More seemly to drown like a gentleman

[Danny Jo]

Discussing jackstays and safety lines this morning, I was introduced to this:

Q. What's the point of a safety line?

A. So you've got a body for the insurance.

OK, so it is a bit over the top, but it begs the question, why wear a safety line when sailing single-handed?

 

[sailorman]

keep it short so you dont "Go-over-the -side"

 

[damo]

If you do go over the side, there may well be "a body for the insurance", but you have a chance of getting back aboard.

Without a safety line there will definitely be a body....

 

[Koeketiene]

[ QUOTE ]
but you have a chance of getting back aboard.


[/ QUOTE ]

And that's a lot harder than you think. Especially if you're wearing oilies, boots, lifejacket (which of course inflates), etc... You're about as agile as the Michelin man.
Happened to me once IRL.

 

[webcraft]

[ QUOTE ]
keep it short so you dont "Go-over-the -side"

[/ QUOTE ] Assuming it is attached at the waist it is difficult to do that on boats under 30ft.

Better to clip on to the windward line in rough weather - you are much less likely to go over the side then, and on our boat I can still reach pretty much everything with a 2m line.

- W

 

[damo]

I know how hard it is, but some chance is better than none

 

[Gunfleet]

I knew someone who went over the side on a safety line. The boat was doing three or four knots and he said he was helpless and half drowned by the water he was passing through until the crew stopped the boat. I wear a safety line and sail alone myself, but I do accept that if I went into the drink I'd be stuffed. I believe Frank Mulville recommended trailing a line so you could put the boat in stays, but that seems unlikely to me. Perhaps someone else will provide a sure fire method of stopping the boat.

 

[photodog]

How bout one of those remote control Auto pilot thingys from Raytheon......

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

In fact you could actually be sunning in the dingy and control the boat from there!

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[shmoo]

A couple of years back we were crossing from western France to Cornwall. The admiral was asleep and the boat was slicing along on a reach with the autopilot at the helm. I would occasionally prozzle with a sheet but the boat didn't really need me so I started cleaning the deck.

I got the bucket rope round my ankle and ended up hanging off the pushpit with the bucket trying, quite successfully so far, to drag me off the boat. I had my lifejacket on, as per standing orders, but the boat was doing 6 kt and the only other person on board was fast asleep!

I yelled something like "I wonder, darling, if you would be so kind as to come up here, with a big knife, at your earliest convenience". After what seemed like an age the admiral emerged looked around, reached over to the autopilot, which I then realized was well within my reach also, and hit the "Left 10 degrees" button several times. The boat stalled, bucket tension eased and the admiral gave me a hard stare went back to her pit.

Now I clip on too.

 

[damo]

LOL Do you know the phrase "the ship was making 12Kn and a Chinaman"? Due to the apocryphal galley hand who let a bucket over the stern to collect some water, and didn't let go /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

LOL.... my one and only MOB experience as skipper was when a crew in a thoughtful attempt to swab the boat down, threw the bucket off the bathing platform with the lanyard wrapped around his wrist.....

It took us a a while to recover him, mainly because we were all rolling around in the bottom of the cockpit killing ourselves laughing.... he was launched like a human torpedo!

(ps.... before anyone tuts too much, it was a hot summer evening and we'd already been swimming in the sea earlier that day, so knew it wasn't too cold... it was about 10/12kts of breeze and virtually no swell, and we were in Plymouth Sound, so generally quite safe....)

 

[Pads38]

We were flotilla sailing in Turkey when the skipper decided to go for a dip of the back of the boat by tying a rope to his waist and jumping of the back. What he had not anticipated was that we were going rather quicker than any other time we had tried that stunt before.

We then had the skipper being dragged through the water only occasionaly being able to breath, the strongest bloke on the boat unable to pull him in and the only other person with any sailing nous (ie me - and at that stage it was minimal) at the other end of the boat.

From such excitements lessons are learnt.

 

[marilynch]

Are you suggesting in all weather conditions ?

I would want to strap on in rough (for my little one) seas (not sailed solo in those conditions yet), hoping it would stop the fall and prevent falling over board.

Accidents happen in fair weather (tug boat wash is a good example) but I would imagine it would be a PITA and possibly dangerous? to strap on in fair weather so I always wear a life jacket and HHVHF with aspirations for a little epirb.

Funny isn't it? - when you are tired you are more likely to get tied up or trip up on them but it is when we are tired that we probably need them the most ?

 

[Athene V30]

As a solo sailer it is always a consideration hence I do clamber about the boat a lot on hands and knees (even when sober!)

Might look strange but I know it is less likely for SWMBO to cash in on the Life Assurance.

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Koeketiene]

[ QUOTE ]
As a solo sailer it is always a consideration hence I do clamber about the boat a lot on hands and knees (even when sober!)

[/ QUOTE ]

Same here - works better than tying up

 

[snowleopard]

[ QUOTE ]
... autopilot at the helm.... so I started cleaning the deck.

[/ QUOTE ]
Precisely why we have an unbreakable rule on out boat that no one leaves the cockpit unless there's someone else there to see if they fall.

 

[Seven Spades]

I cannot remember where I read it but one single hander used to attach a stout rope fore and aft on each side to form a sort of step/hand grab. I am not sure it would be of much help but seems sensible to me.

 

[shmoo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
... autopilot at the helm.... so I started cleaning the deck.

[/ QUOTE ]
Precisely why we have an unbreakable rule on out boat that no one leaves the cockpit unless there's someone else there to see if they fall.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup. That's what the admiral said too, though she was a tad more forthright.

 

[graham]

[ QUOTE ]
Yup. That's what the admiral said too, though she was a tad more forthright.

[/ QUOTE ]

I cant blame her after being so rudely awakened /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

My attitude to clipping on when singlehanded is I could die if I fall off clipped on and cant get aboard again. I will die if I go over and ther boat sails away.

 

[Gunfleet]

And who says the Welsh are gloomy?