Are you ready for man overboard - True story

[SV Bacchus]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

LifeSling, Lifesling, LifeSling.

It works. I've used it to recover an idiot and his dog.

Ken, thinking of that other thread is this one of the people that wouldn't listen to directions? Slight thread drift but might explain how he ended up in the water and probably with no lifejacket!

[toddster8]

Has someone already pointed out that WM has Lifesling on sale for $99? Sale ends today.

[Jdege]

Seems to me there are two parts to MOB retrieval:

1. Getting back to the MOB
2. Getting the MOB back in the boat

Does this seem like as neat idea to everyone else as it does to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpu2oHMi9IY

[toddster8]

Originally Posted by Jdege

Seems to me there are two parts to MOB retrieval:

1. Getting back to the MOB
2. Getting the MOB back in the boat

Maybe worth noting that the sling is not the complete Lifesling system. One also needs a means of hoisting the POB, in the sling, back on-board. Many of us probably feel confident that we can hoist a soggy crew with one hand, if needed. But the premise of the Lifesling is that the large person might be the POB and a small person might need to do the recovery. It turns out that the mainsheet suspended at the end of the boom (my original plan) does not actually lift high enough to get a POB, hanging in a sling, over the rail. (It might do, on a larger boat.) A halyard, lead fair to a primary winch might do the job. But the official method is to attach a block and tackle to a halyard, hoist it ten feet up the mast, then hoist the POB with the block & tackle, maybe plus a winch. Lifesling sells such a tackle, but I have enough extra line on my 4:1 vang - and snap shackles on both ends - to quickly deploy for that purpose. And it's always right there. I knew there was some reason that I never got around to trimming that line...

Anyhow, some kind of rigging that can hoist from the waterline to a body-length above the rail needs to be arranged, tested, and staged. If one doesn't have such rigging on deck, it might be worth adding the Lifesling tackle to any purchase of said system.

Probably also useful for all sorts of other stuff, like dinghies, outboards, etc.

edit re: using the mainsheet and boom - also turned out that my topping lift is not up to the task. One would need to also run a halyard to support the end of the boom. It pays to work out these details in advance!

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by toddster8

Maybe worth noting that the sling is not the complete Lifesling system. One also needs a means of hoisting the POB, in the sling, back on-board. Many of us probably feel confident that we can hoist a soggy crew with one hand, if needed. But the premise of the Lifesling is that the large person might be the POB and a small person might need to do the recovery.

Maybe we need to a step 1-1/2 to my list: getting a line on the guy in the water. That's not always trivial.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by SV Bacchus

Ken, thinking of that other thread is this one of the people that wouldn't listen to directions? Slight thread drift but might explain how he ended up in the water and probably with no lifejacket!

Yes, same guy. I wanted the dog to have a life jacket that day, the guy refused and said the dog was ok without one. I was new to having guests onboard and wasn't forceful enough in my conviction, but thank goodness for the idiot's sake, I had a Lifesling and had rehearsed in my head how to do a MOB.

BIG lesson learned that day.

I don't require life jackets to be worn all the time onboard our current boat, but when conditions warrant them or forward deck work is being done in windy conditions.... the life vests and tethers go on. No if, ands or buts. And if guests don't listen and argue regarding safety requests... they aren't invited back.

So far, there are only two people on our "no-fly" list.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by toddster8

Maybe worth noting that the sling is not the complete Lifesling system. One also needs a means of hoisting the POB, in the sling, back on-board. Many of us probably feel confident that we can hoist a soggy crew with one hand, if needed. But the premise of the Lifesling is that the large person might be the POB and a small person might need to do the recovery. It turns out that the mainsheet suspended at the end of the boom (my original plan) does not actually lift high enough to get a POB, hanging in a sling, over the rail. (It might do, on a larger boat.) A halyard, lead fair to a primary winch might do the job. But the official method is to attach a block and tackle to a halyard, hoist it ten feet up the mast, then hoist the POB with the block & tackle, maybe plus a winch. Lifesling sells such a tackle, but I have enough extra line on my 4:1 vang - and snap shackles on both ends - to quickly deploy for that purpose. And it's always right there. I knew there was some reason that I never got around to trimming that line...



Anyhow, some kind of rigging that can hoist from the waterline to a body-length above the rail needs to be arranged, tested, and staged. If one doesn't have such rigging on deck, it might be worth adding the Lifesling tackle to any purchase of said system.

Probably also useful for all sorts of other stuff, like dinghies, outboards, etc.

edit re: using the mainsheet and boom - also turned out that my topping lift is not up to the task. One would need to also run a halyard to support the end of the boom. It pays to work out these details in advance!

The boom along with a block and tackle can be used for MOB retrieval, or as in our case, we just bring the MOB to the stern sugar scoop with a swim ladder.

[fxykty]

I had one mob incident over 20 years ago, half way between Australia and New Caledonia, while delivering a Farr 1104 with 3 French guys (I was the lone English speaker with just high school French), so comms on board were basic. We ran 2-person watches and were pushing relatively hard to get ahead of a developing system.

On the third night, broad reaching with single reefed main and blade jib in 20 or so knots, surfing at high single and low double figures, dark night with no moon, I was woken by the call "Manu est dans la mere!" (Manu is in the sea). At the same time the remaining guy on watch guy tried to crash stop the boat, so we were knocked down flat. My first thought was '****, that's our skipper gone'. All the wine glasses flew out of the sink (French boat, red wine every evening) and I remember the two of us off watch getting glass in our feet as we scrambled up to the cockpit.

On deck, the main shredded and the boat fell back onto a broad reach and was rocketing away from Manu. Manu was not in sight. A mob pole with light was thrown by the other guy on watch and we couldn't see that either. We took some amount of time to get the main under control and jib down (no furler), check for lines, and started the engine. By the time we turned back onto our reciprocal track at least 15 minutes must have passed, so probably 2 - 3 miles or so from the mob.

We had a basic gps, but no mob function and no track information. Our motoring speed was likely about half of our sailing speed and I remember getting pretty cold while standing on the cabin top near the mast. And my feet were bleeding all over the place.

Boat was bucking up and down with the wind waves and swell just off the bow and it was dark enough that we could barely see the water surface. It must have been a good 20 minutes or more before, at the top of a swell, one of us spotted a strobe light off our windward bow. Holy ****, what a relief.

It took another 10 minutes of bashing straight into the waves and wind to get up to Manu (obviously in hind sight the boat had a lot more leeway than a guy in the water without a life jacket - we didn't wear PDFs but did have harnesses). We found out later that Manu had just unclipped to climb into the cabin when he got thrown over.

Once we got closer we could see that he was just floating on his back, holding onto the mob pole, and had just enough energy to kind of wave to us. No way we could come alongside with the waves. The boat had a sugar scoop stern, so in the end we backed up side to the wind to within about 10m of him, then one of the guys grabbed the horseshoe buoy on a line and jumped in. He swam over, got Manu into the buoy, and we hauled them both to the stern. It took all three of us to haul Manu onto the stern, as he was unable to help himself and the boat was rolling gunnel to gunnel.

Once everyone was in the cockpit we turned the boat onto our original course, then tied off the tiller to lay ahull and all went below. Manu got stripped off and we packed him with chemical heat packs under a blanket, drank a couple of bottles of wine, then all crashed.

The next day it was about lunch time by the time we got a trysail up and paired it with the blade jib. Still plenty of wind so reasonable speed, and we made it to Noumea in a few more days. Manu stayed in his berth through to the next day.

That's the only mob I've ever had offshore, and even though it was 27 years ago and I can't remember much else, I still shake with the feeling I had when I heard the mob call.

Manu was a water sports instructor at the local Club Med and competitive free diver, so I think that's the only reason he was able to keep himself afloat for over 30 minutes in sub tropical water and big seas without a life jacket.

Lesson learned: pfd with harness, and stay clipped on until you're inside the companionway. Bonus points for having your own light and a personal AIS mob locator (well, only useful if you have an AIS receiver on board). And as others have noted, don't minimise the difficulty of getting an unresponsive person back onto your boat.