Why Do Sailors Still Die Being Dragged Along By Their Tethers?

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

@ Kenomac, #63:

Yes of course, Ken, but please see my thanks to Dockhead, #67 :-)

The boat you depict, I take it, is your own. Regrettably we can't all say that the Oyster is our world ;-)! As you know, because I've said it so often, I believe that no man should invest more money in a boat than he can walk away from with smile on his face. And a 20-year old Oyster 53 sells for a million Canuckibux, so perhaps the owners of such boats are not really my target audience :-)

Think of our new friend who'd proposed to "go foreign" in a Grampian 23! So I say again that my hope is that we can make these wonderful discussions accessible for, and relevant to, the novices that pass through here.

The fact is that it takes less than a mouthful of water to drown a man. Coldwater sailors, as you know well, are more likely to drown, when OB, than are those who sail where the coconuts grow. And they are much LESS likely to be able to help themselves once in the drink. Rescue gear is always essential, of course, but in cold water it is even more essential :-)!

I think we owe it to the newbs to discuss what can be done to save the day, and the victim, when bad things happen in a minimal boat such as many newbs will be starting
out on.

Cheers

TP

The Lifesling costs only $100, can be homemade for about $50 and can be deployed from any boat including the O’Day 20 entry level boat we owned 40 years ago. A drysuit can also be worn on anyboat including an O’Day 20.

I don’t understand your point.

[MarkusK]

Originally Posted by puffcard

I have fallen overboard and the napping crew heard me yelling as I was going over. I was able to grab the leeward lifelines. Being drag at 6 kts, lost hat, glasses and shorts were around my feet. Did a quick stop, and deploy a Lifesling. Back on the boat in under 5. It was light winds, daylight and summer. Two things I will always have on my boat, a Lifesling and a super quick to deploy boarding ladder. That can be launched by someone in the water, underway or at the dock. I personally know of four people who have die falling overboard at a marina and none at sea.

Good thread. Has me thinking about the bungee cord on my folding boarding ladder...does not allow for quick or easy deployment by person in water. Replace it with a highwayman's hitch?
How do others secure their folding ladder?

[TrentePieds]

Oh, but I think you do, Ken :-).

So let me just say, that the first things I taught MyBeloved were such things as have been emphasized here: You don't go in the cockpit without your floater c/w harness and tether. Clip on immediately you are there. Don't leave the cockpit, not even to go below, without reporting/asking permission as appropriate. Don't "help" unless told off to do so. Then do what you are told off to do promptly and proficiently. Then report completion of the task. Etc., etc. You know the list better'n I do, I'm sure :-)!

And because she is still less than an AB, I basically singlehand the boat. With all the caution that that requires. I was taught long ago that skipper's first responsibility is to keep his crew safe, and he can't do that except by keeping his ship safe.

As you say, a "lifesling" can be made for a very few bux and she has been taught both how to make one of those from a length of line as well as how to enter one of those when in the water. She is a moderately good swimmer, but even so, we have to live with the fact that in our water, the involuntary gasping that is the consequence of getting dunked may well drown a person and/or render him/her incapable of entering a LifeSling when the chips are really down.

The ONLY surefire method of saving a crew member from drowning is for skipper to make sure that no-one ever enters the water. But for us wimpy coastal cruiserswho skipper el-cheapo boats and whose interest in racing has long since departed, that isn't too hard. But we still have to have the required gear, and we still need to teach even the greenest of crew members how to use it. Just in case we, skippers, blow it ;-).

For me - because a PO "improved" the boat by installing a mast-furling main - the required gear is inter alia a running topping lift to make the boom serve as a cargo boom.

TP

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by MarkusK

Good thread. Has me thinking about the bungee cord on my folding boarding ladder...does not allow for quick or easy deployment by person in water. Replace it with a highwayman's hitch?
How do others secure their folding ladder?

I had my boarding ladder extended last year so the bottom 2 steps are well under the water and it can be used to get out of the water not just out of a dinghy....
Secured by a bit of string maybe a metre long attached to the lower section.... I just take a couple of simple turns around the little cleat on the upper section and leave the tail hanging... some one in the water just has to give the tail a couple of flicks and its off the cleat and down comes the ladder... hitting them on the head and knocking them out...oh well no system is perfect....

To aid in getting people back on board amidships my 'lifelines' are terminated as shown.... cut them and you have a good uncluttered section of rail to work at.

And , yes , I have jacklines down the centreline...waist high between mast and baby stay and then sloping down to the bow.... centre cockpit so only a small area of complication between cockpit and mast...

Re hoving to to do foredeck work.. I can think of nothing worse in a seaway... you are converting the foredeck from a stable work platform into an express lift...'on passage' foredeck work for me usual involves changing hanked on storm jibs, setting up a pole or - not really the foredeck - reefing. Only rule is that no one leaves the cockpit unless a second person is 'on deck'.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Oh, but I think you do, Ken :-).

So let me just say, that the first things I taught MyBeloved were such things as have been emphasized here: You don't go in the cockpit without your floater c/w harness and tether. Clip on immediately you are there. Don't leave the cockpit, not even to go below, without reporting/asking permission as appropriate. Don't "help" unless told off to do so. Then do what you are told off to do promptly and proficiently. Then report completion of the task. Etc., etc. You know the list better'n I do, I'm sure :-)!

And because she is still less than an AB, I basically singlehand the boat. With all the caution that that requires. I was taught long ago that skipper's first responsibility is to keep his crew safe, and he can't do that except by keeping his ship safe.

As you say, a "lifesling" can be made for a very few bux and she has been taught both how to make one of those from a length of line as well as how to enter one of those when in the water. She is a moderately good swimmer, but even so, we have to live with the fact that in our water, the involuntary gasping that is the consequence of getting dunked may well drown a person and/or render him/her incapable of entering a LifeSling when the chips are really down.

The ONLY surefire method of saving a crew member from drowning is for skipper to make sure that no-one ever enters the water. But for us wimpy coastal cruiserswho skipper el-cheapo boats and whose interest in racing has long since departed, that isn't too hard. But we still have to have the required gear, and we still need to teach even the greenest of crew members how to use it. Just in case we, skippers, blow it ;-).

For me - because a PO "improved" the boat by installing a mast-furling main - the required gear is inter alia a running topping lift to make the boom serve as a cargo boom.

TP

I still don’t understand the point you’re attempting to make. But it sounds to me like your crew needs to learn how to properly conduct a rescue.

[Kerry1]

Originally Posted by conachair

Sounds like that's what the crew were doing, lanyard snapped before they got a halyard attached to his harness. No details of timescale - could have been seconds or many minutes for all we know.

If the above is true, could it not be assumed then, that it would be far better to have included a halyard type arrangement on his tethering system before he went overboard?

Somewhere, on this forum I believe, someone was advocating the use of support with halyards for foredeck work. It seems that jacklines are pretty inadequate for preventing when the deck is so narrow near the bow. As a further possible developement, roofers sometimes use a tether system that keeps them within a predetermined range of the edge of the roof. It allows movement with a light tension that feeds the tether on demand but if the rate of movement exceeds a certain limit then it locks up just as a seatbelt does. What of a tether/jackline system in combination with a halyard that is capable of feeding line or someone manning the other end of the halyard? In hindsight, how much trouble is too much where a life is concerned?
Something for an enterprising entrepreneur to develop?

[admiralslater]

That terrible accident of Barbados really got me thinking this fall. Being a racing sailor on Multihulls most of my life , and doing it the summer on Lake Ontario I was some what lackadaisical in my approach to om board saftey . With my wife I am a conservative sailor but my going overboard is her biggest concern . I have already purchased spinlock inflatable vests with two leg harness and the boat has a life sling .
After reading about the accident I have purchased a Veper Ais transponder , mob1 beacons and will be permanently fitting jack lines , I will also fit a short floating line for in the water ladder deployment . We shall also do some drills .
I dont want you guys talking smack about me if something goes wrong !

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by boatman61

But.. you have to remember I work without a tether .....

Explains why you are so calm all the time - you have never come to the end of your tether...

Originally Posted by boatman61

Keno's floating drysuit suggestion is a good one for those sailing in waters N of 40..
However I personally prefer a 4mm wet suit and windsurf boots combined with a close fitting bomber style windproof for bad weather/conditions........

I do recall that David Lewis lived in his wetsuit for 6+weeks after being demasted and sailing under a jury rig on his solo voyage to Antarctica on board his 32' steel yacht Icebird in the early 70s. IIRC he was knocked down and capsized several times and attributes his wetsuit to being an essential part of his survival. His skin was in pretty poor shape when he finally removed it!

[Kenomac]

Boatman,

I tried your wetsuit idea the last time we hit wet, cold weather. The idea is sound, but it was difficult to get out of the thing when heading below to relieve myself. Something I hadn’t anticipated.

And I do like the halyard as a tether idea for really bad weather, but it seems to me that one could get tossed around like a rag doll with an attachment that long coming from above.

[TrentePieds]

@Markus, #77:

Good job, Markus - you are picking up on the important stuff. I see you are in La belle Province, so you know from cold water too :-)

TP's store-bought boarding ladder is useless. Bottom rung, when deployed, is only two feet below the surface. I'm leaving it where it is on the transom because the regs require that one be fitted. But it was obviously fitted by the same PO who "improved" the boat by fitting a mast-furling main :-)

A boarding ladder needs to have it's bottom rung at least FOUR feet below the surface. Else a man in the water cannot get his feet on that bottom rung, even when he draws up his knees. Because of that, the boughten ladder is really only an ornament. For emergency boarding a "Jacob's ladder" ("rope ladder") with metal pipe rungs to weight it down works much better.

Bungee cord is strictly verboten in TP. Particularly those infernal things with a metal hook on the ends that some people use to make what they fondly believe is a "harbour furl". If you've ever had one of those slip from your frozen fingers and flip around the boom to hit you in the face, you'll know why they are verboten. And I'm monocular, so I'm not gonna take a chance on one of those things taking out my good eye :-)!

So back to the boughten ladder: The bottom rung is secured to the pushpit, when it is up, with a "slippery clovehitch", the running part left long enuff to reach to just a couple of inches above the water, but no more, when it is idle. It's whipped on the end, but no stopper knot is used because it needs to slip around the tubing of the pushpit without hanging up. Grab it and tug it and the hitch slips but the ladder won't fall. As separate lanyard, also hanging down to end just above the water and stopper-knotted to afford a better grip, permits the person in the water to pull the ladder free of its retainer clips and drop into deployment. For all the good it will do, since it's too short :-)!

As someone said - I think it was Dockhead - ALWAYS have your sheath-knife on you just in case some piece of cordage gives you grief.

TP

[Kerry1]

From all the above interesting discussion, it seems imperative, that in really wicked weather any effort or system to prevent MOB in the first place is going to be a winner. People can survive massive personal injury sustained by being knocked around on the boat, (particularly with a medic on board) or even with just knowledgeable and competent crew, but apparently retrieval even when the crewmember is right there beside the boat is just so difficult in those conditions.

[stormalong]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Have not got a clue.. never having used one in my life.. and never will.
Each to their own..
Re the time taken.. consider how long it takes to slow a boat from 20 plus knots.. the sea conditions and the fact the MOB is being repeatedly slammed against the hull/immersed while sails are dropped and boat slowed..
One has to accept a basic fact.. going out to sea is in reality a 50/50 gamble that you-ll reach the other side.. kinda like driving to work down a motorway.
Harsh but still a fact.. aint no certainties in life though we like to kid ourselves otherwise..

A 50/50 gamble! HOGWASH. If that were the case no one would be out cruising. Or driving to work.

I am coming to this argument late and there are many good posts here.

The incident that I recall most vividly was one that happened during an ARC about 12 years back. An experienced sailor went overboard but his inexperienced brother, the only other person aboard did not know how to stop the boat. This played out over SSB radio. Yes, the MOB drowned.

My standard safety lecture to my crew begins with don't go overboard because the odds are incredably high against you. After that the #1 rule on my boat was if doubt wake the captain (me). Additional parts of the lecture: No one leaves the cockpit without another crew member in the cockpit observing and equipment is replaceable your life is not.

Back to the 50/50 comment. Although these incidents happen they are statistically rare. They need to be planned for and procedures put in place to deal with them the odds of it happening are probably 1 in 10,000 or 1 in 100,000.

PS. Very, very few boats go over 8 knots.

[poiu]

It's always better to prevent rather than cure. Why not carry two or three tethers and pick a length and clip on point so you are on board if you fall over? It shouldn't be too restrictive as you virtually never want to move beyond the lifelines anyway.

Confession: It's a do as I say, not do as I do moment.

[donradcliffe]

Each of us is shaped by our own experiences. I personally avoid going forward on the lee side of the boat, because that deck can be swept with fast moving water, and if the boat lurches over there is nothing to grab and hang from. I go forward to the mast holding onto the weather lifeline and coachroof handholds, then get really low and move myself to the bow holding on to the weather lifeline and the lashings of my upside down dinghy on the foredeck. I string my jacklines along each side so I can go from cockpit to bow without reclipping on. If I fall off forward, I would expect to be swept back to near the stern, where the water is separating from the boat and not smashing me into it. The critical thing for me is to have the stern jackline attachment far enough forward that a MOB is dragged even with the stern, not behind it.

The only time I went overboard, I on the weather side holding onto the spinnaker sheet and never let go. The driver headed up a bit so the weather rail came down far enough for me to grab it and pull myself aboard--that was about 30 years ago.

One of the important things to remember when moving on deck in rough seas is that there are periods when you can safely unclip and reclip your tether, generally when the boat is rolling back to weather. During the periods where the boat is rolling to leeward, or about to be hit by another wave, you better be hanging on with both hands.

On race boats, we have lost people overboard, mostly during broaches, and they have mostly hung onto part of the boat and been quickly recovered over or through the leeward lifelines by 3 or 4 big strong guys. One owner went overboard at night from the wheel area without a harness, and his body was recovered the next day.

My cruising boat had a reverse transom and a boarding ladder on the stern, which could be flipped down by removing one half hitch lashing.

The articles about quick stops being ineffective are hogwash--the main point is you put the bow into the wind, and the more wind there is the quicker you stop--before you lose sight of your MOB. I seem to recall that Chuck Hawley was involved in a bunch of MOB testing, and maybe he will chime in.

[navy davy]

Everyone can agree if you can reach the water your jackline/tether setup is wrong especially if you are single handed sailing ! If you can't do a chinup on the deck then you have a handicap too fat or too weak ,you decide and correct that ! Some sailors don't think about the leg strap/straps that keep your PFD from being pulled off when your arms are above your shoulders. A GPS and a knife should be attached to the PDF if the tether fails or you have to cut yourself free from drag drowning . The GPS can signal your location ,but in extreme cold water, time is the enemy. Today it makes no sense for a single handed sailor to not have the running rigging set up to not have to leave the cockpit for sail reefing , furling and trimming ! Today's technology has software autopilot/GPS that will turn the boat around and go to the location of the beacon signal of the mob , but motorpower only though ! I was swimming in San Diego California on the 4th of July and within 5minutes of being in the water my ears started ringing due to my body going into hypothermia ! In the southern ocean I probably would have died ! Shorten the tether mates !