Corley
12-01-2011, 06:10 PM
I just recently had the new experience of having to rescue a fellow competitor while crewing on a sailing multihull during a race (F24 trimaran). It was a lesson in preparedeness or lack thereof. The conditions were fairly windy 20 probably touching on 30 knots at time. The wind came up quite quickly so there was not much of a sea state running just a little chop. It poured down upon us for about half an hour before the race and continued for the duration. We made a clean start which was nearly directly downwind. We noticed nearly immediately the TT720 trimaran behind us struggling with setting their spinnaker.
Soon we received a M.O.B. call. This set off a chain reaction of events on our boat that exposed one of our crew members really wasn't up to taking decisive and fast action in a crisis. While he was flummoxed the skipper myself and another crew member (who nearly was pulled overboard themselves) struggled with controlling the kite and attempting a drop finally I pulled the jib up its halyard and managed to collapse the spinnaker and the skipper released the spin halyard so we could drag it in (the tack line had still not been released by our unresponsive crewmember).
Meanwhile on the other boat they had attempted to start their outboard and failed (they had a spinnaker sheet fall overboard and foul the prop) and had managed to keep their lost crewmember in visual contact. This created more problems for us in maneuvering as they were not keeping good control of their boat we nearly suffered a collision with them. While we were maneuvering our skipper became a bit overwhelmed and we suffered a gybe with all standing he got hit in the head with the boom only a glancing hit luckily no major damage to his head from the impact. We finally managed to get visual contact of the M.O.B. she was conscious and uninjured which was good but had not pulled her tab to activater her lifejacket which made her really hard to see.
Finally our skipper managed to start our outboard and we were able to position the M.O.B. near the leeward float and drag them aboard. I was glad they were not too heavy it took quite a bit of effort to bring a light female onboard if they had been a really heavy male I'd envision having to take a line round a winch to get them onboard. I've seen some references where they recommend putting a jib overboard and pulling the M.O.B. up in a bight of the sail I guess thats ok if you have spare sails lying around but most of the time they are on furlers and the time taken to unhank a jib and get it overboard probably isnt worth it. We then commenced a slow windward motorsail beat back to the club.
The things I took from the experience.
a) Have an easily accessible floatation cushion with a line attached for easy retrieval if we had one easily accessible we could have spared our M.O.B. ten minutes in the water. Our skipper should have had one but didnt have it easily accessible.
b) Be seamanlike and look to properly controlling and tidy up your boat first two of our crewmembers could have potentially suffered serious injury. I think our skipper went away from the event with a much better understanding of what was required and why.
c) If your the M.O.B. pull your bouyancy vest or lifejacket so the rescuers can see you and make the initial approach safely it will save you time in the water and your rescuers a lot of angst.
d) Have proper blankets and towels onboard to help the M.O.B. dry out and keep warm.
I'm not critical of our skipper he simply fell into the complacency that effects everyone who sails it was a good wake up call for everyone on board. We were lucky that the event played out in conditions that were not too extreme. I'd be interested to hear of other people's experiences and how they coped in similar situations.
Soon we received a M.O.B. call. This set off a chain reaction of events on our boat that exposed one of our crew members really wasn't up to taking decisive and fast action in a crisis. While he was flummoxed the skipper myself and another crew member (who nearly was pulled overboard themselves) struggled with controlling the kite and attempting a drop finally I pulled the jib up its halyard and managed to collapse the spinnaker and the skipper released the spin halyard so we could drag it in (the tack line had still not been released by our unresponsive crewmember).
Meanwhile on the other boat they had attempted to start their outboard and failed (they had a spinnaker sheet fall overboard and foul the prop) and had managed to keep their lost crewmember in visual contact. This created more problems for us in maneuvering as they were not keeping good control of their boat we nearly suffered a collision with them. While we were maneuvering our skipper became a bit overwhelmed and we suffered a gybe with all standing he got hit in the head with the boom only a glancing hit luckily no major damage to his head from the impact. We finally managed to get visual contact of the M.O.B. she was conscious and uninjured which was good but had not pulled her tab to activater her lifejacket which made her really hard to see.
Finally our skipper managed to start our outboard and we were able to position the M.O.B. near the leeward float and drag them aboard. I was glad they were not too heavy it took quite a bit of effort to bring a light female onboard if they had been a really heavy male I'd envision having to take a line round a winch to get them onboard. I've seen some references where they recommend putting a jib overboard and pulling the M.O.B. up in a bight of the sail I guess thats ok if you have spare sails lying around but most of the time they are on furlers and the time taken to unhank a jib and get it overboard probably isnt worth it. We then commenced a slow windward motorsail beat back to the club.
The things I took from the experience.
a) Have an easily accessible floatation cushion with a line attached for easy retrieval if we had one easily accessible we could have spared our M.O.B. ten minutes in the water. Our skipper should have had one but didnt have it easily accessible.
b) Be seamanlike and look to properly controlling and tidy up your boat first two of our crewmembers could have potentially suffered serious injury. I think our skipper went away from the event with a much better understanding of what was required and why.
c) If your the M.O.B. pull your bouyancy vest or lifejacket so the rescuers can see you and make the initial approach safely it will save you time in the water and your rescuers a lot of angst.
d) Have proper blankets and towels onboard to help the M.O.B. dry out and keep warm.
I'm not critical of our skipper he simply fell into the complacency that effects everyone who sails it was a good wake up call for everyone on board. We were lucky that the event played out in conditions that were not too extreme. I'd be interested to hear of other people's experiences and how they coped in similar situations.