Man-overboard drill in 25 knots?

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Mr B

Overboard offshore, same survival odds as falling off a 2000 ft. cliff so wouldn't advise it.

At Night, Your odds, even less,[/QUOTE]


At night, if you aren’t wearing an AIS MOB unit, a light is absolutely necessary. Otherwise no chance of spotting the person in the water or getting back to their position.

In the early 90s I helped deliver a 11m sailboat from Sydney to New Caledonia with three French guys. Typical upwind in fresh trade wind conditions, 20 knots TWS and 4 metre swells. We sailed with a double reefed delivery main and a blade jib, and since it was a racing boat with no autopilot/wind vane we had two-up watches with one steering and one doing everything else.

Third night out, after our midnight watch change, closest land 300 miles, we were woken by the boat crashing over and the yell “Manu et dans la mer”. He’d been steering and a particularly large breaking wave had washed him through the open transom and into the sea. My first thought was that we’d lost him for sure.

By the time we got the boat back under control the boat had travelled a couple of miles and the jib was shredded. We finally cleaned the jib up and tacked around and followed our wake back as best we could - we had a GPS plotter that showed our position and COG and could reverse it.

There was half moon and broken clouds, so a fair bit of light, but the sea was dark with frequent bright breaking wave patches. There was no way to spot a person. We searched for long enough that I remember getting really cold (slept naked), but finally one of us spotted a light at the top of a swell a few hundred metres to windward and ahead. Now we started the engine and dropped the main, and motored up to the light, which at first we could only see intermittently when both of us were on top of our swells.

Manu was treading water and holding a torch up. We turned off the motor in gear and drifted down to him, stern first sideways to the wind, and dragged him over the transom and into the cockpit. We were so relieved and traumatised and cold, especially Manu, that we lashed the tiller, closed the hatches, and all puppy piled on the salon floor wrapped in sleeping bags to try to warm each other up.

Sometime later that day we resumed our delivery to Noumea. Manu was an open water rescue diver with the French navy and wasn’t wearing a PFD so I credit that experience for keeping him afloat long enough for us to get back to him. If he hadn’t had a torch in his shorts pocket we wouldn’t have found him.

These days with the right gear you can find the person easier, but for a short handed crew getting the potentially unresponsive person back on board is the most difficult part.

[lestersails]

Originally Posted by BillKny

The ASA teaches that method because it is easy to learn, and having students struggle is bad for business. In multiple evaluations it has never been found to be a relable mob recovery method.

Try this method, (the figure-8) works no matter the wind strength because no jibe is needed!

I am really a fan of this maneuver - glad you mentioned it. I bought the ASA 106 book and they don't even mention it. Wassup with that?

[waterman46]

Originally Posted by DanielI

One question I have: in a high wind situation where you don’t feel confident under sail, and you decide to switch on the engine, you can drop sail, but what is the fastest way to make sure the flopping sail doesn’t interfere with operations?

For a double-handed crew on a large boat with high freeboard, using a Lifesling and a boarding ladder is probably the best meithod.

But in any conditions there is no way my wife will be able to sail our 46' boat in circles around me to capture me in the lifesling. She will have to use the motor.

That is just one reason we got a full battened mainsail and added a "Dutchman" rig - although the normal lazy jacks with full battens probably work just as well. Dropping the mainsail now in an emergency takes no more work than heading upwind, releasing the halyard and making sure it runs freely. No more mainsail all over the cockpit obscuring vision. Both safety and convenience.


The roller furler jib can be left to flog in an emergency, but watch out nobody gets hit by a flailing jib sheet and make sure as always, you have figure 8 knots in the end of the sheets.