What a tangled web we weave

[bilbo]

I've learnt a lot over the years by reading what my elders and betters recommend, then thinking hard on't. Of course, it all blurs with time, but I occasionally re-discover the source of some practice or prejudice, and find myself re-confirmed. This from Sir Robin Knox-Johnson's account of the 1978 RTWR, and in particular his musings over a MOB recovery incident where little went smoothly.....

[quote]I had a four-man liferaft put just behind the helmsman for just this sort of emergency, but in the event no one thought to throw it over. neither did we throw over the marker buoy because with all its clutter of lights, drogues, dye markers and so on, it just could not be cleared away quickly enough. For the right reasons, yacht safety equipment has been made too complicated, and this negates its effectiveness. The simplest safety item to throw over was a lifebuoy, and it worked. Other safety equipment wants to be as easy to release and throw.[/quote]

Having recently spent about 20 minutes dis-entangling a friend's rear rail clutter - two-handed trip, offshore, dark and blowing; think about it - there's reason enough to revisit this common snarl-up issue. Trouble is, some people don't seem to want to examine, analyse then 'do something'.

[Windfinder]

Maybe it seems patronising and some might think this stops a pleasurable sail if I am in teaching mode.

I find it so when people do this. Makes me cringe.

[bilbo]

Numerous groups/orgs/committees have tried to work out what works and what doesn't, plugging into the best experience around, and the answers are out there.

Here's my partial take on the MOB discussion, based on practical RAF S&R experience. The gear on the pushpit/in the cockpit is 'survival equipment' - it must work right, first time, every time. Seconds count - everything that slows down the response has to be removed. Various clubs/orgs/mags have run sea-trials, and the minimum recorded 'No Notice' response time, from someone shouting MOB to throwing a life ring is 5 seconds. Most times were much in excess of 12 seconds - and frequently a couple of minutes, due to entanglement of string. A sailboat doing 6 knots covers over 50 feet in 5 seconds, or 16 metres. No-one managed to throw a foam lifebuoy 50 feet from a moving cockpit.....

Try it yourself, with your crew on the helm, using a small fender/bucket combo, and a stopwatch. Call 'Man Overboard - Practice!' as the combo passes the rudder, have them throw the lifebuoy and recover everything. Time them and photograph where the lifebuoy lands in relation to the 'casualty'. Discuss in the bar.....

I would recommend a first-use lifebuoy, with NO attachments, within arms length of the helmsman. I would have another made up as a LifeSling - or a proprietary product - tied to the pushpit. I would have at least one marker-pole with light, preferably two, in plastic tubes secured at an angle to the pushpit. I would have a dedicated recovery snatch-block and a netting parbuckle triangle - each with snaplinks -, as per RORC .jpg, in a bag handy to the cockpit. I would also have an £8 TPA bag, same as the lifeboats and rescue helos, for hypothermia treatment, somewhere handy.

And, for those who say "I'd do this and that differently", I pose the question "You are, by far, the most likely to go overboard. How well would your crew manage to recover you?"

The images below, which I carry in a sleeve folder, show the RORC guidance on QuickStop, Lifeslings and Hypothermia treatment....






Acknowledgements to the RORC and US sailing.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d78/b ... G_0001.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d78/b ... G_0002.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d78/b ... G_0003.jpg

[bilbo]

It's appropriate to agree/confirm that 'Prevention Is Better, Cheaper, Easier Than Cure'. FWIW, I carry two personal lifelines, each made up from a sewn loop of climbers' tape and a pair of commercial Gibb snaplinks; this assembly is more than twice as strong as the majority of chandlers' offerings, at less than half the price.

I attach one lifeline at the helming position, for anyone helming to use, whenever thought warranted - night; single-handed in cockpit; well lumpy; frit..... I carry the other one for 'roaming'.

Deck-run jackstays are contentious. Whatever they're made of, the RORC recommend - no, insist on - a minimum breaking strength of 4500 lbf/2040 kgf, and there are very few webbing arrangements I've seen that come even close to that. Those that have been left lying on the deck, degrading in UV for a couple of seasons or more, are little more than decorations.......

[bilbo]

Ey-oop, Julian. This is 'Shooting the breeze', not 'Shoot the messenger'. It's surely the right place for this stuff, so have a debate/barny/discourse/stramash with me, and let whatever bampots happen along throw buns from the sidelines.

Old 'FlatulenceFinder' can leave and go read something elsewhere - and Nick's preaching hell and damnation in The Other Pulpit like an old-style WeeFree Meenistair giving it laldy on a wet, windy Sabbath in Callanish, while the packets of peppermints rustle in the back rows.....

...with about as much effect. He's fighting uphill, I'm afraid, and he's getting close to the 'personal insult' stage , so I reckon he'll be back on here shortly, before he changes his sox and kecks, and bumbles down to the pub for a fume and grouch.

[Telo]

I think Julian is right to consider those issues with his crew - how it's done is really down to the individuals and their relationship. In our case, there are rarely more than the two of us on board, so it's something we think have about.

We have screwgate karabiners at both connection points on our mainsheet (see pic). This can allow one person to reverse it very quickly and use the boom and mainsheet as a crane (assuming the sail's been dropped, although could raise other issues eg running the engine).

This (we hope) gives us a reasonable chance provided the victim is still conscious and still able to clip the krab to their harness. Unconscious, I rather doubt that our chances of survival are high. I've never tried gathering an inert object in a semi-submerged sail, but, single handed, would imagine it being extremely difficult in anything above a F3.

[bilbo]

......I've never tried gathering an inert object in a semi-submerged sail, but, single handed, would imagine it being extremely difficult....

Like getting a certain DS to bed in Tobermory?:lol:

BTW, nice fotty.....

Ahem, the pro S&R training Her Britannic Majesty forked-out for all those years ago insisted that 'the first priority is to re-establish a secure attachment between the casualty and the vehicle'. Once that's done, you've bought time.....

Getting someone secured alongside in a LifeSling, head well out of the water - even if t'other half can't rig the hoisting gear - will give precious time for a lifeboat/other yotties/ rescue helo to get there. It's what the VHF/DSC Big Red Button is really for.