Poll - Have you ever fallen into the water

Have you ever fallen into the water without planning to do so

  • Yes

    Votes: 115 60.2%

  • No

    Votes: 76 39.8%
  • Total voters
    191
  • Poll closed .
Albeit I'm fairly agile and have run up and down ladders many hundreds of times, a few years ago I lost my footings while the boat was on the hard on the day of haul-out. The fall really winded me but after recovery I carried on. Various symptoms manifested themselves over the next few days culminating in peeing pure Merlot three days later. NHS111 dispatched me to A&E in the early hours of the morning. I had cracked several ribs and bruised a few organs. For a few weeks I couldn't lie horizontally or scale stairs so had to sleep sitting in an armchair. It took a few months to fully recover. Not a pleasant experience. I always remember it as this time of year......haul-out is next week :unsure:
 
More times then I can count racing dinghies.

Three times off boats.

Once head over heels off the bow whilst retreiving an anchor in a sudden easterly in Studland bay, once when a crew member tipped the dingy over when they fell back into it whilst climbing on board and once when I slipped off a frosty cabin roof and went under the stanchion wire.

I'm trying very hard not to do it again...
 
Never from a yacht, - I was taught to have "one hand for myself, one for the ship" from my mentor some 68 years ago.
Principle still used, even when clipped on.

Wearing a Lifejacket doesn't stop you falling in, which is the thing to avoid.
 
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Really only dinghy racing when it is almost expected.
My most spectacular was on the Hobie cat, giving it everything in a strong breeze on a reach on flatish water. At maximum speed the bows dug in! Pitchpole. I distinctly remember flying through the air as I was catapulted forward.
With a keel boat with a lid I think its best to stay on board unless bathing.
 
I have a clear picture in my memory of a bubbly blonde girlfriend doing a Tom and Jerry between my old Dragon and a plywood pram dinghy off “the Rocks” on the Deben in 1972. She was wearing our only automatic lifejacket and it worked perfectly. The freeboard of a Dragon being what it is, she was back on board in a moment, and we both collapsed in fits of laughter.
 
Biggles Wader said:
Does dingy sailing count? In which case yes-----lots of times.
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My record for that was when I had a hornet & did Burnham week one year.( I was 17 years old) I was determined to finish as we were last & 5Th out of 24 starters & we capsized 24 times. The remainder had retired due to high winds.
3 years ago, at the age of 71, I was still doing it, but in my Phantom & finally gave up the race after FIFTEEN times. I have now sold the Phantom
The most embarrassing time was when the club sent the wife in the safety boat, one day when I got separated from my sail board. She stood up on the safety boat & lectured me about being too old for windsurfing etc etc, whilst I was in the water looking up. It was only a 100 yards from shore & everyone could see her wagging her finger at me.

I have been over the side of cruisers 3 times since 1970. I would like to avoid doing that again.
But i would like another Phantom :rolleyes:
 
Twice, both times coming alongside a pontoon. The first in Sydney, when I jumped onto the pontoon a bits fast, and had a waving arms moment, before i fell off the far side, and the second in Dunkerque in November, when I slipped stepping into the pontoon. Both time I was up and out of the water before the crew with the other mooring line realised I had been in.
 
Twice involuntarily, first was when in a tender, I was alongside another tender chatting to the other chap and he asked to borrow something. I leant across to give it to him and my tender just revolved! It was somewhat hilarious and fortunately my tender had sufficient buoyancy to not sink and I was able to right it and climb back over the transom.

The second was in the dark walking down to a friend's boat in the marina. I was chatting to someone and as I turned onto the finger I just stepped into space!! Extremely embarrassing, especially as I was Commodore at the time. I only went in up to my waist and was hoisted out and offered a stiff drink and some dry clothes by fellow members.

There have also been a number of voluntary partial immersions when racing my One Design. If we went aground, not infrequently , the rule was that the helmsman went over the side to push us off. It was most often me, this was fine if the bottom was shingle/sand, not so good if mud.
On one occasion the boat turned and started to sail off pretty fast before I had got back aboard, I managed to grab the mainsheet near the transom and my crew then managed to drag me back.
 
Never "fallen off" a yacht in over 50 years. Have swum three times alongside a yacht on the end of a harness line, while the keel was in the air. Being accustomed to dinghy capzizes I climbed back aboard as she righted. Many many times from sailing dinghies and fast catamarans. Missed toestraps, toestraps broke, trapeze wire broke, failed to clip on to trapeze properly, etc.
 
I don't think racing dinghy capsizes and the like can really count. To my mind that's part of the mode of operation in e.g. having designs that trade stability for performance, and/or deliberately sailing on the limit of control.

Hence I also haven't counted the numerous times I have rolled in a sea kayak, or capsized in a Canadian canoe in white water.

I'm not sure whether it's good luck, failing memory or - least likely! - my skill and caution that means that I can't remember ever 'falling in'.

As someone who often sails single-handed, it would probably only happen once if i did. :oops:

I've rescued several who have, most recently a month or so ago a paddle-boarder in the local inland river who'd fallen in and couldn't get back on his board. Most critically, late at night someone who had been drinking and fallen into the water in a marina and, unable to get out, had been in the water a very long time and I doubt would have lasted much longer.

Most immediately gratifying, though, was a girlfriend's 11 or 12 year old son who, for all the obvious reasons, had persistently ignored all my attempts to get him to observe basic precautions (including wearing a life jacket when warranted). On a canal narrowboat holiday he was racing round the side decks as we passed over a high aqueduct when he tripped off the front into the water. I immediately knocked the engine into neutral. The boat carried its way onward, and as the cockpit was passing him I reached over the side, grabbed him by the back of his shirt collar and heaved him up and dumped his soggy, sheepish self into the cockpit. No harm was done except to his pride, and he was henceforth a bit more receptive to my advice.
 
Not yet, I say, with everything crossed. One guest forgot that our stern ladder is never tied up, and I suffered a lifejacket inflation when the toggle caught in the forehatch in 1972. This entertained the children and I remained entirely dry.
 
Yes stepping off the back of my friends boat to retrieve my sunglasses from the floor of his very squidgy inflatable that really didn't deserve that name. In my defence or lack of it I was pissed at the time as were the other two on the boat.
 
I fell once from the stern platform, I had just weighed the stern anchor and was trying to clean the mud when I slipped into the water. There I was with one hand still holding the anchor+chain under water and the other hand attached to the lower steel tube of the platform. My daughter then 2-3 yo burst out laughing and while pointing her finger at me called "mom!mom! dad fell in the water, come and have a laugh you too". Aren't kid wonderful :)
 
Fell off my brompton bicycle (rear wheel sliding out from under me) and into the water, pulled the bicycle in behind me and climbed out using the mooring lines. Not funny really but would have made a good clip for You've Been Framed...:unsure:
 
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