Are your topsides climbable?

Well after seeing that movie last year I did check out my stern boarding ladder.With my boat on the hard my head is just above waterline.
First of all could I reach the ladder-no.
So I released it from above.
Secondly could I climb it-impossible because the rungs did not reach far enough down.
I have now doubled its length and have a release line hung over the stern so at least I can get back on board if I fall in because that to me was the real message from the film in that the boat was there but no one could get back on board.
 
parsifal said:
I have a Monitor windvane so I could climb up that.
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I have one step at the bottom of the transom and with the aid of the windvane I can climb back up the stern. The windvane is a good handhold but what is needed is the first foot step. Especially as we get older and the ideal would be a step about a foot below the waterline.
 
electrosys said:
Couldn't agree more.
I think the trailing-line idea is one of the most divorced-from-the-real-world ideas ever proposed. Forget hanging on to the line for a moment (although it would certainly take a Herculian effort to make it back to the boat that way) - just grabbing it in the first place would be nigh impossible, so even as a self-steering trip-line it's wishful thinking..

Worst-case (the only one worth considering) - 3 a.m, pitch dark, moon-less night, blowing a hooley, and suddenly you're pitched head-first into freezing cold water.

First reaction (and the clock's ticking) - shock, total disbelief and complete disorientation. Which way is up ... ? Eventually make it to the surface - gasping for air - force yourself to breath etc. How many seconds has that already taken ?

.

Sounds an ok technique in your armchair, but I really don't think the figures stack-up in the real world.
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You describe one situation - boat sailing fast away from you. Some situations described above and known to us all occur when moored or at anchor where the trailing line would be very useful. Your response was a little blunt I thought.
 
Looking at the slim, even athletic actors in the Adrift film, reminded SWMBO of an Olympic syncronised swimming team...

...in which, the ones treading water are able to launch a petite team-mate skyward with such energy that for a moment she appears to be standing on the water. Uncommon ability, but achieved without any artificial flotation...

...my point being, surely the film's dilemma would have been solved if the hearty males had thrust one of the size-zero females upward, so she could reach the coaming? Not good Hollywood, but obvious in the circumstances, we thought. :rolleyes:
 
I have plastimo safety ladders attached to the midships cleats. I can just reach them from the water and pull them down. I always use them to board when swimming from the boat to keep in practice and they are a bit awkward but work. Thats when the boat is anchored. Under way would be a different story and as I sail alone a lot I assume that if I go over the side I'm dead. But at least having practised regularly with the ladders I would have something to try.


Colin
 
fishermantwo said:
I have one step at the bottom of the transom and with the aid of the windvane I can climb back up the stern. The windvane is a good handhold but what is needed is the first foot step. Especially as we get older and the ideal would be a step about a foot below the waterline.
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That's a very good idea.
 
fishermantwo said:
I have one step at the bottom of the transom and with the aid of the windvane I can climb back up the stern. The windvane is a good handhold but what is needed is the first foot step. Especially as we get older and the ideal would be a step about a foot below the waterline.
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Hmm you might want to try that first. I KNOW I could not get back on the boat if the first step was only a foot below the surface.
 
TQA said:
Hmm you might want to try that first. I KNOW I could not get back on the boat if the first step was only a foot below the surface.
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I know I'd have no difficulty at all with a step like that if I was in swimming trunks. Never tried it in wet oilies though.

EDIT: assuming it's the bottom step of a ladder, where you can get a good grip on the uprights a bit further up, or some equivalent handhold. Just the step on its own is no good.

Pete
 
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Perhaps some sort of compact-storage telescopic ladder, as I believe was mentioned earlier here, ought (in the near future) to be as essential to pleasure-boats' inventory as flares or lifejackets?

It would need securing on deck, with a grab-line permanently hanging (secured, not flapping about) over the stern, such that when hauled into use from below, the bottom step is a yard below the waterline.

Climbing aboard needn't be an effortless procedure; that's too much to ask in such surprising, dangerous circumstances.

But an ever-ready device that releases rigid steps, enabling a swimmer of average height to reach the deck unaided, begins to sound like essential safety equipment.
 
dancrane said:
Perhaps some sort of compact-storage telescopic ladder, as I believe was mentioned earlier here, ought (in the near future) to be as essential to pleasure-boats' inventory as flares or lifejackets?
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Like so...
boardingladder.jpg


This drops 2 or 3 steps below the surface and can definitely be used by a swimmer, as tested by SWMBO. Which reminds me, it looks like it's time for her to polish it.
 
That's it! Perfect. Just as easy to use, whether from the tender or whilst up to your neck in the water. Quite discreet too.
 
alahol2 said:
Like so...


This drops 2 or 3 steps below the surface and can definitely be used by a swimmer, as tested by SWMBO. Which reminds me, it looks like it's time for her to polish it.
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That's a nice bit of kit. Copied the photo and will have to make my own version. Locally there is a fold down ladder that has two steps on the water when its down. You still have to reach up and release it though when your in the water accidentally.

Another clever idea is the step that's combined with the top of the rudder with some fin/keel yachts. Still need hand hold/steps up the stern though
 
Getting back on board

As I often sail my Drascombe Dabber Giulia singlehanded, I fitted a modified telescopic ladder inside the gunnel that can be capsized outboard by a lanyard and monkeyfist just reaching waterline. The ladder is long enough to reach three feet underwater. See PBO November 2010, p.79.
I also am always tethered to the boat with a lifeline whilst singlehanded. It can look -and is- annoying but just one mishappen can become deadly.
 
alahol2 said:
Like so...
boardingladder.jpg


This drops 2 or 3 steps below the surface and can definitely be used by a swimmer, as tested by SWMBO. Which reminds me, it looks like it's time for her to polish it.
Click to expand...

That's the jobby I bought a month ago, can even come down to the sand when the tide's out!
 
It does happen in real life. A chartered yacht in Greece stopped for a swim and all the crew went in, it was flat calm. What they didn't realise that between midday and 1pm the wind can go from zero to 25 knots, which is what happened. No chance of swimming to it and when the yacht was found lunch was laid out in the cockpit. All of them drowned, because nobody knew what had happened.
 
I'm assuming the sails in the Greek case were set?

No disrespect to the departed, but unless you're indoors at a boatshow, it's damned stupid to assume any boat under sail won't drift.
 
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