MOB for Couples

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by wolfgal

FANTASTIC idea Franziska!

imagine how it would help at night!!!!



wolfgal

I can't see how a homing sound would be very practical. It's not like you can turn a boat in a seaway on a dime.
A distance and bearing display on a zoomed in chartplotter would be much more useful.

[Franziska]

@Paul

I beg to differ.

Just crank up the volume to the max or wear a headphone (and only in this situation!!!).

Let's say you made 1/2Nm way before you could bring her around.
Now than, at night or daylight you concentrate fully on looking on a fiddly small screen while steering.
Instead, you could in parallel look out for the flash or the person while homing in on her or him.
At close range use your eyes or the plotter.

@Wolfgal

Thanks, I also posted it under feature requests in OpenCPN.
Might be something those clever people can add to the the AIS module.
Would be the cheapest solution.

[boom23]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Regarding the AIS locators.
Would it not be great to have an audible guidance system on the onboard receiver?
Similar to old school Radio Direction Finders.
The more you head towards the person in the drink, the faster a beep you hear. If you head directly to them you hear a solid sound.
That would free the person left onboard from looking at a display and focus on the multitude of other things needing to be done during the recovery mission.

That is just a suggestion for anyone in the electronics industry who might read this thread.

Good idea, but I'm not sure I would like something keep making noise in an already stressful situation. But, that's me...

I would be looking at the display anyway. The extra noise would bother me. Something that shows MOB direction and distance would be more useful to me.

[tweitz]

As an older and rather large sailor, with a wife of comparable age, I find this thread exceedingly relevant. There are a wide variety of situations that can arise, in all kinds of conditions, and everyone does not have the same fitness, boat, or equipment. I find it all helpful food for thought. I have always tended to assume the sugar scoop would be our primary means of bringing someone on board primarily because I don't think my wife would be able to easily manage a halyard or other rigging. We have certainly boarded people from the stern in conditions like those in which we sail 90% of the time. But I also recognize we need to be prepared for all the eventualities. I wish that all of the posters, most of whom have good ideas, would be a little more tolerant of those with different ideas. All of the information helps.

[Pegu Club]

Concerning PFDs. We have Mustang self inflating pfds with tether/ lifting point D rings and crotch straps, jack lines, and Kong dual tethers, but the Mustang pfd has no place to attach a plb or vhf radio. Which manufactures make pfds with an attach point for PLBs and vhf radios, and a tether/ lifting harness attach point? I was on the defender site, and noticed that none of the pfd’s had Plb or vhf radio attach points listed as features. What Has been your experience with this issue? Any advice is welcome.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Pegu Club

Concerning PFDs. We have Mustang self inflating pfds with tether/ lifting point D rings and crotch straps, jack lines, and Kong dual tethers, but the Mustang pfd has no place to attach a plb or vhf radio. Which manufactures make pfds with an attach point for PLBs and vhf radios, and a tether/ lifting harness attach point? I was on the defender site, and noticed that none of the pfd’s had Plb or vhf radio attach points listed as features. What Has been your experience with this issue? Any advice is welcome.

The Ocean Safety MOB1 AIS/DSC beacon can be attached to almost any life jacket, inside, automatically actuated in case of inflation. It is particularly well integrated with the Spinlock jackets.


All serious inflatable life jackets I've seen in the last 10 years have integrated harnesses, and many of them have separate lifting straps (even my old Seago 275 has separate lifting straps).


Various modern inflatable life jackets, maybe all of them, have pockets or attachment points for some small items. The Spinlock Deskvest, for example, which I just bought, has a choice of three different packs you can attach (I have my PLB in that), and has a special mesh pocket for hooking a VHF radio to. Crewsaver and Mustang, besides Spinlock, make really nice lifejackets and probably offer similar features.





This should not be a problem. But you should not try to solve this online -- this is a case for buying from your friendly local chandler, so you can see and touch and ask.

[StuartWeibel]

I sail the coastal Inside Passage waters between Seattle and Alaska. I am either alone or have a single crew with me, and I am almost always the more experienced person with my boat (a 26 foot gaff cutter), and no one goes on deck in unsettled weather but me.

My assumption has always been that if I go over, that's probably game over, alone or no.

I do have a life ring and a block and tackle to raise a sodden MOB, but it's a long shot at best. I'm going to look at the sling described above.

I ask all my crew to review cold water survival guidelines in Cold Water Boot Camp

The essence is the 1:10:1 rule. The first minute, or two minutes, involves surviving the thermal shock of 40-50 degree water. The next 10 minutes is the dexterity limit -- after that, the swimmer will have no capacity for self help, or assisting in their rescue. Then you have an hour to get them aboard, or get help, before they succumb to hypothermia.

On the Inside Passage, there is at least a chance of getting help in under an hour.

So, getting a victim secured to the boat (by means that others in this thread have outlined) is critical.

On the issue of Rule Number 1 (stay in the boat!), I have an additional tip that was proffered by an old salt at the Wooden Boat Festival one year. Instead of jacklines, use the tops'l halyard as protection... You can't fall over the side, and on my small vessel, the jacklines tend to trip me up and entangle me to a degree that is annoying at best, and dangerous in some cases.

Your mileage may vary.

thanks to those who offered thoughtful replies to this thread. The rude ones go to dev/null, as always. For heaven's sake, we owe each other civility if nothing else.

[Normanskier]

Great issue. We have a Lifesling. Never used with a true MOB.

Advice to stay on the boat is great. So, USE A TETHER WHEN SAILING when your partner is out of the cockpit.

[MyStrayCat]

Originally Posted by sandy stone

Could not agree more. Chances of my wife being able to come back and get me out of the water are essentially zero. Stay on the boat.

For us this is also a problem, so we have a slightly different approach.
Our inflateable is able to be launched in approximately 20 to 30 seconds whilst underway, so that is or first job. No good if your not missed but we only day sail and are rarely out of each other's sight.
Assuming that the person in the water is not incapacitated the it should be possible to swim to the dingy.
Not a perfect solution by any measure, but seems to be our best option.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by MyStrayCat

For us this is also a problem, so we have a slightly different approach.
Our inflateable is able to be launched in approximately 20 to 30 seconds whilst underway, so that is or first job. No good if your not missed but we only day sail and are rarely out of each other's sight.
Assuming that the person in the water is not incapacitated the it should be possible to swim to the dingy.
Not a perfect solution by any measure, but seems to be our best option.

Actually, I'm guessing you are wrong about that. Test it.


a. You can't swim in an inflated PFD to save your life. All you can doe is exist on your back.


b. An inflatable will drift REALLY fast if the wind is up. No draft. A drogue would do it.


If there are more than one crew left on board, you may want that raft for recovery. But this is a couples thread.

[nmccubbin]

Rule number 1 is to stay on board
Www.morganscloud.com has a great series on this. It costs $19/ year to read all the stuff on the site, but it is the best single site for serious cruisers
The AIS MOB devices look good above site has good advice on them too
There is lots of advice in the books about four part tackles to lift people from the water. Except for very small boats, a halyard winch will do better
Not many women can lift a wet man with a four part tackle
These gadgets tangle all too easily, to make them even
more questionable

[upstateny]

For couples where only one is MOB capable reminds me of skiing out of bounds in avalanche country. Two experienced backcountry skiers meet up before heading up to earn their turns. One of them says I forgot my shovel. The other says no problem here use mine. Seriously the more likely problem is one of them is very good at finding their buried friend but unfortunately out of shape and would get exhausted after 2 minutes of digging at high altitude.

[Buzzman]

OR.....just sail solo, and all discussion is irrelevant.

If you go overboard, you die.

BUt there are apparently software/hardware 'solutions' on AP-controlled boats that can stall the boat, possibly enably you to swim after it (unlikely as it will drift faster than you can swim).

With motorboats, many can have a feature that causes them to circle around an MOB, givng the solo skipper a chance to bisect the circle.

But in the real world, offshore?.....

[fred4936]

Thanks to all for this topic and contributions. MOB situations have been on our minds as we progress in our cruising and plans. I see there is no one single answer. After reading all this, we will purchase a LifeSling, because for the cruising we do, it looks like it will work most of the time. We will also look into strobes for our PFDs. Many other ideas posted sound good too, and will be added to our repertoire. Having options for various conditions seems to be key. Again, thanks to everyone for their input on this very important issue!

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by upstateny

For couples where only one is MOB capable reminds me of skiing out of bounds in avalanche country. Two experienced backcountry skiers meet up before heading up to earn their turns. One of them says I forgot my shovel. The other says no problem here use mine....

Very nicely put.


In fact, there are two types of couples sailing; one is a sailor and the other not so much, and two sailors. I do both.