Sailor lost overboard

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Dennis.G

Regarding drag line:

I have fouled the prop of my current boat with a line only once, and that one time was with a polypro line streaming behind boat (we were doing MOB exercise at the time with a Life Sling). Thinking the polypro is immune from getting into prop or rudder is fantasy.

Unless a pull on the drag line causes a release of self-steering, auto-pilot or engine shut down don't see much use. Doubt one could hold onto a wet poly rope going by at 6 knots for more than a second or two. Chance of hand-over-handing back to boat is stuff of action movies, not real life.

For the seventeenth time, I slow the boat down. For the 20th time, there are hand loops in the polypro. Having tried it, it makes a HUGE difference. That was my addition, but having tried it, if you're going to use a drag line, I strongly recommend figure-8 loops, and plenty of them. I personally don't think the polypro is going to snag the propeller or the rudder if there's nothing on it, and I don't think it will happen with the weight of a person on it. Maybe the life sling was enough to do it, but I still think polypro or some other floating line would be better than a sinking line on a life sling.

[Jimbo485]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

It's easy to act balls out when the crap isn't hitting the fan. But if you saw a loved one in the water or disabled in some way onboard and had the chance to save their life via radio EPIRB or whatever, your thinking might change. I can't imagine someone bellying up to the bar bragging how their wife or child died while being self-sufficient.

Well, when the **** has hit the fan - many times over the years, from near drownings, shipwrecks, knockdowns, etc - we don't call Mama for help. Our thinking hasn't changed at all. We knuckle down, stop the fan and clean up the ****. We have headed out to sea to rescue others (once at the request of the USCG) but have come to a very personal decision to remove our own ability to call for long distance help.

By removing that capacity to call for help, it obliges us to be more prepared. Surely you can't disagree with that? Perhaps you will.

OTOH it does expose us to different risks - mainly medical. It would absolutely break our hearts if one of us died or we lost our boat. It could happen next month. But we accept that risk. Just as all people should accept risks for whatever they all do, whether it is driving down the highway or enlisting in the armed forces. It has nothing to do with bragging at the bar.

Anyway - and here is the kicker! - now that we are back in our own country, we have the obligation to obey the laws that apply to us (but they do not apply to foreign yachties). So I will buy an EPIRB next week. Against my will but I will obey the law to avoid hassles.

Fortunately the law does not oblige us to have a life raft or insurance.