Chrysler Sailors Forum

Safety Tip:
What a LONG weekend! We volunteered to sponsor a "Relay for Life" team this last weekend! Our daughter was the team captain of 15 teenagers! 13 girls and 2 boys! Basically, hundreds if not thousands of folks gather on the local high school running field and spend 24 hours walking! As a team we bring lots of stuff to sell. Mostly food items, water, hot drinks, etc. ALL proceeds are donated to research for a cure for cancer. Cold rain and wind with temps in the very low 40s made staying awake all night quite miserable! LOL!Not only did we sponsor but we volunteered for EVERY shift. Yes, parents came and went but my bride , daughter and I spent 24 hours there! So, you're probably wondering why I would post this in a safety tip. Easy. Head count. Just about every 15 minutes I was counting heads. Asking where was this person, who is walking, etc. etc. Literally counting every head on our team. I kept it to myself. No big deal, just a quite vigil. You should do the same on your boat. You should always know exactly how many heads are on your boat and you should count them extremely regularly and know exactly where everyone is! Yeah, I know, sounds a bit tedious on our boats however if you have this habit and one day you have guests aboard with kids, it will be a very easy transition to simply count them on a regular basis! If you race . . . ( I don't performance sail ) . . . . however if you do, and you have crew, you likely have folks scrambling all over your boat shifting weight, tending sails, or generally just having fun. You as Skipper of your boat are 100% responsible to insure the safety of everyone on board and that starts with knowing who is aboard, and where they are at all times! Count heads.


Question:
You're sailing in 15kts of wind with 4 people aboard including you as skipper. They day is sunny, water temps are in the upper 70's, there are other boats within visual range of your boat, you do not have a burn barrel onboard to use an emergency signal, however you do have appropriate flares, VHF, GPS, cockpit seat cushions, Life Sling, horseshoe floatation device, and life jackets neatly stowed under the dinette table. One person accidently goes overboard. What is the first thing you would do?
Extra credit if you put them all in order.


A: Turn the boat into the wind to stop it as soon as possible
B: Throw floatation device to person overboard
C: Start engine
D: Assign a person on board to spot the person that fell overboard
E : Hail the Coast Guard to inform them of a person in the water.
F: Set the GPS to indicate the spot the person fell in so you can return to the same spot.
G: Deploy the Life Sling

Wow

Good on you for taking such an active part in an event like that! You guys rock!

Well on my boat with me at the helm it be;

Edit to explain now I have a sec:
D; ASAP have someone who's only job is to maintain a visual on the hoser that fell overboard.

A, B, done at same time, stop the boat and toss dopey sumthing to hang on to.

C, I'd drop my engine and get it going for control while:

G, the sling gets tossed to get Darwin back on board

F, E.... It would take me a bit to get a GPS Mark set and it's not close to my tiller, and we have no Coast Guard, but some help on the way by the Sheriff's Office would be good if things didn't go well

And I agree w/ parared, my ladder is usually laid up by the motor and would have to be set up to be usable...

Didn't check the books, this is just my intuition. Personally, with 70+ water temp, I'd likely drop anchor and join them. But that doesn't make for a good Monday Safety Question, does it? (Unless, of course, I say I'm going to deploy my black ball!) (Yeah, I know it's not required on my little 22, but work with me....)

OK here goes, please provide feedback! Still very much learning here!

B, especially because the life vests are "neatly stowed under the dinette" instead of on the "surprized swimmer's" carcass!
D, "B" will aid in this.
A, can be done at same time as "F"
F, mine has a MOB button. Quick and easy
C, make approach from down wind
G,
E (If you've succesfully fished your crewmate out of the drink, is this required?)
H, assign someone to kick my butt for not demanding everyone has a vest either on (my pref) or within immediate access.

I'd think

B
D
A
C

---

Is F helpful? My intuition would be that small, slow boats like a C22, with a spotter and a flotation device in the water, you'd be better off not trying to use the GPS to get back to the spot.

Wouldn't think you would need to do E unless you thought either A ) you would have trouble with the retrieval, or B ) they were injured.

And G, swim ladder ok?

I'll go with:
D
B
A
F
C
E
G

Depending on the conditions you may be ready to bring the wet sole on board after 4 steps

Ok, I just took the ASA101 exam last week, and practiced MOB 3 times, 1 into the wind, 2 times downwind, so I better get this right, lol.

1. Assign a person on board to spot the person that fell overboard, and have them call out boat lengths to the person/item.
2. Throw floatation device to person overboard
3. Turn the boat onto a Beam Reach
4. Assign a person as the retriever and have them get a line or hook.
5. At 3 boat lengths, Tack accross the wind, sail downwind of the person/item
6. Head up on a Close Reach, aiming just downwind of the person/item, and let the jib luff. (you just completed a figure 8 )
7. Let the main luff coming to a stop on the downwind side of the person/item.

If you were headed downwind, you'll have to jibe, which is more dangerous because of the 180 degree swing of the boom.

I'll go home tonight and look it up in my book.

Here's a picture I found:

If done properly with an experienced crew, the Jibe method can get you to the MOB quicker, but is more dangerous because of the boom, and can only be done with winds under 20 kts.

I will take a stab at it.

B: Throw floatation device to person overboard
D: Assign a person on board to spot the person that fell overboard
F: Set the GPS to indicate the spot the person fell in so you can return to the same spot.
A: Turn the boat into the wind to stop it as soon as possible
E : Hail the Coast Guard to inform them of a person in the water.
C: Start engine
G: Deploy the Life Sling

Answer:
D. Assign a person on board to spot the person that fell overboard
The very first thing you do when a person goes overboard is asign a person to keep eye contact on the overboard person 100% of the time pointing at the overboard person until they have been rescued.
I've mentioned before. Go buy a coconut.Better make that two. Go sailing in 12 kt's of wind.Toss the coconut overboard. Close your eyes for 60 seconds. Now see if you can find the coconut! You may be in for one huge surprise! Remember a coconut looks similar to a human head in the water.


However the real lesson was in the extra credit and it may not be what you think!
How sure are you of your answers? Kinda? Positive? SWAG? Better yet, how much thought did you put into your answers?
Did you read each and every option carefully? Did you prioritize them with great agony because you were unsure between this one and that one?
Did you maybe think of other options while you considered what I supplied?

How long did it take you to order them in highest priorty first? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? Are you still reading this just hoping I'd answer so you could validate your unsure responses?
There in lies the problem. When a person goes overboard minutes can mean a life. You should right now ALREADY know exatly what you'd do in case some one falls over. You should already have a mental plan. You should have already exercised that plan to insure it will work. What you think you will do sitting at your computer reading a question will be quite different from what you actually do in a panic situation. If you already have a plan, have exercised it, and can answer immediately what you would do you are far ahead of most.

As far as the real answer? TravisJ gets a gold star! He had a plan. Answered what he would do regardless of my options, and indicated he has recent exercised his plan 3 times! YEAH!! My hat is off to to you Travis j!



There are several different MOB plans that can be exercised depending on conditions. I did not even mention a MOB pole. Select a plan. Know your plan. Exercise you plan.


Scott

The MOB drill can be used for items that fall off the boat, not just people. The Cpt. teaching my class said he was on a charter down in the islands with 3 other very experienced sailors and their full trash bag came untied and fell into the water and he instantly went into the drill and the other guys had no clue what to do.

I know it's not the real thing, but I'll practice on garbage and stuff that we find floating down the river. It keeps our boat/sail handling skills sharp, and helps keep our waters clean.
Last year I even saved a large bumper from drifting to the gulf, or even worse, hanging from the side of a pot-stinker while under way, which is probably why it was adrift to begin with.