Autopilot remote

Thistle

Thistle

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Reading the Personal Safety Devices thread (Personal Safety devices), I note that several single-handed sailors are, quite reasonably, concerned about their vessel sailing away under autopilot if they fall overboard. That made me wonder if there are any autopilots out there with the equivalent of a kill cord to disconnect the autopilot when the sailor is outwith a specified range? A physical cord may not be practical but I'm sure a remote device would be a possibility. As an extension, the autopilot could be programmed to get the boat to heave-to while waiting for the sailor to catch up. The automatic release of a boarding ladder, dan buoy and long floating line could also be considered. The beginnings of an "internet of things" for boats?

(Any manufacturer taking up this idea is welcome to supply me with samples of their kit for test purposes ;))
 
I can see where you're coming from, but I'm not sure that this is a solution. The problem has several dimensions, and even benign conditions may make it intractable.
  1. Even without being steered, a boat may well move quicker than a person in a lifejacket can swim. Under sail it will fall off downwind, probably very erratically. Under power, it may well end up circling unpredictably.
  2. It is EXTREMELY difficult to hoist yourself out of the water in wet oilskins, and after immersion in UK waters, it is likely to be physically impossible.
  3. The MOB is very likely to have suffered injury as a result of the event that put them overboard in the first place, and self-recovery is very likely to be impossible. In the thread you refer to, you'll see that I assume that the MOB may be incapable of helping themself.
  4. Because of probable hypothermia, if self-rescue is possible it would have to take place very quickly after the MOB event; within minutes. Beyond that, the MOB will be losing strength and be unable to (for example) grip a rope or lift themselves out of the water (I have had personal experience of this; the loss of strength is very real, very rapid and very scary!).
  5. Again, it is likely that the event would take place in bad conditions; being adjacent to a wildly plunging boat could well cause the MOB further injury, And if the engine was running....
Individually these may have solutions, but it is not clear that there is a scenario for self-rescue that has a high probability of success.

I, like most single-handed sailors, work on the basis that the first line of defense is to take every precaution to avoid going overboard; if you do go overboard, to remain attached to the vessel, and if you end up detached from the vessel, then the best chance is third-party rescue, but that you'd better have made your will!
 
Would this work in the scenario where someone went overboard but was still attached by a safety line?
I'm thinking that the ability to stop the boat / heave to, might make it easier to deal with the situation when not being dragged through the water.
 
On Sailing Anarchy I read about a chap who had added an extended range remote fob to (I think) his Pelagic TP. The idea being to remotely head up the boat and stall it. Somewhat fanciful, but better than nowt I guess.
 
dolabriform said:
Not if it hove to
Click to expand...
If hove to, it would be drifting downwind at a knot or so; in fact, that's a useful technique for a crewed vessel to get alongside a person in the water. It may well be fore-reaching or even have some stern-way. It wouldn't be stationary, and it would probably move faster than a person in a lifejacket can swim. Swimming in a lifejacket is very difficult and slow.
 
I often thought about this and wonder if an ability to heave the boat too or even to deploy a drogue from one quater might give a chance. And to have a remote controlled winch that could be used to hoist oneself aboard.

Clearly there is no one size fits all solution.

Obviously there are times when nothing will help but to slow the boat in any weather would surely be a good thing even if rescue is effected separately.

I know that if I was rescued, after the elation was over... I'd be looking for my boat...

There is a YouTube of a guy going for a swim deliberately from his boat in almost zero wind and he was lucky to catch up with it, he was clearly a good swimmer and had only his trunks on...(there was a boat alongside him so there was no danger but it clearly surprised both sailors. )

I fell in once in full wet gear in very benign conditions and it was not as bad as I thought it might have been, but I would not welcome trying to get aboard without a really good boarding ladder or some assistance.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
If hove to, it would be drifting downwind at a knot or so; in fact, that's a useful technique for a crewed vessel to get alongside a person in the water. It may well be fore-reaching or even have some stern-way. It wouldn't be stationary, and it would probably move faster than a person in a lifejacket can swim. Swimming in a lifejacket is very difficult and slow.
Click to expand...
There is the possibility that it would be moving towards the MOB...or at least to a point that the MOB may have a chance on getting to.

But I agree getting to it in any kind of unfavourable conditions would probably be slim, but given a choice,
I'd take being rescued within sight of my boat over watching it sail away at 6 knots anyway...
 
AntarcticPilot said:
If hove to, it would be drifting downwind at a knot or so; in fact, that's a useful technique for a crewed vessel to get alongside a person in the water. It may well be fore-reaching or even have some stern-way. It wouldn't be stationary, and it would probably move faster than a person in a lifejacket can swim. Swimming in a lifejacket is very difficult and slow.
Click to expand...

As I said above, I'm thinking more of the situation where you go over but are still attached. Stopping the boat would probably make it easier to deal with
 
I read a book called "Voyaging the Pacific" by Miles Horton a number of years ago (well worthy of a read, my copy has been well thumbed!).

In that he talks about his overboard whilst solo experience. He lived in his chest harness and one dirty night through his jacket on over to top of the harness and the tether running out from under the jacket. As you could imagine the jacket turned unto a drogue as he was dragged through the water and the zip jammed.

Just reading the account was harrowing and very visceral experience. I think the extract was recreated/reprinted in one of the sailing mags a few years back.

Sounds downright terrifying and even if crewed, impossible to get back onboard with the jacket ballooned out & filled with water!
 
Thistle said:
kill cord to disconnect the autopilot when the sailor is outwith a specified range?
Click to expand...
Some tiller Pilots don't have a clutch so disconnection would have to be mechanical rather than electric.
What you really want the boat to do is an auto gibe to heave the boat to.
Lots of clever electronics to design a device to do that!
 
If it could also make a cup of tea for when you manage to drag yourself aboard that would be an ideal extra.

Quite often I sail with a chap who streams a rope off the stern, trots up to the bow and dives in, swims alongside the boat and catches the rope before hauling himself in. He is swimming for about 5 seconds. I shall let you draw your own conclusions.
 
pandos said:

7 mins 25seconds in.

Trying to catch a boat in perfect conditions....

Sobering...
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Yes. I note a) that the guy isn't wearing a lifejacket and b) is swimming pretty much flat out to catch a boat that is barely ghosting along. A lifejacket would preclude his swimming at anything like that speed!

I also note that the fastest recorded swimming speed is about 4.5 knots (2.29 m/s) over 50m. That's a trained athlete in a heated pool, in flat water over a sprint distance with a dive at the start. I certainly can't swim at anything like that, or even half that, and with a lifejacket on I doubt I could even swim at 1 knot - you have to sort of lie back and paddle with your hands.

I'd be interested in practical experience of how fast the boat has to be going before it gets impossible to hold a trailing rope. I suspect the answer is "not very"; my guess is that it would be hard at 1 knot, possible at 2 knots and extremely difficult at 3 knots.
 
Thistle said:
Reading the Personal Safety Devices thread (Personal Safety devices), I note that several single-handed sailors are, quite reasonably, concerned about their vessel sailing away under autopilot if they fall overboard. That made me wonder if there are any autopilots out there with the equivalent of a kill cord to disconnect the autopilot when the sailor is outwith a specified range? A physical cord may not be practical but I'm sure a remote device would be a possibility. As an extension, the autopilot could be programmed to get the boat to heave-to while waiting for the sailor to catch up. The automatic release of a boarding ladder, dan buoy and long floating line could also be considered. The beginnings of an "internet of things" for boats?

(Any manufacturer taking up this idea is welcome to supply me with samples of their kit for test purposes ;))
Click to expand...
remote kill switch for motor good idea or not ?
don't know how to link a thread but type this in to search and have a read for more discussion.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
I, like most single-handed sailors, work on the basis that the first line of defense is to take every precaution to avoid going overboard; if you do go overboard, to remain attached to the vessel, and if you end up detached from the vessel, then the best chance is third-party rescue, but that you'd better have made your will!
Click to expand...

I fully agree that prevention is better than cure and that, if the worst happens, there is no one-size-fits-all cure. But in temperate waters in summer - where most of us sail - there are some things that can be done to increase our chances
* staying near the boat - you'll never get back on board if you are nowhere near the boat; while the boat's around there's hope and it's important to maintain hope and not give up
* having the boat stopped, or as near to stopped as possible, makes it easier to stay with the boat and, to get back on board
* getting back on board quickly, hence the suggestion of a decent boarding ladder which drops automatically; if getting back on board means dumping heavy, wet oilies then so be it
* being able to achieve all of the above quickly before fatigue and hypothermia set in.

Surely anything to improve the chances of survival is worth considering.
 
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