Island Cruising Assoc - Man Overboard - be prepared

by John and Lyn Martin, Island Cruising Association on 10 Mar 2016 You’d think the most likely time someone would fall overboard at sea was in bad weather with rough seas and a pitching, heaving vessel, you’d be wrong!

There’s no question that men are more likely to go over the side than women. Now this is not as you may have first thought a sexist comment but rather the nature of the male beast. There are more MOB’s recovered with their fly undone than any other cause. Unfortunately this action also accounts for many going over the side without a harness or anyone else on deck at the time. We’ll call that the Darwin effect.

For the rest of the unfortunate MOB’s, much is down to your watch rules and the person most likely to be on deck doing the work. On our boat that’s me, the bloke, I’m definitely stronger than Lyn and therefore better suited to the manual type of work required in most instances at the mast or on the fore deck. But again going forward to do fore deck or mast work is less likely to cause an accidental MOB than say something as benign as standing at the bow going through a reef pass or well out to sea going forward to watch Dolphins frolic in your bow wave. At least if you go over in that instance you’d have company, less likely is you’ve gone forward wearing your safety gear.

And herein lies the problem, your chances of survival will drop dramatically without the right gear. Not being tethered you will definitely NOT stay with the boat, whether that’s a good thing or bad we’ll discuss later. If you’re not wearing a life vest or harness, two things; you’ll get tired quickly and you’ll be much harder to see. So what does that mean; getting tired quickly will mean you have less energy at the time you will most need it, at recovery, when you’ll need to help your partner by assisting with the climb out of the water. Visually a deployed life vest is very much easier to see from a distance than a bobbing head. Try it, pitch a coconut over the side, don’t look at it for ten seconds and then try and find it. On the converse, throw over something a bit bigger that’s bright orange to see the difference.

Put some watch rules in place, if you’re going forward at all, have someone in the cockpit at all times. It’s up to the skipper to decide when it’s mandatory to wear harnesses, tethers and all the gear, unfortunately for him he’s the most likely to go overboard in the first place. On Windflower, Lyn is always in the cockpit when I go on deck and its mandatory to wear all the gear, every time when we’re at sea.

So someone’s gone overboard, the choices they have made first up will determine their survival as will the choices you make from here. Is the MOB tethered, has he/she a tether cutter, do they have an AIS MOB devise, self activating on deployment of their vest? From your perspective, if you’re left alone aboard (short handed, two up crew make up 80 to 90% of cruising boat crews); can you slow the boat down quickly enough if your MOB is still attached to the boat. (A recent survey by PBO magazine indicated that you have less than two minutes to get the boat stationary if a tethered MOB that was in the water had any chance of survival, hence the use of a tether cutter a number of safety manufactures make a specific tool for this) and if so can you then dump the sails and do you have some way of getting your victim back aboard.

If your MOB has cut his tether or wasn’t tethered in the first place then you’re now in a different scenario.

Case 1 - your MOB has no safety gear; this is your worst-case scenario. Forget the sails, forget slowing the boat down, you’re first priority is to get the boat back to the victim in the shortest possible time, while you can still see him or her. There are many strategies for completing this maneuver much depends on the point of sailing you’re on and the sea conditions. While many of these exercises vary, practice makes perfect. It’s been my experience that to expedite recovery it’s best to lay the vessel to windward and allow it to drift down on the MOB. Several reasons, the MOB is now in the lee, the position of the boat can be controlled with a bit of throttle in either forward or reverse and the boat will likely be healing toward the MOB making recovery easier.

That’s of course presuming you were able to keep an eye on your MOB as you did all this and arrived back at his or hers position on the first attempt. If not then a whole new set of choices comes into play and you may at this point need to regroup, re-plan and involve others.

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Case 2- If on the other hand your MOB has all the safety gear and your AIS is screaming at you it may be prudent to do a bit of prep work first. Dumping the sails will make placing the boat in a position to begin recovery and the recovery of your MOB much easier. You may wish to do your emergency return maneuver first to place you close to the MOB but be wary of colliding with the person at any speed. You will also find the information given by the AIS easier to assimilate if the vessel is moving in one direction giving steady GPS course and speed, if so your AIS will give you clear direction and distance information to your closest point of approach.

If you’ve chosen to travel in a group, whether this is an organised event or rally or in loose consort with a couple of friends in their own boats, you now have a significant advantage. Vessels equipped with AIS that are close to you and have picked up the MOB distress signal; know you have a problem, will likely be close enough to assist quickly and more important have more crew available to help recover the MOB. Put some scenarios in place before you head to sea if you’re in a group, for example; the last thing the remaining crew aboard the vessel the MOB is from needs to do is get bogged down with calls on the VHF, a quick call to the boat to say you’re on the way and don’t bother to respond unless you need too will raise their moral and you can then start co-ordinating with any other vessels also in a position to help. With AIS you should be able to see the event unfolding in real time.

Your sails are down, your in position and your MOB is alongside, now what? Again you’ve got choices and these are going to be influenced by the health of the MOB. First up though, BE CAREFUL, regardless if it’s a loved one you’re desperate to get back aboard, stop and think, the last thing you want is two of you in the water. By practicing in advance you should already have a clear idea of what works on your boat and be able to put this in place quickly.

A few things to avoid in the recovery of an MOB; never go overboard yourself to assist the MOB, essentially you’ll then have two MOB’s in the water instead of one. Even in a situation where you have more than one additional crewmember to assist I would resist the urge to put a swimmer in the water. If you still need to get to someone and you can’t get the boat close and you’ve got spare crew; deploy your life raft, tether that to the boat and let that drift down on the MOB.

Some books and articles recommend bringing the MOB to the back of the boat for recovery, I disagree for two reasons. I believe this to be the most dangerous place on the boat, particularly when you’re in a seaway and laying a hull. If the person gets sucked under the stern and the next wave drops the boat on them it’s lights out. You’ll also find it hard to rig a lifting strop at the stern as a halyard will want to pull forwards, again exacerbating the under the stern problem. This is particularly problematic on many modern cats where the topsides are high and recovery alongside is difficult.

Bringing an MOB over the side allows easier hoisting set up and better protection for the MOB. Think about these points before heading to sea.
• How are you going to attach your hoist to the MOB’s harness?
• Will you need to deploy a secondary MOB devise to assist recovery?
• Do you have a section of the lifelines that can be dropped to aid recovery?
• Is your hoist line able to be handled by the weakest person aboard?
• Is your MOB able to assist in the recovery?

If you’re MOB is able to assist then either a life sling or even the harness he’s wearing will do, make sure he’s wearing a crutch strap as you pass him the clip though and be prepared for the worst wedgie ever.

Possibly a better alternative would be a recovery module your MOB can climb into. Many come with a tall inflated structure that has the lifting straps well above water level making attaching your hoist clip more accessible, these devises also keep the person, mainly, out of the water making hypothermia less of a problem.

In the case of an MOB that’s not able to assist there are other devises that can be used, my pick of these would be the Marcusnet devise that also doubles as a scramble net or the Sea Scoopa but from experience there are few cruisers that go that far. Worst case your storm jib can be rigged to do the same job.

Think of an MOB recovery as being like a military engagement, you’ll hear Generals say, plan, plan and plan again but they know after the first contact all plans go to hell, obey my first rule of MOB, DON’T GO OVER THE SIDE.