How Do Couples Cruisers Fall Off Boats?

[Briggers]

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

A gentle shove does the job, I find...

How many have you got through using this method?
😂😂😂

[django37]

Have sailed cruising cats for 58 years. Asked all friends, and none have ever heard of anyone falling overboard from a cruising cat

[Little John]

Trust in murphys law and tether always. Combine this tactic with AIS Sart
in the personal life wests and you or your partners will:

Never go overboard

and in case of trouble and AIS right configured

You have an alarm and the position of your MOB

I think this is state of the art. More risk reduction is possible only by not go sailing.

[mabowers]

Originally Posted by django37

Have sailed cruising cats for 58 years. Asked all friends, and none have ever heard of anyone falling overboard from a cruising cat

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20...h-daughter-dad

[FlyingScot]

Originally Posted by mabowers

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20...h-daughter-dad

Unfortunate. Smaller than most cruising catamarans (in the modern era).
Also from the article “said Scott suffered from epileptic seizures”. May have been the reason.

[Briggers]

I live in the UK and we have the Lifeboat Service which is a volunteer service, and a pretty damned good one. Different to your Coastguards but efficient.
However, most of my sailing is in Croatian waters where no one seems to monitor CH16 and the chances of anyone responding to a call on that channel are remote to say the least. I am fairly certain that there is no organised offshore rescue organisation either.
So when you are sailing, it’s best not to rely on anyone else coming to your aid and take all necessary precautions to make sure no one ends up in the water, even though it’s nice and warm in the summer months.

[Bill_Giles]

Our rule aboard is if you are alone on deck you are wearing a harness and safety line. Pretty boring, but who needs the excitement of searching for a body overboard, explaining it to the police, coroner, next of kin, loved ones etc. There is a further issue, if someone is lost overboard and no body is found there are serious ramifications of dealing with the estate, having someone declared dead etc. Furthermore, I would not like to arrive home sans wife and be accused of murdering her!

[houseofcharm]

Just recently, a friend's in law had a seizure and fell off while alone at the helm. Dad and daughter sleeping below. They found him but he didn't pull through. A sad shock.

[houseofcharm]

Originally Posted by mabowers

www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20190621/boater-who-died-wednesday-near-palm-beach-was-traveling-to-keys-with-daughter-dad

And that's the fellow. Likely a seizure.

[svmariane]

Originally Posted by thinwater

I'm sure there are many answers. Let's list examples, not theories.

Okay - here's our little story:

Situation: My girlfriend (now wife) went overboard. Never figured out why. We were approaching port. Late afternoon, fine weather - bikini weather. We'd been building up her sea miles prior to her taking her Yacht Master's practical exam. My job: shut up and do what I'm told so she could practice being Captain. Two of us aboard a hired Bavaian 320. Still under sail but with the main reefed. (For practice at reefing, not because of wxr.)

Incident: Me at the helm. She was returning from the foredeck. One moment she's crabbing along the sidedeck, the next she's in the water hanging onto the toerail with a deathgrip. Neither life jacket nor teather.

Went to her, grabbed a shroud with one hand and her lower arm with my other and just pulled her up - up far enough that she herself could grab a shroud and get her feet on deck. Must have been adrenaline, though it helped that she's thin and only weighed about 55 kilos (120 lbs).


After Action Report: She paid for dinner and drinks ashore that night. Lots of drinks.

But seriously, back home at the end of the trip I got to thinking. Realized that we didn't wear life jackets because the PFDs that came with the rental boat were those awkward, uncomfortable, orange slabs. I purchased two self inflating units with built in harness and also two teathers. They went into my "sailing kit" and came with us - and were used - on all future little jaunts to sea aboard hired boats. 'Course, that was back in the mid ninetys when European airlines didn't object to air cartridges in luggage.

That was the only time either of us felll overboard. Well, except for that time we were docked and came home from a pub late at night. She decided to hang her backside over the stern rather than mess with the marine toilet. The boarding steps were raised but not secured. So yeah, they flipped down and she went splash.

[houseofcharm]

As a teen, I swore I was in the hiking strap on 1st heel in a 21' Mobjack but 'lo, I did the perfect diver's plunge backwards.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by django37

Have sailed cruising cats for 58 years. Asked all friends, and none have ever heard of anyone falling overboard from a cruising cat

I can think of a couple..

[Cpt Pat]

A little off topic but, does anyone know why (I am told) the USCG won't certify a PDF if it has leg straps or a crotch strap? It seems rather useless to not have the strap if one is using a tether. It's like having a parachute harness without leg straps - you'll fall right out.

BTW, I worked on submarines. There are no lifelines. Just tethers, hard points and jacklines. We wore what was basically a cheap parachute harness. And those boats wallow like a drunk cow on the surface.

[JAFO]

Regarding recovery by the lone partner of an injured/unconscious person overboard...

In Australia we have a company marketing what they call the "SOS Recovery Ladder". I'd imagine it was inspired by stories of people using a jib to recover an unconscious person from the water. I seem to recall having read such accounts in the past myself.

Besides serving as an emergency boarding ladder that can be released by someone in the water, it's also designed to be used to winch an unconscious person back on board. It also has the advantage that, by keeping the victim horizontal during recovery, it reduces the likelihood of them then dying due to hypothermic aftershock. Like anything else, it's not perfect, but it would seem to be a useful option to have available. I'm considering one for my own boat...

I'm curious as to people's thoughts on the product/concept?

https://www.sosmarine.com/product/sos-recovery-ladder/


(Video link is set to start one minute in, as the winching-aboard bit is more apropos to this discussion than simply watching someone climb a ladder.)
Edit: ok.. looks like the embedded video refuses to honour the 58 seconds part of the link.. sorry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ1uRRa-cTE&t=58

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by JAFO

Regarding recovery by the lone partner of an injured/unconscious person overboard...

In Australia we have a company marketing what they call the "SOS Recovery Ladder". I'd imagine it was inspired by stories of people using a jib to recover an unconscious person from the water. I seem to recall having read such accounts in the past myself.

Besides serving as an emergency boarding ladder that can be released by someone in the water, it's also designed to be used to winch an unconscious person back on board. It also has the advantage that, by keeping the victim horizontal during recovery, it reduces the likelihood of them then dying due to hypothermic aftershock. Like anything else, it's not perfect, but it would seem to be a useful option to have available. I'm considering one for my own boat...

I'm curious as to people's thoughts on the product/concept?

https://www.sosmarine.com/product/sos-recovery-ladder/


(Video link is set to start one minute in, as the winching-aboard bit is more apropos to this discussion than simply watching someone climb a ladder.)
Edit: ok.. looks like the embedded video refuses to honour the 58 seconds part of the link.. sorry.

Theory is good, but one assumes if you go overboard, it’s due to nasty weather, high winds and seas.
Not to be a pessimist, but my assumption is that if I go overboard, I’m dead.
Now I’m going to recover her or die trying, but figure in a all reality that if I go over, she can’t, she doesn’t have the upper body strength etc., and I weigh more than I should, I’m 250 lbs.
We tried me in the Lifsling with the spare halyard, worked fine in the Marina
Therefore I am going to try my best to not go overboard.
That may sound silly, but I’m focused more on prevention than recovery myself, although of course you need a recovery plan for her.
For me, it’s that lifesling and the spare halyard, although I’m aware it’s far from ideal.

That device would have been ideal for the old man that fell in at Brunswick Landing, it would have turned a 911 call and fire dept rescue into a non event.

Link worked fine for me?