How to get back into the inflatable after swimming

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When we were kids we had no trouble pulling ourselves up into inflatables from the sea, but it gets harder as you get older. Though my 19 year old daughter lost a fiver after I bet her that she couldn't get unaided back into the tender, and she lost.

We've tended to use one of our 15mm dock lines, hung over the side, with a loop (bowline) on the end but while it works, it isn't exactly the most comfortable way back in. Also, if anyone was exhausted, had swallowed water, etc., it could be a safety risk.

Can anyone recommend a safe, reliable and comfortable way back into the tender. Do those hanging steps work or do they just push away from the swimmer when he starts to climb (which is the problem with the line and noose).

Many thanks.
 
If you are wearing swimming fins you can give a good kick to help get you partially out of the water - much easier than say kicking with bare feet.

On tenders with outboard engines, I have often climbed up on the transom of the dinghy, using the cavitation plate above the propeller as a step. You might get a bit more manoeuvering room if you turn the engine to one side.
(This assumes of course that the engine is not running).
 
I don't do quite so much swimming off a dinghy as when I was a youngster.........

As you know the problem with wet tubes is their is plenty to grab.........but nothing to grip!

If the dinghy has a double painter (for towing) or also a stern painter then pass one of these through (an Avon) rowlock - accross the inflatable seat and dangle over the opposite side.

The idea being to grip the line with 1 or 2 hands - and coupled with using your legs swim your way onboard! - as a youngster I could do this in one easy motion leaving myself neatly sat on the tube facing outwards......but a crumpled heap on the bottom is not unknown nowadays, on the rare occassion utilised - the problem is their are no brakes to this method!......but yer didn't ask for always dignified!

I can't say what would happen with this method wearing a bikini ...........but I would like to see /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

IMO if folk tried getting onboard an inflatable dink with an inflated life jacket would be a bit of encouragement to try and never board that way into a liferaft.
 
'Crumpled heap in the bottom of the dinghy' sounds familiar

I've been able to get aboard although with bumps on shins sometimes, by splicing an eye in a short length of 18mm line and securing it over the transom (no outboard) If you thread a short length of hose on the rope before you splice it you will have a better foothold. From the painter eye, I had a length of rope stretched aft and hanging over the transom, this gives you something to haul on when you stand in the eye.
I can normally get aboard with all the grace of a floundering whale and collapse in the bottom hoping no-one has seen me.
Hang on to the painter when you haul yourself up, otherwise the dinghy shoots ahead and you score 9/10 for a backward summersault. I have only ever been able to board in this manner in calm water. Only rodeo riders should attempt it when a swell is running. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Even in my dotage I don't seem to have too much trouble. My method is to push down hard on one side until it is nearly submerged, then belly-flop across it. Undignified but effective. It may help to have the inflatable slightly soft.
 
Only really effective way is with a rigid ladder, as they sometimes use on diving RIB's simple and cheap to make out of an old rigid boarding ladder, with pieces under it to impinge on the bottom of the dink, to stop the ladder moving away from you, best over the transom, but can be used over the side or bow, depeands on what type of dink you have, (pointed nose or flat nose)
 
It's amazing what you can find on line these days, see: -
http://www.boatus.com/foundation/findings/findings44/page5.asp
I know that Plastimo also make a ladder to fit over the tubes but not only are they £120 you then have to find somewhere to store it.

On my last effort getting in the dinghy not only did I end up in a heap on the floor but also had my shorts around my knee's as they had become entangled as I slid in. Very embarrasing!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
I used 12mm braid tied off next to the seat, and led across the seat into the water on the other side. Then after a bit of trial and error I made two loops in the line that act as handholds and footholds. The bottom one sits about 2.5 feet underwater. I stand in that one first, use the next one up as a handhold, then grab the rope as it runs over the seat and use the leverage to get the other foot in. Then leap Gazelle like into the dink.

The first bit works but the Gazelle bit often ends with me in a crumpled heap with shorts halfway down my knees.
 
Thanks, everyone, that's given me an idea.

Tie two loops on a dock line with some 25mm reinforced plastic hose, around 6" to 12" long, to help stop the loops from collapsing and provide a more comfortable platform for your feet. The dock line would hang vertically, weighted down with an old shaft anode or similar. Rig another line (could be the other end of the same rope) with knots on it, as a hand-line. You would hold the hand line and walk up the rope loop-ladder. You could have more than two loops if you wanted.

It's starting to sound possible, free and as good or better than anything else out there. Will report back when tested, probably early summer.

Any ideas or evolution of this idea much appreciated.
 
[ QUOTE ]
How about just getting a bit fitter? I'm stunned that a 19 year old couldn't get back in an inflatable (I assume it was an inflatable?).

[/ QUOTE ]Yes, a 3.4m RIB with large tubes. She couldn't get back on and she's a perfectly normally (urban) fit, below average-weight, girl. Not many could, I'd bet, unless they worked out that they can use the outboard anti-cavitation plate (though I have large rubber trim tabs on my outboard and I would not encourage anyone to use them without being shown how).

Your suggestion is to tell my guests that they can't go swimming unless they "get a bit fitter"? And I suppose that guests who may not eat wheat should become less intolerant?
 
No Lemain, just entertain only very fat guests who float easily, then you could tow them... with the dinghy.. to a boarding ladder rigged on the ships' side. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I suspect your loops would shoot under the bottom every time you put weight on them. Mine did.

I eventually settled on doing a horizontal job. Started by lying horizontal in the water on my tummy, then hands on top of the side buoyancy chamber, a big breast stroke kick forward with the legs and a pull with the arms and slither over the top of the buoyancy chamber. As I got older, it paid to wet the buoyancy chamber first.

Now my kick and heave are a bit weak, so I have a floating line tied bow and stern which has enough slack to lie about 1m 40cm off the waist of the dinghy when pulled taut (distance will need to be adjusted to individual height and taste). Then I do the horizontal routine, with one foot hitched in the rope (fiddly). Then instead of a kick against water, it's a push against the rope - and in you slither.

I guess I'll end up with a floating boarding ramp . . . age . . .
 
Thanks. I think that our tubes are too large to slither over and the outboard is 6hp - too big to keep taking on and off and in any case normally we swim from the yacht or take the tender several miles away to a decent beach - that's when we need to get into the tender from the sea. With the outboard in place, I can't fit a rigid ladder. I think you are probably right about the loops shooting under. We always have oars - I wonder if we could press them into service in some way? They are the fairly weak Al type, not wooden ones.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Yes, a 3.4m RIB with large tubes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Arrrr, yes - I can see the problem. I was thinking about a small inflatable dink!

Coolest way would be a high speed pick up "SAS Style" /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

I think you really need rigid steps. PITA that they will be in a (relatively!) small inflatable.

How about doing some Youtubed experiments over the summer - for entertainm....I mean informational purposes next winter /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
"We always have oars - I wonder if we could press them into service in some way? They are the fairly weak Al type, not wooden ones."

Lemain, you just gave ME an idea there.! Possibly not for thin-walled alloy oars though.
Kayaking/canoeing outlets usually have an inflatable 'glove type thingy' (+/-£15) which is two flat pvc chambers welded together that one inserts the paddle of the oar between & ties off so it can't fall off the shaft. It works just like an out-rigger.

When inflated it grips the oar-blade pretty hard, & is a bit like having a fender on the end of your oar. I had one in my kayak just in case I capsized at sea on solo trips & was struggling to get into the kayak for some reason.
Never used it in anger...never capsized...but it takes quite an effort to get it underwater.
Alloy oars might bend & kink as soon as someone put a lot of weight in the centre,(?) but a woman would still need to have some upper-body-strength with this method.

Jock
 
I also visualized a slightly smalled dingy than you have, but then this begs the question is it safe to use if you're on your own, you might fall out and not be able to get back on board. Presumably there are lifting lines around the sides of the dingy? Why not simply hook a couple of plastic steps onto those?
As for intolerant guests, slap them with a wet fish.
Now let's see if anybody has a sense of humour ~ from previous experience I'd say not /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I hope that someone can come up with an easy way of acheiving this. I once missed my footing getting into my dinghy in R. Dart and after 20 mins of trying to get back onto either the dinghy or the pontoon, eventually had to swim 300m to the nearest ladder. I tried making a loop in the painter and this was sigularly unsuccessful, I tried belly flopping, well you name it and none were successful

Fortunately, it was both autumn, ie warm, and slack water otherwise I might not be here reporting to you now.
 
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