boatmike
Well-known member
Hi Carol! Useful and disarmingly honest post was this.
"Its very interesting to analyze in retrospect what we should have done" shows character and is something we all experience from time to time.
Having had similar experiences to yours I think recovering a MoB from the water is one of the most neglected issues we face. Training courses concentrate heavily on finding a MoB at sea but once located getting him out of the water is never easy.
For what it's worth my own prefrerred solution to the problem in the past is that if you have the luxury of being able to, it's much easier to get a MoB into or at least alongside a rubber duck than a ladder, so some thought regarding ease of launching, oars on board, long painter attached to boat etc is worthwhile but of course this does entail having it blown up on davits or similar and often we don't have room. I just offer it as a thought. Also I think it is always worth remembering that it takes quite a few minutes to drown. If you can, take the time to organise a productive solution rather than reacting to an immediate panic situation. Also as you recognised don't bank on the MoB being able to help himself.
I learned a lot once by watching a 70 year old yottie rescue a drowning woman who fell off another boat in a river moored close by. Luckily no real flow of water but while her partying friends were running around in a panic shouting and throwing things at her he calmly went below, donned his life jacket, launched his dinghy and rowed over to her. She had by this time exhausted herself like your chappie so he tied a line to the dinghy and himself and jumped in and pulled her to the dinghy where using his rope as a purchase he was able to manhandle her over the side and row back to their boat. The lesson was, that although this appeared to take ages to execute it was successful. It taught me that taking time to get it right is far better than taking up precious time doing the wrong thing..... Easy to say of course but worth reflecting upon.
"Its very interesting to analyze in retrospect what we should have done" shows character and is something we all experience from time to time.
Having had similar experiences to yours I think recovering a MoB from the water is one of the most neglected issues we face. Training courses concentrate heavily on finding a MoB at sea but once located getting him out of the water is never easy.
For what it's worth my own prefrerred solution to the problem in the past is that if you have the luxury of being able to, it's much easier to get a MoB into or at least alongside a rubber duck than a ladder, so some thought regarding ease of launching, oars on board, long painter attached to boat etc is worthwhile but of course this does entail having it blown up on davits or similar and often we don't have room. I just offer it as a thought. Also I think it is always worth remembering that it takes quite a few minutes to drown. If you can, take the time to organise a productive solution rather than reacting to an immediate panic situation. Also as you recognised don't bank on the MoB being able to help himself.
I learned a lot once by watching a 70 year old yottie rescue a drowning woman who fell off another boat in a river moored close by. Luckily no real flow of water but while her partying friends were running around in a panic shouting and throwing things at her he calmly went below, donned his life jacket, launched his dinghy and rowed over to her. She had by this time exhausted herself like your chappie so he tied a line to the dinghy and himself and jumped in and pulled her to the dinghy where using his rope as a purchase he was able to manhandle her over the side and row back to their boat. The lesson was, that although this appeared to take ages to execute it was successful. It taught me that taking time to get it right is far better than taking up precious time doing the wrong thing..... Easy to say of course but worth reflecting upon.
