Man overboard waypoint

[picardy]

I sail single handed and use a Raymarine system for my instruments.

Is it possible to buy a system that will create a new waypoint and automatically steer the boat to the point I went overboard?

I know it couldn't slow the engine or adjust sails but it would at least get the boat closer to me or maybe head the boat into the wind?

Any thoughts greatfully received

 

[ShinyShoe]

I sail single handed and use a Raymarine system for my instruments.

Is it possible to buy a system that will create a new waypoint and automatically steer the boat to the point I went overboard?

I know it couldn't slow the engine or adjust sails but it would at least get the boat closer to me or maybe head the boat into the wind?

Any thoughts greatfully received

Check out a thread about a YAPP MOB System. Various discussions of this concept.

You want it to sail close enough to you to get back on board, but at the same time you don't want it to go over you... GPS is accurate to 3m in good conditions. That means it misses you by 3m or it hits you.

My thoughts would be...

Do you have a PLB?
Where do you sail?
Are you clothed for immersion?
(I assume you would have a LJ on!)

If you have a PLB, sail in UK coastal waters and are clothed for immersion I think you'd be better hitting the red button as soon as you are in the water and waitign for a helo.

What are you doing to stop you going for a swim?

Something along the lines of the YAPP system which could kill engine and round you up so if you are stuck on a lifeline you stand a chance would make sense. YAPP can simply be thrown away to make it show you as a MOB.

Other reason to round up / kill engine would be to stop the boat sailing on into danger... ...that seems a plausible explanation for the loss of the malaysian airlines - some form of emergency that resulted in the cabin being evacuated and then it stayed on autopilot and crashed...

 

[Seajet]

Picardy,

one thing I sometimes do if singlehanding any distance - especially outside the Solent - is to tie a light but strong codline around the tiller end of the autohelm ram, using a timber hitch ( or similar ! ) - I then trail this over the pushpit, and aft about 100' with a small float on the end.

The idea being, if I take a tumble over the side I make like mad for this line and grab it; the upward pull of the line over the pushpit dislodges the autopilot, and she rounds up - not so brilliant if under motor, but a lot better than steaming off over the horizon...

I've tried tests from a pontoon and it works, but despite my girlfriends' encouragement I haven't tried from the water.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I've tried tests from a pontoon and it works, but despite my girlfriends' encouragement I haven't tried from the water.

You rogue.

 

[trapezeartist]

Last summer I overheard one half of a Mayday radio conversation (the coastguard speaking, obviously). A single-hander had gone overboard and called in his own Mayday from the handheld VHF he was carrying. Everything sounded very routine and the last we heard as we went out of range was the helicopter saying they had a visual on the casualty. Provided you are close enough to a transmitter, and provided you know where you are, the VHF message is going to be acted on a lot faster than a 406MHz satellite call.

 

[Aquarella]

I sail single handed too and have had many thoughts (and nightmares) about this. It would be great in a MOB situation if the boat could just turn around and stop so I could casually climb on board and finish my coffee but it isn't going to happen. The next best thing is being picked up by another boat. I have just bought one of these (which uses AIS ) just in case. I don't always have my handheld VHF on me, but the R10 safelink can be attached to an inflatable life jacket.
http://www.kannadmarine.com/en/safelink-r10

 

[mjcoon]

I know it couldn't slow the engine or adjust sails but it would at least get the boat closer to me or maybe head the boat into the wind?

Maybe if under motor something more like a "dead-man's handle" would be more suitable. E.g. if an "OK" button on a pocket remote were not pressed every 30 seconds, the engine stops. Ideally if holding wheel or tiller the extra action would not be needed...

Mike.

 

[prv]

Is it possible to buy a system that will create a new waypoint and automatically steer the boat to the point I went overboard?

Off the shelf, no.

There are basically two varieties of man-overboard alarm. The first has a base station and several key-fob type devices which are in constant contact with it. If one of the fobs loses contact, an alarm is sounded, waypoints created, etc, but the position of the MOB is not tracked. The second kind involves a larger device on the MOB, which transmits a signal the boat can home on. Traditionally this was analogue direction-finding on 121.5MHz, nowadays an AIS-based system would be a better choice. There are versions of both types made by various manufacturers, but none of them will command an autopilot. They generally assume that there will be other crew still on the boat.

Pete

 

[Uricanejack]

Don't know of an existing system.
I would expect it is technically possible. Cost effective and in demand may be different question.
I sail single handed.
I like to carry a safety harness. Don’t always wear it perhaps I should.

Better to make sure you don’t fall of in the first place.
I did acquire 2 mustang inflatable life jackets with harness’s. Mostly to keep my wife happy when my son and I sailed up the coast. I was looking for harnesses but the cost difference was not significant. So I paid a little extra and got the jackets.
I clip on when I leave the cockpit if I’m on my own.

 

[jwilson]

I sail single handed and use a Raymarine system for my instruments.

Is it possible to buy a system that will create a new waypoint and automatically steer the boat to the point I went overboard?

In most tidal waters that would mean turning the boat round and taking it to somewhere some distance away from you by the time the boat gets back. GPS MOB points refer to ground, MOBs drift along on the tidal current. If tide was 1-2 knots you MIGHT be able to swim against the tide clothed, but much more and you are stuffed.

Under power an electronic kill-cord might be better. All I can suggest for sail is a auto-cutter on the genoa sheet and the main halyard.

Sooner or later someone will build it: though I spent years single-handing boats with no guardwires, not wearing lifejacket and harness only very occasionally. But I held on tight.

 

[prv]

Sooner or later someone will build it: though I spent years single-handing boats with no guardwires, not wearing lifejacket and harness only very occasionally. But I held on tight.

...and were probably more at risk while driving to the boat anyway.

Pete

 

[BoyBlue49]

All the above is assuming you have fallen overboard.

Why not wear a harness and clip on, I would not go to sea any other way when single handed. What do you do when you have to go forward for some reason, just hope for the best ?
Not clipped on and sailing single handed seems to me to be very selfish and relying on others to save your life and to risk theirs.

 

[Seajet]

I know assuming anything is a dangerous thing, but I for one was assuming the OP usually does that; I singlehand a fair bit too and am usually clipped on, but even with a 3 hook harness line and plenty of harness points on the boat, there is still the odd moment one is unattached and there's always the distraction of some kind at the wrong moment...

 

[jwilson]

All the above is assuming you have fallen overboard.

Why not wear a harness and clip on, I would not go to sea any other way when single handed. What do you do when you have to go forward for some reason, just hope for the best ?
Not clipped on and sailing single handed seems to me to be very selfish and relying on others to save your life and to risk theirs.

No, it is accepting that you will die if you do fall overboard, just as you would die if you fell of the edge of a cliff. Encourages carefulness.

 

[Seajet]

I remember a very experienced instructor say " if the boat was 100' up perched on a pole, no-one would fall off ! " - fair point but I bet someone would.

 

[prv]

What do you do when you have to go forward for some reason, just hope for the best ?

Oddly enough, I hold on.

Pete

 

[prv]

I remember a very experienced instructor say " if the boat was 100' up perched on a pole, no-one would fall off ! " - fair point but I bet someone would.

Height certainly makes people hold on.

For beginners, the most dangerous part of going aloft on Stavros was not the un-tethered portions a hundred feet up, but the moment when they got back to the foot of the ratlines and felt a solid surface under their feet once more. We would always watch people at this point and remind them to hold on, because a common reaction was a huge grin and letting go, forgetting that they were essentially balanced on the bulwark rail on the outside of the ship.

Pete

 

[BoyBlue49]

Oddly enough, I hold on.

Pete

What with, you might be working with both hands on a jammed furler.

Just my experience.

 

[Uricanejack]

What with, you might be working with both hands on a jammed furler.

Just my experience.

One hand for the ship and one for your self. An old saying but founded in simple logic.
Yes I've been on the fore deck in a gale trying to get a sail down.
I wore and wear a harness and always go up the high side and stay low.
Tied on I can use both hands.

 

[Sandy]

Is it possible to buy a system that will create a new waypoint and automatically steer the boat to the point I went overboard?

No.