Dog Overboard?

[TamarMike]

Sailing back from Looe this afternoon I unusually decided to tow the dinghy instead of deflating it. However younger dog had to keep being chased off the sterndeck where she looked like she was considering a flying leap into it! Then aproaching Penlee Point I noticed she was missing (she had got a lifejacket on) . A quick search of the boat (doesn't take long on an older style 28'er) and it seemed she could be lost, as a last resort I called her name ... nothing. The kids all panicked and I called one final desperate time ...and she slowly emerged from behind the sleeping bags pushed up the 'foot tunnel' of the lower single saloon berth, what a relief!

 

[Liz_I]

Really feel for you. Only answer is keep them either confined below or clipped on. We're now a 4 animal boat 2 cats & 2 dogs. It's the only way to keep your sanity!

 

[Searush]

Dogs are pretty good swimmers. Finding a lost one in a seaway might be tricky tho.

I once threw ours overboard from a heavily overcrowded Heron Dinghy because she kept getting in the way of the tiller instead of lying below it where she was put. The kids (about 4 were aboard plus a couple of adults) made a lot of noise, but the dog simply swam to shore behind us.

Why was the dinghy so overloaded? We had been onn a picnic to an island on Loch Lomond using 2 boats to ferry everyone out & then, with one boat already ashore, it came on to rain quite heavily & no-one wanted to be left behind for a second trip. So we got everyone aboard & sailed carefully back. Not a huge amount of freeboard, but enough as it was light winds so no risk of heeling anyway. No need for anyone to swop sides, just pass the sheet to the guy on the other side for a tack.