Man Overboard Solent

Paul_f7

Paul_f7

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I recovered a yachtsman (Bill) from the water today who had been thrown from a yacht north of Cowes, at the same time as the rescue services were attending to the crew of the yacht which had sunk off Bramble Bank. A scary experience, as I was solo on a 46ft motor boat, but thankfully he was wearing an auto life jacket and I managed to recover him within a few minutes of him going for a swim!
I handed him over to the RNLI in Cowes and he appeared to be none the worse for his time in the water. To Bill - I trust you are ok and managed to get warm AND a new iPhone ;-) take care.

A lesson for us all - Wear a life jacket!
 
Well done for your rescue, and all done single handed on a large mobo to boot! Tremendous effort.

I was out and about when the 7from the yacht were in the water but to far to assist but thankfully they to were all pickup up very quickly. But all in all a eventful day for the rescue services, even heard the police escorting a Cornish crabber into cowes .
 
Thank you! Yes very eventful, but at least no serious injuries and everyone got home safely. The lifeboats did a great job at a very busy time.
 
I was thinking about this further, I honestly think pulling somone from the water with the weather conditions as they were yesterday singled handed in a rib would have been a tough call, but in a 46 mobo was a serious feat.

I pulled a lady out the water at mercury a few months ago who had gone in to rescue her daughter, she had managed toget her daughter out but her energy levels had been spent getting her daughter out and having heard a splash I ran round and pulled her out onto the pontoon. I didn't think much about it, specially when swmbo asked where the hell had I been as I had been going to get a trolley! But next weekend we had a note left in our cockpit, her view was that I may just have saved her life.

I am sure Bill may be thinking the same thing about your actions.
 
Well done 46ft is a very big boat single handed for MOB recovery exercise

Yes always wear a life jacket from the moment you leave the car to the moment you return.

Yes for the pontoons ;-)

Considering my experience, I am more likely to fall off a pontoon than I am a boat.

Actually I recall pulling a Squib sailor out of the water at Cowes week in 2001. He fell over board without a life jacket and with heavy sailing gear on and was 55+ unfit (could not pull himself into the RIB, that probably counts for most sailor who dont do the Insanity work out or similar on a regular basis) he had been in the water for probably 2 minutes.
 
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Well done Paul, I'm really interest to learn some of the details involved in this MOB, (far more interested in this story than silly spats in Mercury :) )

Were you alerted by VHF or were you close enough to witness the guy fall over? Also, what did you do re the recovery, I would be worried in your situation as to what to do about propulsion? Do you get close, power down and throw a line or is it safe to leave the boat in neutral?

Again well done and as long as all ended well, a good real life situation to grow your experience.
 
Well done. Superhuman effort to drag anyone out of the drink and great presence of mind to be able to get it done.
 
So was he sailing single-handed, or fell off a crewed yacht? In either case, what happened to the boat? Crew unable to recover him, or boat sailing away on autopilot with nobody on board?

In either case, lucky you were there to rescue him :encouragement:

Pete
 
TQA said:
Top Tip

If you are in a RIB or any inflatable and struggling to recover someone in the water deflate one section, it makes it much easier and the RIB won't sink.
Click to expand...

Indeed.

Another option is to get the casualty to climb on to the outboard (you would have course killed the engine) and then use the power tilt to lift them out of the water. It depends what you've got in the way of an A frame but it works well.
 
Jamesuk said:
Yes always wear a life jacket from the moment you leave the car to the moment you return.
Click to expand...

Our friends and 5 yr old daughter had a lovely day with us and wore a life jacket the whole time. However it was taken off just before leaving the boat and she fell between the stern and the pontoon (Med stern to mooring). Saved in seconds but lesson learned.
 
Excellent job, well done. Just manoeuvring a large boat near someone in the water makes my blood run cold.

May not be top of your list, but I add my name to those asking for more info on how you did it, what you learned.
 
Nigelpickin said:
Well done Paul, I'm really interest to learn some of the details involved in this MOB, (far more interested in this story than silly spats in Mercury :) )

Were you alerted by VHF or were you close enough to witness the guy fall over? Also, what did you do re the recovery, I would be worried in your situation as to what to do about propulsion? Do you get close, power down and throw a line or is it safe to leave the boat in neutral?

Again well done and as long as all ended well, a good real life situation to grow your experience.
Click to expand...

Thanks Nigel (and everyone for the kind words).

Nigel, in answer to your questions:

I was not alerted by VHF, but by a yachtsman on another vessel who witnessed him going overboard. At first all I could see was another yacht who appeared to be having trouble with its spinnaker which was in the water and crewmen who appeared in a desperate hurry to get the sails down. At first I thought they had suffer some form structural failure, and then I saw the victim in the water. To be fair he was very calm and I stopped approximately 10 metres away from him to ask if he had any obvious injuries, as yanking someone out of the water with a back/neck injury could have resulted in serious injury. I then explained what I was going to do, and made sure the victim acknowledged what I was doing. I then positioned the boat upwind of him, sideways on so to provide some shelter for him and to allow the boat to be blown towards him. Once I was within 8 feet, I threw him a line and secured him to the boat, at which point I could pull him to the stern of the boat and get him out.

Having never been involved in anything like this before I was a little shaky and afterwards thought about what I would do differently. Obviously, had I had crew on board I would have have them issue a mayday or panpan, but as I was on my own I thought it better to at least secure him and attempt a recovery, if the recovery had failed then I think a mayday would have been the right decision.

Not something I would want to have to do on a regular basis, so hats off to the RNLI crews.

Hope this is what you wanted.
 
prv said:
So was he sailing single-handed, or fell off a crewed yacht? In either case, what happened to the boat? Crew unable to recover him, or boat sailing away on autopilot with nobody on board?

In either case, lucky you were there to rescue him :encouragement:

Pete
Click to expand...

Hi Pete,

He was with crew, but they were being blown all over the place whilst they tried to get the sails down. The yacht return to offer assistance, but as we were being rolled (a lot) I asked them to keep away as I already he him ready to be lifted out. They also offered to take him into Cowes, but again I declined due to the swell and risk of damage to either crew and/or boats if we had tried to do a transfer at sea..
 
I used to work as a scuba instructor and was always amazed at how effective parbuckling is - for those who don't know the technique:
"Purbuckling" (or parbuckling) can be used to lift a casualty from the water up a vertical surface such as a high sided boat, pontoon or a jetty. For a 1.5 metre lift, a length of rope of at least 4 metres / 13 feet is needed.
The casualty is brought horizontally alongside. A rescuer in the water with the casualty (or reaching down form boat or dock if low enough) takes the loop of rope under the casualty and passes it back to two rescuers at the top of the vertical face. The loop of rope is positioned so that in passes outside the arms between the shoulder and elbow and around the outside of the legs between the knee and the hip.
The two rescuers on land secure the end of the loop that they control by standing heavily on it with one foot. They both pull on the central part of the loop rolling the casualty up the surface taking care to co-ordinate the tension so that the casualty remains horizontal and that the rope remains in position on the casualty's arms and thighs. A rescuer should take care that the casualty's head and neck are not injured during the lift.
I'm 6' 3'' and about fifteen stone and this worked on me when done singled handed by a 5.4 woman.
 
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