MOB - best sequence of steps with one person left aboard

Poey50

Poey50

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Interesting answers on the other MOB thread - thank you.

Here's my follow-up question. With only one person left aboard what is the most efficient set of steps to follow to have the greatest chance of a good outcome to an MOB?

For argument's sake assume a 32 foot boat, reasonably competent wife, dan buoy + horseshoe buoy + drogue + light, throwing line, 6:1 handy billy, MOB not unconscious and wearing lifejacket, summer UK coast sea temperatures, Force 5, both sails up at time of MOB, DSC radio, daylight, easy-ish to launch life raft , easy to start engine, no other boats nearby.

Asking for a friend. :nonchalance:
 
I don't think the RYA would approve, but I would put the helm hard over without touching the sheets bringing the head through the wind with the genoa backed. If the casualty was still in sight check for dangling ropes, engine on and motor back. If the casualty is not in sight probably worth hitting the DSC Mayday button
 
bedouin said:
I don't think the RYA would approve, but I would put the helm hard over without touching the sheets bringing the head through the wind with the genoa backed. If the casualty was still in sight check for dangling ropes, engine on and motor back. If the casualty is not in sight probably worth hitting the DSC Mayday button
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Yes crash stop could be close enough to throw a line, if not let lose the headsail and motor back. Done it several times in practice mode and it works.
 
I would chuck danbouy light first as you stand no chance of keeping a continuous eye on the MOB with all the other tasks needed, then crash stop head to wind.

Then assess what to do next - if not very close to the casualty then probably put the engine on in neutral, roll up the genny and decide when to let loose the mainsheet as you get back to the MOB. All our realistic techniques are based on coming alongside them and bringing them round to the sugarscoop and swimming ladder as there is no chance of either of us getting a person onboard up the sides.

If they are unconscious then the logical thing would be to sail on and report their death later, but emotion says you would try and try to retrieve them.
 
bedouin said:
I'm glad I am not crewing on your boat!
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I'd love to know how a single person on board could get hold of an unconscious person and get them back on board without drowning them. Actually I really would like to know that because all the magazine articles and threads on this have never convinced me, and have often said how difficult the different methods are even with 2 or 3 people left on board.
 
As said above, throw the boat through the wind and crash stop. The wind will then start blowing you sideways towards your MOB.

Then depending on the sitaution and distance, either:-

1./ Chuck ropes with fenders out (and/or lifesling)
2./ Engine on and get rid of sails
3./ Hit distress button on VHF and get help.
 
RupertW said:
I'd love to know how a single person on board could get hold of an unconscious person and get them back on board without drowning them. Actually I really would like to know that because all the magazine articles and threads on this have never convinced me, and have often said how difficult the different methods are even with 2 or 3 people left on board.
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I have tried and taught MOB practice with using full size and weight dummies from the RNLI. On a low freeboard yacht in a smooth sea it is possible, but far from easy (I used a mainsheet tackle from the boom). In a swell it's another story..... In my YM exam, I had to pick up a fender on a bucket...any idiot can do this, but to retrieve a body would be impossible in many circumstances on modern high freeboard boats.
 
Heave to.
Start engine
chuck lifebelt at person in water if useful.
Use engine to keep the boat in line with downwind drift towards casualty
pick them up within 2 or 3 minutes using lifesling or stern ladder
Put the kettle on
Relax
ps not always that simple but it should be.
 
On my 22' nifty handling boat, in almost any weather I'd chuck the lifefbuoy with light and danbuoy ( with light - everything on my MOB kit has lots of reflective strips too ) over then immediately gybe, hopefully luffing up back to the MOB.

This used to be taught as standard but it seems is now politically incorrect as if we're all daft and someone may get clobbered by the boom and sue the RYA ! :rolleyes:

On a larger boat I'd go for ' drop the lifebuoy with light and danbuoy then ' reach, tack, reach ' ( a few hundred yards away, no more - better to manouver fiddling about close to the casualty than lose sight ).

Experience with dinghy sailing is a huge advantage when doing this sort of manouvering.

If possible grab a boathook or at least a line to throw just after tacking - it's OK to leave the sheets out for that little while, the boathook or line will be important.

Remember on the ' reach away fro the target MOB ' to slacken the mainsheet right off, hold the whole purchase of the sheet in by hand to aid tacking; then sheet out and be ready to cast off the headsail sheets, or do it then.

Approach the casualty from slightly downwind, holding the mainsheet in by hand; luff up and let the sheet go.

Engines turned on but left in neutral are a good idea as a Plan B if you have time, but as long as there is wind and you were sailing when the MOB went over, do it under sail; I have seen horrible injuries inflicted by propellors.
 
Seajet said:
On my 22' nifty handling boat, in almost any weather I'd chuck the lifefbuoy with light and danbuoy ( with light - everything on my MOB kit has lots of reflective strips too ) over then immediately gybe, hopefully luffing up back to the MOB.

This used to be taught as standard but it seems is now politically incorrect as if we're all daft and someone may get clobbered by the boom and sue the RYA ! :rolleyes:

On a larger boat I'd go for ' drop the lifebuoy with light and danbuoy then ' reach, tack, reach ' ( a few hundred yards away, no more - better to manouver fiddling about close to the casualty than lose sight ).

Experience with dinghy sailing is a huge advantage when doing this sort of manouvering.

If possible grab a boathook or at least a line to throw just after tacking - it's OK to leave the sheets out for that little while, the boathook or line will be important.

Remember on the ' reach away fro the target MOB ' to slacken the mainsheet right off, hold the whole purchase of the sheet in by hand to aid tacking; then sheet out and be ready to cast off the headsail sheets, or do it then.

Approach the casualty from slightly downwind, holding the mainsheet in by hand; luff up and let the sheet go.

Engines turned on but left in neutral are a good idea as a Plan B if you have time, but as long as there is wind and you were sailing when the MOB went over, do it under sail; I have seen horrible injuries inflicted by propellors.
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The returning to the MOB is relatively easy and there are many methods, but depends on who is on board. Let's assume a F6 with a swell and a 32 foot Bavaria. The boat is slamming up and down with a serious chance of injuring the MOB. How do we get him on board? I don't know the answer and suspect most of us would fail. Has anyone here done it for real in a heavy wind and sea?

At least you can swim aboard an A22! :-)
 
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RupertW said:
I'd love to know how a single person on board could get hold of an unconscious person and get them back on board without drowning them. Actually I really would like to know that because all the magazine articles and threads on this have never convinced me, and have often said how difficult the different methods are even with 2 or 3 people left on board.
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At the least you can secure them to the boat and wait for help - or launch the liferaft and recover to that.

My strategy, although I haven't practiced, would be to disconnect the mainsheet from the traveller and attach that to the casualty (assuming they are wearing their lifejacket) and use that to hoist them, using the primary winches as necessary
 
End of last season we had an interesting afternoon recovering a real live and very game casualty. We were in a 40' catamaran in gentle conditions and used the usual crash tack, heave to, engines to come alongside the body (he was acting unconscious). Once alongside a ladder was fixed amidships and a crew climbed down to attach a tackle suspended from the boom end. This proved nearly impossible as the inflated lifejacket fouled the D ring on the harness. Once the MOB recovered consciousness and assisted the recovery was easily accomplished. Lesson learned, buy a lifejacket with a recovery strop or my solution, make a loop permanently lead through the D ring.
Next day we experimented with a mooring hook that I always carry for when I'm single handed. Its a stainless tube approximately 1.5m long with an eye welded to one end, where the spinnaker halyard was attached, and a large ss hook at the other. To lift, the hook was guided between the lifejacket bladders until the hook ran under the harness webbing. Once there it was a simple task to hoist the MOB up over the guardrail and onto the deck, he described the experience as just being uncomfortable. My best guess is that a monohull would experience greater motion but would benefit from heel reducing the freeboard and keeping the MOB from swinging into the coachroof.

Peter.
 
Poey50 said:
Interesting answers on the other MOB thread - thank you.

Here's my follow-up question. With only one person left aboard what is the most efficient set of steps to follow to have the greatest chance of a good outcome to an MOB?

For argument's sake assume a 32 foot boat, reasonably competent wife, dan buoy + horseshoe buoy + drogue + light, throwing line, 6:1 handy billy, MOB not unconscious and wearing lifejacket, summer UK coast sea temperatures, Force 5, both sails up at time of MOB, DSC radio, daylight, easy-ish to launch life raft , easy to start engine, no other boats nearby.
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Press the big red button, flip the switch, pray. The best that can be hoped for, I think, is to keep the MOB alongside the boat until help arrives, but ten to one he's dead.
 
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Regarding getting a casualty from the water, I've come across two similar products which can be fitted to the lifting strop in the lifejacket and which are automatically deployed when the lifejacket inflates. Essentially they release thin dyneema lines which float away from the person in water and which present a floating target which can then be picked up with a boat hook.

The principle underlying both is the same. Where they seem to differ is in the length of the line that is deployed.

One is produced by Duncan Wells and can be found here. http://www.moblifesavers.com. This is the shorter of the two lines, at around 3m and is on the market now.

The other is being developed by Geoff Barkin (looking at the website it looks as though this is not yet on the market.)
This one seems to have a longer pickup line at about 10m. The video below gives an overview of it and is particularly interesting because it shows a pickup of a MoB dummy at sea in quite rough conditions, far more like the conditions when someone might go over..
http://oscarline.com/portfolio-view/pool-sea-demonstration/

Both aim to make the casualty more accessible to the people back on the boat, the idea is to quickly make contact with the casualty, and then tether them to the boat until the lifting method can be rigged up.

These two methods rely on the MoB wearing a suitably equipped lifejacket. Another approach which can be used with someone who does not have a lifejacket is the Jonbuoy from Crewsaver. This drops effectively a small inflatable buoy which can be used as a small life raft by the MoB and which can then be winched back on board using a halliard

There seem to be three main methods of then winching someone who can't help themselves out of the water. Using a spare halliard; detaching the mainsheet from the traveller and using it as a block and tackle on the end of the boom; or using a dedicated "handy-billy", attached to a halliard.

I think that all have their advantages and drawbacks. The use of the spare halliard initially seems good, but the halliard is not likely to be long enough and often the winches either on the coachroof or mast may be underspecified, so if the person left on the boat does not have a lot of strength it could be a real struggle. It would be quite difficult to get the halliard onto the bigger primary winch, as the lead angle would probably be wrong unless it was lead through the genoa car, resulting in riding turns

I think that the use of the mainsheet may be quite difficult in practice, especially as the mainsail may have been dropped in a hurry and the sail may be all over the deck ,and the boom may be swinging around in a rather uncontrolled way.

The handybilly seems like a good idea, but I can see a lot of problems in deploying it in the panic conditions of a MoB, as it could easily get tangled.

I'm working on the following method which I think can be set up quickly when under pressure and which allows the person left of board to use the power of the primary winch to recover the casualty. .

1. Cleat a spare halliard at about headheight. 2. Shackle a block on to this. 3. Run a spare genoa sheet from the primary winch, through the genoa car, up through the block on the halliard and down to the casualty. 4. Load the winch and wind.

The important thing is to have a Plan A (and then Plans B,C, D should they be needed)
 
Even with a spare person on board to watch the casualty in the water, you will lose sight of them fast enough. With just one person on board that will happen very quickly so the first action has to be to throw the dan buoy and life ring over the side. At least that way you stand a chance of finding them again.

I've done MoB drill under sail many times but single handed its a lot to handle particularly when you get back to the casualty. So IMO you luff up, furl the genoa and drop the main.

Next you check for ropes over the side and then start the engine. Motor back to the causalty

You throw the floating rope to the casualty. If necessary you tow the rope behind the boat and circle him so that he can get hold of the rope. Off with the engine and pull him to the side of the boat.

Decision time - realistically can you lift him out / can he get out? Any doubt at all, Mayday. A pal who is an Instructor once tried MoB with a crew of firemen on a course and a man in the water. The firemen could not get the casualty out of the water . So what chance has your wife?
 
bedouin said:
I don't think the RYA would approve, but I would put the helm hard over without touching the sheets bringing the head through the wind with the genoa backed. If the casualty was still in sight check for dangling ropes, engine on and motor back.
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Why would the RYA disapprove? In fact, it's a long time since I did a course, but I think this might well be a method they teach.

(I say "a" method because I know the RYA is keen not to be dogmatic about one right way to do everything, even if people in the early stages of the syllabus sometimes forget that.)

My immediate action is pretty much the same. Depending on point of sail and how quickly you react, it's possible to end up hove to just upwind of the MOB, drifting slowly down towards them, and using the engine to slide back or forwards to keep things lined up.

If more manoeuvring than that were required, I would probably roll in the jib to keep matters simple. On my boat that's quick and easy to do from the helm. It's exactly what I did when my mate lost a shoe overboard near the Needles Fairway buoy, which was the last time we had a surprise drill. It's pretty hard to grab a slip-on shoe with a boathook, so we had to take several passes, and that was much easier with the jib furled and the main strapped amidships, basically ignored. Obviously in stronger weather you can't ignore the effect of sail area in the same way.

bedouin said:
If the casualty is not in sight probably worth hitting the DSC Mayday button
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I tend to think that unless, in Tom Cunliffe's approximately-remembered words, "the man was laughing as he fell, and comes bounding up the ladder with a joke" (ie, the most benign of dunkings in swimming-trunks conditions) it's as well to get a DSC alert off pretty early on. If you do lose contact, it's a good accurate time and position fix for the Coastguard to feed into their drift-prediction software, and I've seen an animation showing how much difference even a fairly small change in initial accuracy makes to the final result. You can always cancel it when you get the person on board in good health, and if you haven't succeeded in that before the lifeboat launches (20 minutes?) then you probably are in need of them.

Pete
 
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