Man overboard stuff.

[pcatterall]

I find that crew seem to have lost my dan buoy. all crew are accounted.for so. I suppose it was just a bit of carelessness !
Times hae moved on so I am interested in the current thinking. I will.rrplace the dsn buoy.but perhaps with a.blow up version?. Some.crew do have locator beacons but I am thinking about something with AIS so that in the dark we can turn around and search.


Whats the current thinning and most suitable kit please?

 

[ylop]

Our Dan Bouy succumbed to 20 yrs of sun! We faced the same replacement decision as you - and the offerings were all a bit of a mess with some online chandlers using the wrong pictures or even listing stuff “in stock” that was discontinued and out of stock.

Your choices depend on where you sail, if you want inflatable horseshoe, inflatable “Dan”, light, very high vis material, sling or other for lifting casualty out the water, service interval, ability to self service, neatness of package on pushpit, even the size of your pushpit rails etc - and of course price. I don’t remember if any of them had an ais transponder included (that would have pushed it out of my price range for sure).

Non inflatable Dan’s remain popular because they are cheaper, more certain to just work*, and potentially are more vertical in strong winds.

*im not convinced that is necessarily the case - the solution we opted for has a small risk it fails to inflate but no risk that the horseshoe to Dan rope gets tangled on the pushpit and from what I’ve seen walking round marinas many don’t get much tlc.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

If you and your crew wear lifejackets all the time, then the ubiquitous horseshoe may be redundant. Similarly, if you and your crew all have some form of MOB tracking devices, then even the dan buoy has become redundant.

Around my marina I see a lot of inflatable horseshoes on sterns rather than the permanent arrangement. I also think that many dan buoys can't be deployed in a useful time frame for the MOB or the crew on the yacht to use as a marker.

They are designed for a time before universal lifejacket wearing, clipping on and when MOB detection relied on a crew member spotting the person in water. Perhaps now is the time to kit out your lifejackets with some form of PLB device, or just buy and fit one of the inflatable style dan buoys that can be easily reached and thrown overboard at the MOB.

Plotters these days have wind and current modelling for MOB and may be more accurate if everything is working. When my kit wears out, I will fit the inflatable dan buoy.

A modern system is plotter, PLB, inflatable dan buoy, lifejackets, LifeSavers.

 

[pcatterall]

Thanks both . My residual question then is the use of an AIS BEACON.
While a pub may alert and be responded to from a shore Station there is a time element involved.
With an ais alert we could find and rescue ourselves and in quick time.

 

[Stemar]

The cheapest MOB, and by far the best recovery device is a safety lanyard that you use.

If you do go over, ISTM that any gadgets apart from a waterproof HH VHF or PLB rely on someone seeing you go over.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Thanks both . My residual question then is the use of an AIS BEACON.
While a pub may alert and be responded to from a shore Station there is a time element involved.
With an ais alert we could find and rescue ourselves and in quick time.

PLB as a term is now synonymous with personal AIS beacons as well. AIS is a good idea and has been shown to work to help locate a MOB. I always advocate for fitting Lifesavers to lifejackets as once back alongside the MOB they make recovery back onboard much simpler.

MOB Lifesavers | MOB Retrieval for lifejackets

 

[ylop]

Some.crew do have locator beacons but I am thinking about something with AIS so that in the dark we can turn around and search.

My residual question then is the use of an AIS BEACON.

I think the size of your crew, your budget, and whether in REALITY you ALL wear lifejackets ALL the time has a bearing on that decision. If you do, then personal AIS and automatic lifejackets on the people might be the "best" solution. Some sort of throwable floatation (inflatable or traditional) would be a good idea if there's ever a possibility of a witnessed MOB where lifejacket is not in use or you are worried about the small possibility of a jacket not inflating. If its at night then a light is probably important as AIS will guide you in but might not get you close enough to see them.