Overboard when single handed sailing

[Daydream believer]

95% of my time I sail single handed. I am aware of a number of dangerous manouvers:-
leaving port & removing lines & fenders & getting sails up
Arriving port & reversing the above- more dangerous than last item as tired & sea may be bigger
getting hit by the boom ( happens only too often)
Fall & break a limb
getting run down by another craft ( i have had 2 really close encounters in 56 years of sailing)

All of these I can deal with, but the one big fear, now I am getting older & more likely to trip or stumble, is falling overboard whilst underway (not off the dinghy on a mooring or in a marina)

Has anyone done so when single handed & how did they manage to get back on? Were they tethered to the boat?
Do any SHers have a system worked out for just such an incident & have they tested it in a safe situation?

I am beginning to think that I should not be tethered & thus dragged along, but to get left behind & rely on my PIRB & pen flares to summon help

 

[bbg]

FWIW, here are some of the safety measures that are mandatory in the Classe Mini, the 6.50 m boats that are raced single-handed across the Atlantic.

The lifeline tether must be releasable from the chest end, while under load. For most people that means putting one of these on the chest end, so it can be released if you are getting dragged beside the boat.

There must be a means of getting back on board the boat from the water. For most people that means a piece of hollow webbing secured across the stern of the boat, from one quarter to the other. The webbing must be long enough that it can drop down 50-60 cm into the water so you can get a foot onto it. You then put some bungie cord inside and sew it into the webbing near the ends. This keeps the webbing out of the water when sailing, but when it is pulled down the bungie stretches and the webbing will come down. Depending on the height of the transom you might need a second "rung" of webbing as well, at a slightly higher level. You need to experiment a bit with the lengths of the webbing and bungie to get things right.

Another alternative is a line or webbing that goes a meter or so into the water, with loops for your feet every 30 cm or so. But the design needs to be such that stepping on a lower loop does not close the upper loops.

I also personally carried an EPIRB on my person at all times, although that is really only meaningful if you wear a life jacket to keep you afloat until help arrives.

If your budget runs to 10,000 EUR for electronics you can get an NKE autopilot with a remote control. The boat can be programmed to heave to and activate the MOB button if the base station on the boat loses contact with the remote control.

 

[Seajet]

I have the same worries.

One thing I do when on relatively long trips - such as across Poole Bay where there are a lot less boats around to spot one in the water - is I rig a light line to the ram of the autohelm, up over the pushpit and trailing behind 100' or so with a small float on the end.

If I go over the side and she's trundling on auto, I have to get to the line, a pull on which dislodges the autohelm and causes her to circle.

This might not work on a long keeler...

I've tried pulling the line from a pontoon aft of the boat and it works then, but I haven't tried it from the water - yet.

 

[alant]

I have the same worries.

One thing I do when on relatively long trips - such as across Poole Bay where there are a lot less boats around to spot one in the water - is I rig a light line to the ram of the autohelm, up over the pushpit and trailing behind 100' or so with a small float on the end.

If I go over the side and she's trundling on auto, I have to get to the line, a pull on which dislodges the autohelm and causes her to circle.

This might not work on a long keeler...

I've tried pulling the line from a pontoon aft of the boat and it works then, but I haven't tried it from the water - yet.

Surely you'd be able water ski behind an A22.

 

[awol]

Based on the recent age poll and the OP's 56 years of sailing, you are all coffin-dodgers anyway and are drags on the frail economy of the country. Do the decent thing and "drown like gentlemen".

 

[dylanwinter]

I came across this from 2009

http://blog.seattlepi.com/monasticmoments/2009/04/30/tragedy-at-sea/

http://www.sail-world.com/Modern-Sea-Mysteries--Solving-the-mystery-of-Jure-Sterk/63568

http://www.sail-world.com/photo/photos/Med_Lunatic Piran.jpg

http://www.sail-world.com/photo/photos/Med_Lunatic Jure Sterk at the mast.jpg

 

[Seajet]

Surely you'd be able water ski behind an A22.

I tried but the remote on the autopilot doesn't reach far enough behind.

 

[BlackPig]

As I have said before. IF you end up in the water your safety lines are all wrong. Keep the lines in the middle of the boat, test them lean back if you go over the side the shorted the tether or move the lines. Have two tethers so you you can attach the second before you release the first. I clip on before I leave the cockpit and at night I clip on before I leave the cabin.

Talk to the Jesters.

 

[[70521]]

As I have said before. IF you end up in the water your safety lines are all wrong. Keep the lines in the middle of the boat, test them lean back if you go over the side the shorted the tether or move the lines. Have two tethers so you you can attach the second before you release the first. I clip on before I leave the cockpit and at night I clip on before I leave the cabin.

Sums it up really well.

Otherwise ensure that your will is up to date.

 

[bbg]

As I have said before. IF you end up in the water your safety lines are all wrong. Keep the lines in the middle of the boat, test them lean back if you go over the side the shorted the tether or move the lines. Have two tethers so you you can attach the second before you release the first. I clip on before I leave the cockpit and at night I clip on before I leave the cabin.

Talk to the Jesters.

Very good points. A technique I used was to have two tethers. One attached to an eye in the floor of the cockpit, another to the jackstay on the high side. The cockpit floor tether was long enough to just dangle over the entrance to the cabin. So coming on deck I would clip that onto my harness before I went into the cockpit. If I needed to go on deck I would clip the high-side tether to my harness before unclipping the cockpit tether.

There are several advantages to this approach.

First, you are never unclipped.

Second, you are almost always working at your chest, not reaching for somewhere to clip to.

Third, you are not carrying a second tether dangling from your harness.

 

[Seajet]

As I have said before. IF you end up in the water your safety lines are all wrong. Keep the lines in the middle of the boat, test them lean back if you go over the side the shorted the tether or move the lines. Have two tethers so you you can attach the second before you release the first. I clip on before I leave the cockpit and at night I clip on before I leave the cabin.

Talk to the Jesters.

I do all that, have a 3-hook harness line and plenty of harness points; one useful thing I found more or less by accident is that on a 22' boat, harness points beside the mast allow one to hook a line on that reaches to the cockpit, allowing clipping on before going on deck, and to reach the stem for hanked headsail changes etc.

However, even with those harness points beside the mast on a fairly beamy ( 7'7" wide ) boat, I could still manage to go over the side.

The 79 Fastnet and previous nasty incidents taught the folly of harness lines spliced on at the wearer end, but one still requires a plan for being dragged along in the water, especially if singlehanded; I'm surprised I can't think of any incidents of boats being found with expired skipper still clipped alongside...

Having been overboard from a capsized tender at the mooring, with just a 1 knot tide - and finding that a REAL struggle despite low freeboard and the guardrail pelican hooks already being undone - I can easily imagine that going over the side of a boat under way puts one in a near impossible situation.

Apart from my patent trailing autopilot disabling line ( which I'd probably unclip myself and go for ), after my experience I can say for sure TRY VERY HARD VERY QUICKLY - otherwise the fatigue and water ingestion just hanging on will knobble any self rescue attempt.

 

[rogerthebodger]

When I started sailing dingies many years ago I would set up the dingy such that if the tiller was released that the dingy would tend to turn head to wind and thus stop.

I also saw in PBO many years a go a setup that would put the helm hard over either to port or starboard depending which tack the boat was on so that it would again end head to wind and thus stop.

Now with devices like Angus's YAPP crew watcher. NSAS MOBi and Raymarine's MOB monitor the output of any of these devices could be used to trigger the full hard over setup.

The hard over device only needs a tilt switch and a couple of relays to make work and some way to move the wheel or tiller or maybe connect to an autopilot.
Some think like this would be useful not only for single handers but for single night watch with on alarm to rase the other crew.

What do you guys think ?

 

[Topcat47]

This has been a really thought provoking thread for me. I'm not usually clipped on in the cockpit and only worry if I have to leave to go forward. I can do most things from the safety of the cockpit, but not reef the main or drop the parasail. I have a light shock cord on the tiller, in theory to aid the vessel to heave to if left to it's own devices. (I'm going to have to test this theory properly this summer.) I've also swum off the boat at anchor in tidal waters relying on a knotted rope and small fender to help me get back to the boat and climb aboard, but my experience in Cherbough, last year made it evident that this would never work were I fully kitted up.

 

[Seajet]

Roger,

I'm afraid ' I think ' about a million boat designers beat you to it with the characteristic known as ' weather helm '; any decent sailing boat in normal trim should require a slight pull on the helm to weather, ie towards one if sitting on the usually uphill side, so if the helm is released the boat should turn into the wind and hopefully stop.

When the boat is going downwind it can be a bit more tricky, especially if spinnakers etc are involved, but basically a sailing boat with no-one on the helm should stop - directionally stable long keelers may take longer, and the distance may become irrelevant to someone left in the water, but the boat will stop.

What really worries a lot of people is the advent of the autopilot, making it entirely possible for the boat to carry on forever whether one is there or not, with the nightmare possibility of going overboard then surfacing to see her sail - or motor - into the sunset...

 

[bbg]

FWIW - when I sailed across the Atlantic, the only time I was close to going overboard was when I was in the cockpit.

 

[rogerthebodger]

Roger,

I'm afraid ' I think ' about a million boat designers beat you to it with the characteristic known as ' weather helm '; any decent sailing boat in normal trim should require a slight pull on the helm to weather, ie towards one if sitting on the usually uphill side, so if the helm is released the boat should turn into the wind and hopefully stop.

When the boat is going downwind it can be a bit more tricky, especially if spinnakers etc are involved, but basically a sailing boat with no-one on the helm should stop - directionally stable long keelers may take longer, and the distance may become irrelevant to someone left in the water, but the boat will stop.

What really worries a lot of people is the advent of the autopilot, making it entirely possible for the boat to carry on forever whether one is there or not, with the nightmare possibility of going overboard then surfacing to see her sail - or motor - into the sunset...

Yes I am aware of weather helm and when I was dingy sailing it was very easy to adjust it. With keel boas its not so easy to adjust as the boat gets bigger and on bigger boats like mine with duel hydraulic steering even though it does have some weather helm it will not automatically turn head to wind on release of the wheel

Small tiller steered boats are more likely to turn head to wind. and as you say boats on ahti pilot will just carry on and sailaway from you. That is why I fitted Angus's crew watcher and am in the process of integrating it with my auto pilot system in the hope to stop my boat both under power and sail.

 

[BrianH]

Like others, this scenario is constantly on my mind. Important, I think, is a permanently mounted boarding ladder that can be swung down from water level with a rung low enough to get a foot onto.

Having a friend who lost her husband in the 2004 tsunami in Thailand and was in desperate financial straits as all the family funds were in the husband's name and his body was never recovered. The Swiss government made a special dispensation for such victims, bypassing the usual ten years for official death registration without a body. Since then, as there is a possibility of my body not being found if I go overboard, all accounts are now joint.

 

[ronmarson]

Seajet,
By my calculations your 100 foot rope will be out of reach in just 15 seconds if the boat is travelling at 4 knots (I am assuming Anderson 22s can sail that fast)
You would need to be very agile and very lucky to grab it as it went past, specially if you were hampered by an inflated life jacket, in a rough sea or in the dark.
Capt. RoN

 

[lw395]

FWIW - when I sailed across the Atlantic, the only time I was close to going overboard was when I was in the cockpit.

I can understand that.
It's generally in our minds to hook on or hold on when out of the cockpit.
But sailing around the coast people are also at risk when on the foredeck mooring or anchoring, you rarely see singlehanders hooked on at those times, when they are often using both hands to do something awkward.

 

[SimonFa]

What really worries a lot of people is the advent of the autopilot, making it entirely possible for the boat to carry on forever whether one is there or not, with the nightmare possibility of going overboard then surfacing to see her sail - or motor - into the sunset...

I'm a novice when it comes to SH and not that experienced anyway (3,000+miles) and limit myself to sailing SH between Weymouth and Studland, although I do intend to venture further this season.

When it comes to leaving the cockpit I always stop the boat, either by heaving-to or if on the motor going in to neutral. Furthermore I don't clip on except when I'm stood at the mast, I think I'd prefer to be in the water rather than dangling over the side of the boat ,not least because I'm not convinced that even with the boat stopped I could get myself back over the lifelines. I do carry a hand held and a PLB, both of which are tied to me on a shortish tether even though they are in pockets and clipped on to me as well.

From what I've just read in this thread I might start rethinking my approach even for shorter trips. One tip I read and maybe should try out is to take a long line from the bow cleat to stern cleat and have it set up just above the waterline so that I'd have something to stand on if I was tethered. I also like the idea of being able to release the tether at the chest.