done a "Man overboard" drill? EVER? Even just one? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Well, now is the time. Here are some thoughts for you. Quite frankly unless you have a full crew aboard I'm not convinced tossing someone in the water just to practice hauling them out is smart. So what else can you do?
What can you practice without actually tossing the first mate in? One thing we do is toss a "Man Overboard Pole" into the water. Then I step aside and no longer assist in the retrieval. My wife and daughter must retrieve the pole without my assistance and even more importantly without hitting it with the boat!
Have you ever tried to come along side something adrift in the winds and current? It's more difficult than you might think! Hmm, You say you don't have a MOB pole? You're on a budget? Can't get one now? NO worries! Jump directly to the next step! Go buy a cocoanut! Yep! Toss that in the water and see if you can retrieve it! Same rules! No helping the crew and no hitting it with the hull!
Remember that cocoanut could just as easily be YOUR HEAD! Remember if someone goes over you should assign one crew member to do nothing except point to the overboard person and never lose eye contact with them. NEVER. It is amazingly difficult to spot someone in the water. Back to the cocoanut! Hope you bought two or three because if you are not diligent you will lose one! LOL!
You should try it! Seriously, go get cocoanut or three and on a nice brisk day of sailing toss it in and see how long you can watch it! Take your eyes away for a second and it's gone!! That could be your spouse!! If you practice now, when the time comes you AND your crew should be able to come along side any object or person in the water without risk to it/them or your boat. Lastly, I must again emphasis that the crew must handle the boat also. You as skipper likely have the skills or close to them however most spouses or crew rarely take the helm in close quarters! It may be worth your life!



Question:
Since there is no one perfect way to approach a victim in the water I will list the two basic methods and ask you to match the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. Since this issue has no hardfast rules I am using Chapmans as the final answers that I provide.


A: Approach to windward of the victim
B: Approach to leeward of the victim


Advantages:
1 ) Creates a lee for the victim
2 ) Victim is protected from boat drifting on them or bouncing onto them
3 ) Can get close enough to lift victim
4 ) Ease of throwing a line or horseshoe ring
5 ) Best position a swimmer can reach the victim

Disadvantages:
6 ) A fast drifting boat and push the victim under water
7 ) Wave action can throw victim against boat
8 ) Difficulty staying close
9 ) Difficult to throw a line or horseshoe ring to victim
10 ) Wave Action can throw a smaller boat into or on the victim
11 ) A rescue swimmer might struggle more in the wave action

[tgentry]

No we haven't tried it yet, but I like the cocanut idea!

Here are my, unresearched answers:

A: 1, 4, 5, 6, 10
B: 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 11

[Andiron120]

Have run these drills many times both in ASA classes, and on my own boat with various people that crew for me. Also have one friend that seems to have a knack for finding any weakness in a life line, motor mount or any other piece of equipment, and have had the chance to pick him up multiple times. Another handy man overboard dummy is a bumper with a loop of line tied to one end, makes it easy to snag with the boathook. Hats and caps also somtimes provide an oppertunity for spur of the moment man overboard practice. Just guessing on the answeres, trying to think it through.

1. A.
2. B.
3. B.
4. A.
5. A.
6. A.
7. B.
8. B.
9. B.
10. A.
11. B.

[kokezaru]

I have tried a man overboard drill, actually more than once, with a hat. (and not by choice).
But the most difficult was the retrieval of a loose dinghy in a squal with a torn painter. Tried to go to leward of it, thinking it would drift closer and be easy to snag with a boat hook, but even with the sails down, our sailboat was still sailing in the strong winds, and the waves on the windward side made for bouncy conditions.
Ultimately, we came up on the windward side, keeping the dink in our lee, and I had to jump into the dinghy and re-tie the painter. It was an inconvenient situation, but I learned a lot, and it was kinda fun.

Here are my answers based on experience
A: 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10
B: 2, 3, 7, 9, 11

[Capt. Bondo]

I'll agree with the guys above, but #3 I'm a little unsure of.

We due spot overboard drills as we run across garbage and debris floating on the water.

...Cocoanuts... That would be a priceless momnent, to see Buba's and his buddys faces when a cocoanut floats by while they're fishings (in the upper-midwest)

[CaptainScott]

Answer:

A: 1, 4, 5, 6, 10
B: 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 11


For those Curious, I pulled this information from Chapmans Piloting and Seamanship 65th edition a chart on page 245. There is more reading on this subject there.

[Alanhod]

I try to do a man overboard drill every time I take crew out with me. Okay it's a hat overboard drill most of the time, little gust of wind, favorite hat goes over, hard over before it sinks and scoop it up.

No really I get in a few of these a year. I toss in a life vest when I've got crew and we practice in choppy water, high wind, low wind, etc. Most of the time it goes easy, but once in a while, it goes real bad. The real bad ones are the ones you really learn on and are happy it was not a real person you just hit with the bow, instead of the life vest.

I practice when solo sailing too. Any garbage floating in the water, I pick it up slow and easy like a man overboard. Then back to sailing, heeled over, spray over the bow, smiling really hard.

Thanks
Alan