recent posts about the folks lost from the C&C in louisiana hypothesized they could not get back on board their boat. Here's what we did :
to make our swim ladder deploy from the water. our swim ladder had a curved SS clamp with a SS eye on it that held the ladder in position 'up' , flat against the rear transom. one could easily flip the clamp up from the cockpit to let the ladder descend into the water. we attached a small single block with a line to the rear stern rail , and a line was run through the block. one end of the line was seized to the clamp and the other end run down to just above the water line. the water end had a wrist-size loop on it and a plastic whistle, and both were reachable from the water. a yank on the line from the water pulled the clamp up, released the ladder, and let the ladder drop into the water . it was great fun for the kids to figure out how it worked.... and a big help in getting out of the water.
to make our swim ladder deploy from the water. our swim ladder had a curved SS clamp with a SS eye on it that held the ladder in position 'up' , flat against the rear transom. one could easily flip the clamp up from the cockpit to let the ladder descend into the water. we attached a small single block with a line to the rear stern rail , and a line was run through the block. one end of the line was seized to the clamp and the other end run down to just above the water line. the water end had a wrist-size loop on it and a plastic whistle, and both were reachable from the water. a yank on the line from the water pulled the clamp up, released the ladder, and let the ladder drop into the water . it was great fun for the kids to figure out how it worked.... and a big help in getting out of the water.