Bathing ladder - essential safety tool?

[jimbaerselman]

Three events over the years have led me to believe that a bathing ladder is an essential safety aid.

The first was an MOB off Salcombe in winter. He was fully conscious, in physical contact with the boat within two minutes, but it was not possible to get him out of the water until some 15 minutes had passed and a second crew member put at serious risk after he jumped in to tie a rope around him. The initial MOB died. The second suffered serious hypothermia after great difficulty recovering him.

The second was a summer episode off pile moorings, when the second of two crew members slipped and fell in while boarding a yacht from a dinghy. The dinghy floated off, the MOB grabbed one of the mooring lines and worked towards the boat. There was no obvious means of boarding the boat, and the person aboard had no boat experience. Passing by, I heard shouts and saw waving, went alongside, made up with a short spring, scraped some gel coat and dropped my bathing ladder. Panic over.

The third episode was this year, in the Med. We anchored in a bay, occupied by only one other vessel. We heard some shouts, and looked over. There was someone in the water waving. It dawned on us he wanted help. Into the dinghy. It turned out that he'd gone ashore with the rest of the crew in the dinghy, then decided to return early by swimming back. He'd underestimated the distance, and was only just able to reach the boat. It had a suger scoop, but he couldn't raise the strength to heave up. He couldn't pull down the bathing ladder, because it was lashed 'up' at deck level. So he only had the option of hanging on and waiting for the rest of the crew to return.

I noted this year that many Med charter operators lash their bathing ladders up at deck level - a mistake in my opinion. Any lashing should be able to be released either from the water or from deck.
What sparked this post was a couple of comments about harbour-side MOB's in the live aboard forum. My response was to say that the bathing ladder is an essential safety aid, and should always be left down when at anchor or in harbour. But it's worth testing that view in a wider forum.

An essential safety aid? Or just desirable? What's your view or experience?

 

[fireball]

Last year we picked up 4 (inadvertent) swimmers who had walked out on a spit at spring low ... only to find the tide came in quicker than they thought ... the bathing ladder made recovery painless - although I think they did get a bit of an ear bashing from the HM who took them off us in a RIB ... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Good point about being able to release the steps from the water - I will have to investigate this one. We normally board the boat from the tender at the stern and quite often the steps are used (in the stowed position) to pull against, so they are firmly tied up. It shouldn't take too much effort to create a quick release chord that could be activated from the water...

 

[freebird1]

I think that you are right that it is an important safety feature, but I also think that it is useless / dangerous in a seaway as the boat pitches up and down. Some other system needs to be available in those situations, such as a rescue strop with a halyard and winch

 

[pvb]

Fully agree with your observations. My fold-down ladder was damaged a few years ago by a stray mobo, and the subsequent repair left it with rather more friction in the pivots than previously. This means that it stays folded up without any restraint, and can still be pulled down easily by someone in the water.

 

[yoda]

Fully agree, as a singlehanded sailor you have to be able to get back on board unaided and it's the only way. All your points are good and well made. Is there an RNLI Seacheck inspector out there who would like to comment?

Yoda

 

[jimbaerselman]

[ QUOTE ]
I also think that it is useless / dangerous in a seaway as the boat pitches up and down

[/ QUOTE ] Once you've connected to the person, turn beam on to the seaway.

 

[simonfraser]

same need by pontoons in the marinas

 

[sarabande]

MDL have bright red boarding ladders on their pontoons (at least in Penton Hook !) unlike some marinas I can't mention....

 

[wigen]

Good point. We have been debating this issue a lot in Denmark. We now half submerged ladders attached lots of places in the marinas. My bathing ladder is easy to access from the water.

 

[Billjratt]

Definately, just added an extra meter underwater to mine as the nimbleness of youth has long gone (without even thinking about strength-sapping cold etc.) Also have a mid-ships either side facility. I believe some young German lads went swimming from their boat in the med a few seasons ago and forgot to put down the ladder first. One died.

 

[FlyingDutchman]

The bathing ladder on our boat is the folding type. The lower (folding) part is secured to the upper part with a plastic clip (the ones used to secure PVC pipes to a wall). This is strong enough to avoid the ladder to unfold by itself, but can be easily released by pulling it down. Maybe this is an idea?

 

[Anchorite]

Re: Getting back on board

Before the mobo-aided modification had you a system (usable from the water) to drop the top part preferably without causing brain damage...or has anyone designed a release method (for swimmers) for these boarding ladders where the top half is fixed and the lower half hinged?

 

[Guest]

"turn beam on to the seaway"

Depends. It is really hard to handle anything at the stern while riding sideways over wave crests.

Also any stern ladder is useless. The injuries from being hit by the stern movement through the water is high. Just trying to get near a bobbing sugar scoop is dangerous as there is not enough to push off from. I find that arriving at a boat stern in a dingy is hard in a bad anchorage. Being 90% below the water would be very dangerous.

Using the engine to maintain beam on, just risks cutting the feet off the swimmer or tangling any ropes used to lift the person.


The only way to get on a boat in a sea or bad anchorage is at the mid point. Since you can not have a permanent rigged ladder there, you must provide some other means. Temporary ladder. We have a block and tackle on the main boom that can be deployed in seconds. The first step is the hardest and needs to be underwater so fender based ladders are useless.

I always wondered why we do not have safety devices that are Velcroed in canvas tubes to the lower guard wire that are basically cargo nets. You would just need one small lanyard hanging down to deploy it.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

I made a rope ladder with solid wooden rungs that gets put away when not needed... it hooks on the midships cleat and has weights on the bottom rung to sink it.... works a treat....

 

[Twister_Ken]

"works a treat.... "

Maybe, but will it be there after you fall overboard?

 

[pvb]

Re: Getting back on board

[ QUOTE ]
Before the mobo-aided modification had you a system (usable from the water) to drop the top part preferably without causing brain damage...or has anyone designed a release method (for swimmers) for these boarding ladders where the top half is fixed and the lower half hinged?

[/ QUOTE ]No, it's confession time. I'd only recently bought the boat and the folding part of the ladder was secured in the upright position by the wire strop joining the split parts of the pushpit. Didn't think it through, did I? But I lived to see the error of my ways.

 

[TiggerToo]

I have been thinking about this in recent days.
Tigger has a "bathing" ladder in the sugar-scoop stern. Although the sight of the stern splashing in and out of the water is scary, the ladder (which goes well below surface level) is always immersed and if the MOB is conscious and able to get hold onto the rungs he can then lift himself relatively easily. I am not sure how easy it would be to use a rope base ladder from the side (or the stern) which will have the tendency to either move out of the way or stay stuck to the sides making it difficult to get hold of by hand or foot (pity Morgana, because I liked your ladder and I'd live to make one like it... perhaps to climb the mast).

Probably, as many things boaty, there is nothing that works absolutely for every occasion.

still musing, though /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[jimbaerselman]

[ QUOTE ]
a rope ladder with solid wooden rungs

[/ QUOTE ] I've found difficulty with rope ladders since they escape under the hull as you put weight on them. On some hull shapes that's not too critical, but on most you need a lot of agility.

I'm sure you've tested your arrangement to find the key height at which the steps should be mounted to minimise these difficulties.

Do you always put it over when at anchor or when in harbour?

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Nope, but I very rarely sail singlehanded... so would expect the thoroughly briefed crew to set it up...

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

I've got a bathing platform ladder too, and that is my first choice... this is more an additional option for recovery over the midships when needed..

I did spend quite a bit of time working out what step spacing to use... and then even longer trying to tie it and get the spacing right and the steps level!