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 .
Humblebee said:
Twice, once getting into the dinghy late at night and after a couple of beers. Dark, cold winter but dog needed ashore.
Second time, inflating the dinghy on a pontoon and stepped back thinking I was opposite a pontoon finger - I wasn't!
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Something similar while folding a sail on the pontoon. Stepped on to part of the sail only to find no pontoon underneath it…. Could not climb out, had to swim to the stern boarding ladder, which fortunately was not tied up.
 
1. Sculling on the Thames in January. Caught a crab. Rolled into icy cold water in shorts and singlet. I will never forget that shock. Trained to keep with the boat, but it was a long sweeping bend and I was out of sight for both safety boats. I tried to yell but could not. I knew that if I did not get help quick I was a gonner, so I made for the shore. Once there I managed to get to a road and flag down a car who took me back the club where they did the proper hypothermia drill. That taught me that going into the drink was a very serious matter.

2. St. Maarten, Simpson Bay, at night in the rib. Our ”very experienced“ skipper whizzed at 20 knots or so in close to the super yachts at night and I was sat on the bow facing aft. He did not see a mooring line and it got my back. I flew over him and the outboard. I was surprised how comfortable warm the water was and how I survived uninjured.

3. November. Single-handed coming alongside fuel berth in Ipswich haven. Jumped ashore, green slime on the decking and slid right over into the drink on the other side. I kept hold of the line and as the yacht moved along the pontoon the line caught on a cleat and the motion hauled me out! I made a further turn and the yacht came nicely alongside.
 
Grabbed hold of flag halliards it gave way I went down vertically and came up vertically still wearing specs,hardly time to wonder what happened.aLit the wood stove on my 23footer and got warm.
 
Kukri said:
Reading this thread, it seems to me that most of us have been very lucky.
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Yes, and it also seems to confirm the frequently expressed view that getting in and out of the tender/on and off the pontoon is the most dangerous part of sailing.
A caveat, though. In order to be able to contribute to this thread you have to have survived your immersion, which is why the more reliably fatal kinds of incident are likely to be under-reported. (Similarly, we are less likely to hear from the unlucky.)
 
alan_d said:
Yes, and it also seems to confirm the frequently expressed view that getting in and out of the tender/on and off the pontoon is the most dangerous part of sailing.
A caveat, though. In order to be able to contribute to this thread you have to have survived your immersion, which is why the more reliably fatal kinds of incident are likely to be under-reported. (Similarly, we are less likely to hear from the unlucky.)
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Extremely good points.
 
Pointless without more detail.
  • How long have you been sailing? One summer? 40 years?
  • How often do you go out? Weekly? More? Less?
  • Dinghy and beach cat racing? If you didn't get wet you weren't trying.
  • Kayaking? Whitewater (of course), marsh, or open water? Getting in/out or paddling?
  • At the dock? Were you working on the boat, just fooling around, or was a serious cold weather or docking accident?
  • At anchor or mooring?
  • Under way? Off shore or river/bay/small lake?
  • How comfortable are you in the water? Were you dressed for the conditions? Was there a straightforward way to get out (transom ladder, for example)? I've let myself fall in, when catching my self seemed more dangerous. Water is soft, if the conditions are safe.
I've never had a serious incident involving me or crew, but we've fallen in a good many times!
 
Alfie168 said:
Only if you are very lucky. Most phones die.
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Certainly used to - I lost an iPhone just from spray seeping into an oilskin pocket (that was supposed to be waterproof but wasn't).

Nowadays decent phones are waterproof, though. I wouldn't deliberately immerse mine in the sea (I have a waterproof case for use when paddleboarding) but my friend's who fell in the marina was fine after a rinse under the galley tap and dry off with a teatowel.

Pete
 
A sad tale I heard a few years ago. A well known character left the pub to go out to his boat. The next morning his swamped dinghy was found downriver. On checking the boat his mobile phone and dentures were found on the deck.
 
DanTribe said:
A sad tale I heard a few years ago. A well known character left the pub to go out to his boat. The next morning his swamped dinghy was found downriver. On checking the boat his mobile phone and dentures were found on the deck.
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It does seem that simple stuff like going out or returning from the mooring is the most risky, prob because it doesn't seem like it is., so fences are down.
 
I was sitting on the back of a dinghy when the other person with me put there foot on the boat it just flipped instantly and I found myself in the water my automatic life jacket went of and all was ok , I often wonder what would have happened if I had been warring a manual one, anyway I was back on board the yacht in a no time . Another dinghy was called for and we went ashore where I hacked up the very unstable dinghy. I later found my wallet missing and thought that’s the last I’ll se of that . Two days later it was put through my letterbox totally as it was when I lost it , money cards and driving license ( thank god for plastic notes, I was never able to thank the person as there was no I’d , so I’ll take this opportunity to say thanks very much, not just to the person who returned my wallet but to everyone who has ever done similar deeds.
 
Once from a sail boat bows while manouvering in dartmouth harbour , another from pontoons i was welding on in upper clyde , no life jacket either time , no prob getting out .
 
Just twice. The first after a difficult sail to Liverpool Marina from Anglesey I berthed alongside a pontoon, took the stern line backwards whilst admiring how neatly I had come in solo and stepped off the end of the pontoon backwards. I had taken off my LJ and it was cold (november) and the boat was starting to drift away with me still holding the stern line. Being quite strong and fit I managed to crawl up onto the pontoon,tied up and dried off feeling a little silly. There was nobody about at all.
The second time I had both rudders in a small tender which was of the double skin type and was taking them back to the boat on its mooring at Port Penhryn when water between the skins suddenly flipped the dinghy. As the rudders were wood/epoxy they floated quite well as did I with an inflated auto LJ. I realised then that I needed a lower rung to my 3 step boarding ladder and SWMBO lowered me a rope loop.
 
Sailing steve said:
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...
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White GRP can be lethal with frost as you may not realise the situation until you are skidding somewhere ourt of control.
 
It was a very posh canal. No trollies to be found.

On a serious note though, I spent a few weeks escorting a sea swimmer in a sailing boat a few years back. I don't think I quite realised how easy it is to loose, and how hard it is to recover a man overboard till then. We spent an hour one day in rough weather trying to recover a skilled swimmer kitted out with a wetsuit and gps tracker. Scary to think how much harder it would be if they hadn't intentionally fallen in.
 
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