MOB recovery practice weekend

[MoodySabre]

This idea has been shamelessly cadged from elsewhere.

I would like to propose that we all meet up at a quiet and sheltered anchorage to practice MOB Recovery and spend the night at anchor or in a marina with good facilities. This would include:

Experiencing what happens when you go overboard wearing a lifejacket
Recovering a conscious person
Recovering someone who is not helping much
Seeing what happens when you go over the side whilst clipped on.

We could do this either by observing efforts on individual boats from dinghies or by having a few mother-ships where different methods are tried and we take it in turns. Either way some dinghies in the water would be sensible for safety purposes. Volunteer casualties could be in full dress or wet suits depending on preferences and the stretching tolerance of neoprene!

Possible venues could be:
Off Osea Island – beach for the kids to play on but not for a BBQ
Pyefleet – can we all anchor there?
Walton backwaters somewhere.
Wrabness – BBQ possible I believe
Deben - not easy for arrival/departure

Weekend to be chosen for suitable tide dependent on venue. A little later in the season would be preferable so the water warms up a bit (and the old sea dog CPD is back from his travels).
Good weather would be a pre-requisite so a date and fall-back date would be sensible.

Any takers?

PS A copy of the article in Feb 2007 PBO is a good reference for various techniques. PM me if you need a copy.

 

[Auntie Helen]

I think this is an excellent idea and would very much like to attend (not sure I want to go swimming though!)

 

[Sixpence]

Roger, you have finally confirmed that you are as mad as a mad hatter /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
As soon as I read your post out to Louise, she said yes please, so you are not alone.
Dependant obviously on venue/date etc we will most definately be up for it, have done recovery training years ago trying to get into a life raft in rough water but we do need to get some practice in with MOB procedures. Would be worth the travel time to have support boats on standby

 

[FullCircle]

I'm in.
Do you want to have the RNLI give a talk and a demo as well?

Try to do it on neaps, then the water wont be travelling quite so fast!

How about Marconi Sailing Club, opposite Osea?

 

[scottie]

R Y A used to have an excellent dummy just for this use

 

[MoodySabre]

[ QUOTE ]
R Y A used to have an excellent dummy just for this use

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't worry - Jim just volunteered /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[MoodySabre]

Jim - I have no fixed view on how it should be organised. When everyone has chipped in we could form a cunning plan. An RNLI talk would need to be a land event presumably. Simon of this parish might be able to arrange Marconi and some moorings for me-no-anchor brigade ( /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif).

 

[FullCircle]

I was at Marconi last Friday. Good sheltered area for +/- 2 hours either side of HW, a little pontton to get ashore, a nice ramp area for onshore demos. A bar and lecture room if weather is iffy, moorings and place to anchor. Even good car parking.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Yep, count us in too..... but only if you organise some sun!

[sucker mode]I'll stick my hand up for also being willing to go over the side... [/sucker mode]

 

[eastcoastbernie]

This is probably the optimum time for me to confess that I did once have a real MOB to deal with. It was in January in the Orwell (fortunately not in open sea) but it was very cold, there were no other boats around and it was a very scary experience.

After the man had gone overboard, I was alone on the boat. It's worth mentioning that I was very new to cruising, and had been sailing my boat for just a few months. I'd probably only been out in her about a dozen times until this incident.

He fell in while walking back from the bow of the boat having just prepared the hanked on gib for hoist. The mainsail was already up, and the engine still on. So I had a gib flapping halfway up the forestay, a full main, and the engine.

Getting back to the casualty was something of a doddle. I was amazed how well that went.

I chucked him a horseshoe lifebouy almost immediately then considered my options. I had heard that a person may only survive for a matter of minutes in cold water without a survival suit so I knew I had to act quickly. And I knew whatever I decided to do could quite literally be a matter of life or death.

My RYA training suggested going off on a reach, tacking round and coming back. Then I realised I still had engine on, so I could just motor up to him. I motored up and handed him a halyard end which he got hold of. I didn't want to risk injuring him with the spinning propellor, so I switched off the engine. I then pulled him up to the steps on the stern.

This is where it started to go wrong.

He could not climb back into the boat and did not want me to help him. In the split second that I turned to get the topping lift off the boom in an attempt to use it to winch him up, he lost his grip on the steps and was gone again.

Now I had no engine, a mainsail and a gib flapping uselessly all over the place. I fished in the cockpit locker for a fender, tied it to the halyard end and attempted to sail around him so the fender was brought within his reach. He grabbed onto it and I started hauling him back in. Once again, I couldn't believe how well the strategy had worked.

But once again, it went wrong.

He fell off the fender.

Now things were looking very bleak indeed. He had now been in the water for maybe 10 minutes. I hadn't sent a mayday because my radio is down below and I didn't see how I could send a mayday without risking losing sight of him and control of the boat. I hadn't sent up a distress flare as they are stowed in a locker in the saloon, and by the time I'd got the flare out and deployed it I would have lost sight of him.

My crew started to shout for help and then I noticed a small motorboat in the area. I joined in the shouting and the motorboat came over to assist. Being two of them on board, and owing to the shape of the boat they were able to scoop him onboard. I heard them calling up the coastguard on their radio who agreed to get an ambulance to meet them at Woolverstone and off they went.

Later, when I'd managed to get my boat back to the marina, I went to find him at hospital where he was making a full recovery.

The experience could have put me off sailing forever, but with the help of friends and with the 'benefit' of the experience, I made radical changes so I would be better equipped should this ever happen to me again.

1. Handheld radio always in the cockpit now.
2. New steps that lower well down into the water to make it easier to climb into boat.
3. Lifeline permanently available on pushpit so it can be used to attach to MOB once recovered to prevent him falling off the steps.
4. Snap shackle on main halyard so it can easily be deployed to winch man out of water
5. Lifesling on pushpit (quicker and better than a fender on a halyard)
6. Tillermate so tiller can be locked on a course.
7. Bag containing mini flares, foghorn (for attracting attention) and floating line readily accessible in the cockpit locker.

In summary, getting back to the casualty is the easy bit. Getting the casualty back on the boat, especially when he is bigger and heavier than the person left on the boat, is another matter entirely.

 

[MoodySabre]

So now it's your turn to be a casualty then. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[eastcoastbernie]

No thanks. I had plenty of practice at that when I was dinghy sailing!

/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Sixpence]

Don't envy your experience at all Bernie, which is why both self and Louise intend acting out both parts. Both of us need to work out what to do and to experience it would be the best way of doing it. Not looking forward to it, but it's something I think we need to go through so a safe environment for doing it would be a bonus. Trained as a Police life saver and had to recover a (supposedly) unconcious person while fully clothed, and tow them three full lengths of a pool, in cold water, then get them out unaided. Looks easy when someone else does it, but I can see why you had problems getting your casualty out of the water. As I said, I don't envy you at all.

 

[pyrojames]

Thanks for that Bernie, that is a very sobering and thought provoking post.

 

[bastonjock]

this sounds like a great idea.i have often wondered how my wife at 5ft tall would manage with hoisting an unconcious me back onboard.

I have done,the North sea survival course and as an ex commercial diver i am familliar with retrieval techniques that are geared up towards unconcious people in the water.I could demo on how to give EAR resussitation in the water and how to check a retrieved person.

Does anyone have acess to drysuits or at least immersion suits? that water is COLD,access to hot showers would be a great idea

 

[Marmalade]

At Marconi last Friday - did we meet - were you in the bar during the evening? Come to think of it... don't you know my mate Pete?

Anyway - Marconi - definitely (I think that as commode I can volunteer us). If it's a date I can make I'll bring the coal (we have bbq set to go) and open the bar. Aug is rubbish for us - loads of events but the water's still warm in early Sept.

Simon

 

[FullCircle]

Simon,
I was with Sprayslip Keith, diagnosing his snapped forestay.
Yes, I know Peace Pete, I work 10 feet from him. Know quite a few others too.
Dont think we met though, and I was back in Burnham by 1630.

 

[MoodySabre]

Simon

Sounds a good possibility. Perhaps you could think of a date you can make and club is free.

Bradwell HW on 06/09 is 1707 and 13/09 is 1128. How do these fit in for travellers?

 

[FullCircle]

The Full Circles are in Corfu on that date, by kind invitation of Olive Oyl and Popeye of this parish.
Also, its the last Saturday of Burnham Week.

Any chance of a review?

 

[Athene V30]

I would like to be there if I can make the date. Don't know who would pull me back onboard as I singlehand most of the time but I really ought to have a plan

Can't have SWMBO cashing in on the life policies! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif