Recommended me a lifebuoy with sea anchor.

[Dave_S]

I want to buy a lifebuoy, I'd like one that had its own sea anchor so once deployed it should move roughly with the MOB, at least not float away on the wind. The type that deploys underwater as part of the ring like a life raft.

Looking for something that will increase the chances of finding them day or night. With and without help from others.

[Chotu]

Side suggestion: throw everything that floats overboard too. Cushions, coolers, etc. makes it much easier to find MOB

[Discovery 15797]

Sounds to me you are describing the SWITLIK MOM 8 MAN OVERBOARD MODULE

Chotu is spot on...easier to find a debris field than a single head bobbing in the between the crests of waves.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by Discovery 15797

Sounds to me you are describing the SWITLIK MOM 8 MAN OVERBOARD MODULE

Chotu is spot on...easier to find a debris field than a single head bobbing in the between the crests of waves.

That's the type of thing but I look at these things and they seem so cheaply made it would be hard to bet your life on it and grossly overpriced just to rub salt into the wound... it irks me to buy one.

I'm thinking of having a quick release on the tender and just drop it.

You could have a sea anchor that deployed as the tender fell behind the mother ship and pulled the parachute off the boat. You could have the hand held radio in the tender, flares, personal Epirb disco lights if you want, other advantages are you can see it on radar and if you still cant find them they can come to you.

Am I missing something ?

[Cpt Mark]

there are several MOB alerts people can wear on their vest/body that alert the mothership someone is MOB and where they are. I'd look at investing in 2 or 3 of those.

[Cadence]

The biggest thing with a MOB is not to panic.

[CarlF]

Why make the MOB swim to something? Or count on someone else releasing a buoy?

For not that much more money, you can give everyone an inflatable life vest with an AIS MOB attached. These go off automatically when the vest inflates and the alarm from the chart plotter is plenty loud.

Range 3+ miles (I picked up a false activation at 8 miles). They also have an automatic light.

[Discovery 15797]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

That's the type of thing but I look at these things and they seem so cheaply made it would be hard to bet your life on it and grossly overpriced just to rub salt into the wound... it irks me to buy one.

I'm thinking of having a quick release on the tender and just drop it.

You could have a sea anchor that deployed as the tender fell behind the mother ship and pulled the parachute off the boat. You could have the hand held radio in the tender, flares, personal Epirb disco lights if you want, other advantages are you can see it on radar and if you still cant find them they can come to you.

Am I missing something ?

You could also have a helicopter to search for a MOB if you had a big enough boat.

You asked for lifebuoy device with a sea anchor to deploy in a MOB situation, and that's what I provided.

But, obviously..you are looking for ideas on what to use for a MOB situation.

Again...I would suggest Chotu's response is correct...throw everything that floats.

[grantmc]

Originally Posted by CarlF

...give everyone an inflatable life vest with an AIS MOB attached. ...

I would prefer to have a PLB rather than AIS; certainly if I fell in myself.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by Discovery 15797

You could also have a helicopter to search for a MOB if you had a big enough boat.

You asked for lifebuoy device with a sea anchor to deploy in a MOB situation, and that's what I provided.

But, obviously..you are looking for ideas on what to use for a MOB situation.

Again...I would suggest Chotu's response is correct...throw everything that floats.

I apologize if I have offended, I had looked at the type you showed me and you are correct, that was what I was talking about.

[joelhemington]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

I apologize if I have offended, I had looked at the type you showed me and you are correct, that was what I was talking about.

The quick release dinghy sounds good to me, combined with CarlF's recommendation sounds like the way to go. It's imperative that everyone on the boat know there's an MOB - otherwise they could be miles away before they were discovered missing. Unless the sizes of your crew varies widely, you could get away with just enough inflatable vests for the watch crew only. Depending on how many crew you had aboard, there may not be enough hands to slow down the boat and keep eyes on the MOB - this is where the dinghy would come in handy.

[Discovery 15797]

Originally Posted by grantmc

I would prefer to have a PLB rather than AIS; certainly if I fell in myself.

The PLBs are perhaps good for single handers to have some sliver of hope.

But, if you have 2 or more people on the boat...the nearest rescue is coming from the boat you just fell off. In that scenario a personal AIS is hands down the best solution compared to a PLB.

[Discovery 15797]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

I apologize if I have offended, I had looked at the type you showed me and you are correct, that was what I was talking about.

Not at all offended Dave. I'm pretty thick skinned.

And I was being a bit sarcastic in my response.

Lots of good ideas here...and it's good to think of this sort of stuff in case it happens rather than when it happens.

[Nani Kai]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

That's the type of thing but I look at these things and they seem so cheaply made it would be hard to bet your life on it and grossly overpriced just to rub salt into the wound... it irks me to buy one.

I'm thinking of having a quick release on the tender and just drop it.

You could have a sea anchor that deployed as the tender fell behind the mother ship and pulled the parachute off the boat. You could have the hand held radio in the tender, flares, personal Epirb disco lights if you want, other advantages are you can see it on radar and if you still cant find them they can come to you.

Am I missing something ?

We have the SWITLIK MOM 8 on our Leopard 39. I disagree that it is cheaply made. It is lightweight so that it folds up compactly, releases cleanly and inflates instantaneously. It also has to be serviced/re-certified every 2 years to ensure that it is operating properly and is in good condition. Another part of the expense certainly but I guarantee you if you deploy it in an MOB situation you won't care how much it cost.

The MOM is designed to be highly visible day or night and to drift with wind and current in a reasonably comparable manner to a person floating in the same conditions. It's proximity to the MOB will depend on a whole list of conditions, not the least of which is how quickly it was deployed. For this reason, we assume the inflated pylon will not be precisely at the MOB's position but rather will be a common point that the MOB and the boat will both try to get to or in the case of the MOB at least try to maintain their relative position to. For a MOB situation at night, we teach that the MOB should illuminate the MOM pylon with a rescue laser https://www.greatlandlaser.com/that is attached to each of our PFDs. The laser is extremely effective in lighting up reflective surfaces like the tape on the pylon from very far away.

Keep in mind this is just one element in your MOB response plan. As others suggest, leaving a trail of floating "breadcrumbs" behind your boat is an excellent idea as is regularly running MOB drills, including how to mark the position where the MOB occurred using your chart plotter and how to get the get the boat on a reciprocal course as quickly as possible by initiating a Williamson Turn or other appropriate maneuvers.

As for dropping the tender into the water quickly, any system that would allow you to do that reliably without accidental deployment would IMO cost far more that the MOM 8. You would also be removing a very important rescue tool to retrieve an MOB from the water once you reached them, especially in severe weather.

We carry all the safety devices your mention having onboard the tender on our bodies, with the exception of flares. We each have Nautilus Lifeline submersible marine vhf radio/EPIRBS that we carry in our weather gear">foul weather gear pocket or clipped onto to our PFD harness, the Greatland rescue laser mentioned above as well as strobe lights. As other posts have indicated above a Personal Locator Beacon would also be a device worth considering.

As a charter dive boat captain for many years as well as a deep water drift diver I have been the diver in the water or searched for and picked up dozens of divers floating at the surface in all kinds of conditions and visibility. You cannot have too many rescue aids at your disposable.

Hope this helps. Stay safe.