Retrieving a man overboard

What methods do you have set up on your boat to retrieve someone from the water should they fall overboard? Prevention is better than cure, and ideally your crew will not fall into the sea; but there is always the chance it might happen. During the last 40 years or so of sailing, I have lost five people overboard, and all have been within 100m of a pontoon, pier or wharf. So I do have a few ideas of how to retrieve someone. Over the next few months I will show you some of these methods.

A tribuckle is an excellent piece of kit, sadly now, I believe, out of production, but there are some similar contraptions still available. Tied to the toe rail, and with the spinnaker halyard made to the apex the casualty is floated into the bunt of the contraption and then the halyard is taken up and the body rolls up the side of the boat. The major advantage is that the body is pulled out horizontally, which will mean less chance of the casualty having a stroke as the blood does not immediately drain to the toes. There may be difficulty in strong winds to get the material to stay in the water, a boathook may help here. What do you do if the man in the water is unconscious? You may like to discuss this by posting a comment below. If you have some brilliant idea for retrieving a casualty, why not explain it and I will publicise it in All At Sea?

Out of fuel at sea

For the first time in my life, I ran out of fuel at sea.  We were coming into Newtown Creek to have supper and prepare for a night pilotage exercise.  The fuel tank had shown half full at the start of the week’s charter, and the owner just said fill up the tank to the same mark as you find it at the end of the trip.  So with a tank of 130 l, I assumed we had enough fuel for about 2 day’s solid motoring.  When we ran out of fuel we had only motored for five hours or so.  The engine faltered and died on us right by the bifurcation navigation mark in the creek, so we dropped anchor and lay back on that for all of 2 minutes.  I got the engine going and we made it to one of the mooring buoys up the western arm of the harbour.   I called the owner and she asked me to call out Seastart, which we did.  They were very efficient and quick to answer our call, did all the necessary in checking the fuel system and it was concluded that we had run out of fuel.  We refilled the fuel tank and had no further problems.  The silly thing was that the engine was brand new, with a brand new fuel gauge, but showing half full when empty.  I was reading a link on one of the internet forums for yachtsmen where an owner had the sender for the fuel tank gauge replaced under warranty.     The installers had apparently failed to adjust it to the yacht’s tank, and the owner, like us, ran out of fuel whilst the gauge was still showing 1/2 full.  Lesson: if you have any changes made to your fuel gauge or senders, ensure the necessary adjustments are made correctly.

Check your lifejackets

Boat owners, now is the time to check your lifejackets. Check that those made to inflate automatically on immersion, have clean, unpierced cylinders with no rust on them, that the inflation device has not been damaged is ready for use and that the cylinder is screwed in properly. Check also that the hand triggered firing mechanism works with the cylinder removed and that the automatic capsule is clean and unfired. The seams should be checked for damage, does the light work and is it properly secured? Are all the webbing, buckles, whistles et al in good order? Try blowing up the lifejacket by mouth and leaving it for a couple of days to see if leaks have developed during the past season. Rinse the jacket in fresh water if salt water has been near it.

A few guidelines for making a safe landfall

I helped with the delivery of a motor boat a while back from London to Salcombe. We were very lucky with the weather, having a high pressure system over Ireland for the whole trip and had four days of sunshine and light winds. The owner had kept his boat on the Thames for some time and had not fitted a fixed VHF set, so we were dependent on a hand held device. This radio served us well for talking to harbour masters and marinas when within 2 or 3 miles of a destination port and berths were arranged at all overnight stops.

We failed to receive, however, the weather forecast from Dover Coast Guard whilst on passage from Ramsgate to Eastbourne: HMCG received us and we them on channel 16 but for some reason we failed to transmit sufficiently on channel 67 for Dover to hear us. Whether the antenna was high enough, or not, I do not know but owners making such passages should seriously consider an emergency antenna fitted to the highest part of the boat or fitting a permanent VHF radio with a good long whip antenna to give the extra range.

On this particular trip we had friends who had come along to reinforce their navigation skills and it was brought home to me how many people are so reliant on GPS, almost to the exclusion of everything else. GPS is an excellent electronic aid, it saved my bacon in May when on passage from Le Havre to Cherbourg in 50m or so of visibility; but it should be used in conjunction with the well tried practices we have been taught with paper charts. Here are a few guidelines for making a safe landfall:

• Do not necessarily use the waypoints at the harbour entrances, but anticipate the direction from which you will be approaching and chose a waypoint which will help you to “eyeball” your way in. See my previous tip on approaching harbour.
• Maintain a plot of your position at regular intervals; the intervals will depend on your speed. As you get closer to land it is worthwhile plotting these positions more regularly. If you can, compare these positions with an EP plot, a sounding and, better still, a three bearing fix. A dead reckoning track alongside your GPS track will give you an idea of the strength and the direction of the current.
• Try to visualize what the land is going to look like at your arrival point and check to see if your imagination and reality are the same. Not all that easy.
• If you have the slightest doubt about your position or the course into your destination, slow down, stop engines or heave to. It may even be necessary to anchor if you are really unsure of your position. Re-check your navigation plan and cross check with everything available – radar, compass fixing and soundings.