'Man overboard!': Crew scramble to save a man who slips off a yacht

[Tom-in-Annapolis]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6709707/Crew-scramble-save-man-slips-yacht.html

'Man overboard!': Crew scramble to save a man who slips off a yacht and plunges into choppy waters as they train for a race

• Man slipped off a yacht in Dublin Bay, Ireland, and had to be rescued by crew
• Crew frantically try to pull him to safety as he floats in cold and choppy water
• It takes several minutes before they save the man as they struggle to pull him up

 

[Tom J]

Scary how quickly these things happen. I was helping a friend deliver a new to him motor cruiser to our home port. We were on plane in choppy waters when he decided to go onto the foredeck to retrieve an owl decoy that had been left there. I was at the helm and advised him against it. He retrieved the owl, and was inching back along the side deck, which was all of 6" wide. We came off a wave and I heard my wife yell that the owner had gone overboard. I turned the boat around and backed as close as I could to him. My wife had thrown him a line, and we hauled him to the boat and onto the swim platform. At this point, he weighed a ton! His winter parka had initially kept him afloat but then became waterlogged. After going below and changing into dry clothes, he recovered quickly.
Of course, he should have been wearing a life vest and a harness with tether, and not ventured on deck in rough seas, etc. If we had been on my boat, that would have been the case. We wear inflatable vests with harness and tether, and don't venture on deck unless absolutely necessary.

 

[Sailavie1]

I can’t understand why some builders design boats with a smooth topside surface on the gunwales.

 

[Brian D]

I guess it was a 'woman' overboard in reality.

Couple observations (not criticizing)...

1. No toe rail. I know that has prevented me from sliding off the boat. Can't fathom why this boat had no toe rail.
   
2. 'Mayday', took too long to call, but was duly impress at the response time. The helo arrived quickly. Wasn't needed but it was nice to have it on station just in case.
   
3. Why did they take the main down? I think the skipper could have manuvered to the MOB site faster had he kept his sail up. Then as they got closer take it down.

Overall I was impressed. Good job to the skipper and the crew, especially to the lookout who always had a finger pointing to the MOB.

 

[jon hansen]

me, would have instantly come around and hove too. i would never sail away like that.
easy for me to say here in this warm chair.
glade they got her

 

[Tom J]

me, would have instantly come around and hove too. i would never sail away like that.
easy for me to say here in this warm chair.
glade they got her

Yeah, it's a tough call. Some MOB procedures call for dropping the sails, some say to sail up to the person in the water. The conditions in the video were very rough. Sails up might have made it difficult to hold position near the MOB. Some procedures call for approaching the person from upwind, to provide a lee for the person in the water, but I would be fearful of drifting over the MOB. Training and preparation are crucial in a MOB situation, but what to do is minute by minute decision making by the skipper.

 

[rgranger]

They were training for a race! I guess they can scratch MOB drills off of their training to-do list.

 

[agprice22]

ASA teaches a couple of circle maneuvers under sail. My preference is to bear away or point upward to a beam reach , bear away to downwind til you are downwind at an angle you can sail a close reach to the MOB, and gybe into a close reach back up to the MOB.

 

[Whatfiero1]

Stick any sailboat into the wind above mob and you will float down on them quickly. On a down wind run not so easy

 

[JohnShannon]

They sailed, more or less full speed away from her while messing with the sails. I would imagine luff up and ease the sheets to stay closer to the victim at a minimum. Good job keeping eyes on her. Also wouldn't it have been easier to haul her over the transom?

 

[Tom J]

Also wouldn't it have been easier to haul her over the transom?

Probably. When I first approached the mob in my situation, I was upwind and he was on my port beam, and I had thought about drifting down on him as I had heard you should do. But with the high freeboard of the cruiser and the wave action, I was sure I would drift right over him before we could reach him. He was also exhausted, and not able to help lift himself out of the water. I ended up heading up wind and backing down on him, keeping him on the port quarter and shutting down that engine as we got close. Thankfully, his boat had a gate in the transom, and a large swim platform, which allowed us to pull him out of the water.

 

[TomY]

me, would have instantly come around and hove too. i would never sail away like that.
easy for me to say here in this warm chair.
glade they got her

That worked in my minds eye too, sitting in my warm kitchen. If I was quick enough to spin the wheel (in my mind again), my starboard deck, now on the lee side, would be at the waterline and she could probably get back on deck, herself, as the awash deck came from windward,....to scoop her up.

But that's assuming I didn't have too much sail up that the boat hove to well, it's pretty windy in that vid.

The mystery to me is how easily she slipped overboard. You want to be very careful on a boat like that with no coamings, toe rails, life lines.

I think the MOB situation may have had something to do with the many crew moving around, something maybe tripped her up? Glad it worked out ok. EU sailors are nuts, that's a regular day to them.

 

[shemandr]

Like pilots say "Any landing you walk away from..." I'd say they recovered the victim reasonably quickly so kudos to them. I very much like the crew member pointing to the MOB and keeping eyes on victim. Once visual contact is lost the situation escalates. If I had a MOB my plan would be the quickstop, jib down, and I think approach victim from leeward.

 

[Gene Neill]

Doing a little googling just now. Stumbled across this guy, who thought that a big(?) wave coming would be a good reason to dive overboard: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6709707/Crew-scramble-save-man-slips-yacht.html

 

[HOB No1]

As Brian noted, one of the most impressive things was the crew member who keep eyes on and pointed to the MOB. I tell anybody who comes on board for the first time that that is the most important part of a MOB experience. With someone pointing, there is never a question of where the victim is. Makes it much easier for the person at the helm to know where to take the boat.