MOB single handed

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Bill Roosa

Bill Roosa

.
Jun 6, 2006
6,990
currently boatless wishing Harrington Harbor North, MD
auto-off auto pilot

There is an electronic gismo that attaches to your harness and when you go over the side you can press a button and the autopilot turns off. Couple of things about this gismo that you should think about however. If you have lee helm you are still out of luck as the boat will turn down wind and sail off, if you are unconscious the boat will sail out of range and you are out of luck, if you do have some weather helm on just turning the auto pilot off may not do what you want anyway as most auto pilots lock the helm if you just turn them off. If you have her balanced and the pilot is in the neutral position she may still sail off. While gismos are great and help out a lot in some situations the idea of falling overboard while single handed is a serious one and I would never recommend anything that would get you out of that situation. Better, IMHO, would be insuring you can never go overboard in the first place. Two tethers works for I put a pad eye just forward of the helm on the deck and run a jack line from just forward of the dodger to a tether's length from the bow. I use the short tether for staying in the cockpit and when I'm going forward. I use the long one to get me from the cockpit to the jack line. I leave my end of the long tether attached to the jack line so I can pick it up when I return to the cockpit. I've found that there is precious little to do near the toe rail so a center run jack line does not really restrict me much. Two jack lines run near the toe rail on either side of the deck is just asking for trouble. There is too much slack and that plus the length of a tether will allow you to go over the side. Lest you think I'm really smart, I saw this setup on a boat bound for Bermuda sailed single handed.
 
Bill Roosa

Bill Roosa

.
Jun 6, 2006
6,990
currently boatless wishing Harrington Harbor North, MD
auto-off auto pilot

There is an electronic gismo that attaches to your harness and when you go over the side you can press a button and the autopilot turns off. Couple of things about this gismo that you should think about however. If you have lee helm you are still out of luck as the boat will turn down wind and sail off, if you are unconscious the boat will sail out of range and you are out of luck, if you do have some weather helm on just turning the auto pilot off may not do what you want anyway as most auto pilots lock the helm if you just turn them off. If you have her balanced and the pilot is in the neutral position she may still sail off. While gismos are great and help out a lot in some situations the idea of falling overboard while single handed is a serious one and I would never recommend anything that would get you out of that situation. Better, IMHO, would be insuring you can never go overboard in the first place. Two tethers works for I put a pad eye just forward of the helm on the deck and run a jack line from just forward of the dodger to a tether's length from the bow. I use the short tether for staying in the cockpit and when I'm going forward. I use the long one to get me from the cockpit to the jack line. I leave my end of the long tether attached to the jack line so I can pick it up when I return to the cockpit. I've found that there is precious little to do near the toe rail so a center run jack line does not really restrict me much. Two jack lines run near the toe rail on either side of the deck is just asking for trouble. There is too much slack and that plus the length of a tether will allow you to go over the side. Lest you think I'm really smart, I saw this setup on a boat bound for Bermuda sailed single handed.
 
sailaway78

sailaway78

.
May 11, 2005
3,431
Seidelman S37 Slidell, La.
What Stu said

is right. Just turning off the auto pilot won't cut it. The wheel/tiller will still be locked in position. On a well balanced boat, it will just keep on trucking, just saving a little electricity. The answer still is, don't go over the side. Whether you like a single short tether, some combination of tethers or whatever. Check before you sail, and make sure that whatever you use won't allow you over the side. As for trailing some line behind the boat. I have given this some thought. If you were to go over the side, in rough weather, say around the center of the boat. Your being dragged through the water. Now unclip your tether, slide down the side of the boat, and try to grap the trailing line. Think about it. Lets say you have a 100' line trailing behind the boat. It is only going to take a few seconds for the boat to go that 100 feet. So, from the time you unclip your line, and start looking for the trailing line, you have a very short time to get yourself oriented, you have to get behind the boat after it goes by you, and you have to then find this trailing line and get to it. Lets say just for an example that you have 10' breaking seas. No matter how disciplined you think you are, I can guarantee you that your first instinct is to fight the wave action, keep yourself upright and facing the proper direction. Probably lots on this board could manage it, but lots of us on here, myself included, are older than dirt, and more than likely could never make it to a 100' trailing line. Every individual should do what ever he/she is comfortable with and thinks will work for them. For me, I ain't going to go over the side.
 
sailaway78

sailaway78

.
May 11, 2005
3,431
Seidelman S37 Slidell, La.
What Stu said

is right. Just turning off the auto pilot won't cut it. The wheel/tiller will still be locked in position. On a well balanced boat, it will just keep on trucking, just saving a little electricity. The answer still is, don't go over the side. Whether you like a single short tether, some combination of tethers or whatever. Check before you sail, and make sure that whatever you use won't allow you over the side. As for trailing some line behind the boat. I have given this some thought. If you were to go over the side, in rough weather, say around the center of the boat. Your being dragged through the water. Now unclip your tether, slide down the side of the boat, and try to grap the trailing line. Think about it. Lets say you have a 100' line trailing behind the boat. It is only going to take a few seconds for the boat to go that 100 feet. So, from the time you unclip your line, and start looking for the trailing line, you have a very short time to get yourself oriented, you have to get behind the boat after it goes by you, and you have to then find this trailing line and get to it. Lets say just for an example that you have 10' breaking seas. No matter how disciplined you think you are, I can guarantee you that your first instinct is to fight the wave action, keep yourself upright and facing the proper direction. Probably lots on this board could manage it, but lots of us on here, myself included, are older than dirt, and more than likely could never make it to a 100' trailing line. Every individual should do what ever he/she is comfortable with and thinks will work for them. For me, I ain't going to go over the side.
 
A

abe

.
Jan 2, 2007
736
- - channel islands
It would be nice if Raymarine...

or others makes a safety device that is attached to you, the engine, and the autopilot. If it detaches (like the kill switch in an outboard) the wheel turns to one side...not only that the engines turns off too. Thus the boat just goes round and round till...and just maybe you might be able to swimm to it. However, that said...I agree that the best thing to do is not to end up in the water. abe
 
A

abe

.
Jan 2, 2007
736
- - channel islands
It would be nice if Raymarine...

or others makes a safety device that is attached to you, the engine, and the autopilot. If it detaches (like the kill switch in an outboard) the wheel turns to one side...not only that the engines turns off too. Thus the boat just goes round and round till...and just maybe you might be able to swimm to it. However, that said...I agree that the best thing to do is not to end up in the water. abe
 
sailortonyb Allied Mis

sailortonyb Allied Mis

.
Jun 12, 2004
1,181
Allied Mistress 39 Ketch Kemah,Tx.
What you seem to be forgetting is......

With all of your ideas, the one thing you seem to be forgetting is that you are not very likely to fall overboard when sitting in the cockpit. Its going to happen when you are working up forward or climbing back into the cockpit. If you are working up forward, you would NOT want a device connected to you that would kill and release the autopilot. If you did so by accident, which is likely to happen if you are working, you have now greatly increased your chances of going overboard by an uncontrolled pitching and rolling from a 'free steering' uncontrolled boat. It gets back to the other thread about harness's and not going overboard in the first place. I personally like my lanyard/tethers to be hooked on both sides while going forward. It will require a lot of clipping and unclipping but wyou will always stay more or less centered. Also having 2 tethers, you will always have at least one hooked up all the time while swapping them out. only when I am sitting or have myself braced in solid, will I remove one tether to wrap around an oblect like the mast, to perform certain functions. If you have never solo'd for more than a few days, you have no idea how tired you tend to stay. Especially in the winter. Imagine anchored in a small cove. Its 25 degrees outside, you have to pull up 150 ft of wet rope and 20 feet of chain, just to START your day. And thats on the Northern Gulf of Mexico coast where it supposed to be warm and the water is shallow. Just about every action you take must be well planned when solo. So when you are wet, cold and tired, you increase your chances of doing something really stupid. THINK "HARNESS" !!! Tony B
 
sailortonyb Allied Mis

sailortonyb Allied Mis

.
Jun 12, 2004
1,181
Allied Mistress 39 Ketch Kemah,Tx.
What you seem to be forgetting is......

With all of your ideas, the one thing you seem to be forgetting is that you are not very likely to fall overboard when sitting in the cockpit. Its going to happen when you are working up forward or climbing back into the cockpit. If you are working up forward, you would NOT want a device connected to you that would kill and release the autopilot. If you did so by accident, which is likely to happen if you are working, you have now greatly increased your chances of going overboard by an uncontrolled pitching and rolling from a 'free steering' uncontrolled boat. It gets back to the other thread about harness's and not going overboard in the first place. I personally like my lanyard/tethers to be hooked on both sides while going forward. It will require a lot of clipping and unclipping but wyou will always stay more or less centered. Also having 2 tethers, you will always have at least one hooked up all the time while swapping them out. only when I am sitting or have myself braced in solid, will I remove one tether to wrap around an oblect like the mast, to perform certain functions. If you have never solo'd for more than a few days, you have no idea how tired you tend to stay. Especially in the winter. Imagine anchored in a small cove. Its 25 degrees outside, you have to pull up 150 ft of wet rope and 20 feet of chain, just to START your day. And thats on the Northern Gulf of Mexico coast where it supposed to be warm and the water is shallow. Just about every action you take must be well planned when solo. So when you are wet, cold and tired, you increase your chances of doing something really stupid. THINK "HARNESS" !!! Tony B
 
H

Higgs

What seems to be ignored

Under normal conditions a short tether probably is a good idea. Things happen slowly, and time is usually not critical. But when wind and waves pile up is when things happen fast and one problem leads to another which leads to another which leads to another and so on. It is then that your auto pilot quits working becasue your boat is out of balance and suddenly you have to get from the fordeck back to the cockpit quickly back up to the fordeck while you free one over ride and have to untangle that jib sheet while trying to unfoul that halyard that just got loose and on and on. With a short tether you cannot work quickly in several different locations and the ability to do so, in bad conditions, is paramount. The inability to reach things can become as big of a hazard as going over. What good is staying on deck if your boat capsizes? Single handing is rough conditions is dangerous and there is no good answer once caught. In moderate/calm conditions the issue is entirely different as problems will rarely require lightning fast responses.
 
H

Higgs

What seems to be ignored

Under normal conditions a short tether probably is a good idea. Things happen slowly, and time is usually not critical. But when wind and waves pile up is when things happen fast and one problem leads to another which leads to another which leads to another and so on. It is then that your auto pilot quits working becasue your boat is out of balance and suddenly you have to get from the fordeck back to the cockpit quickly back up to the fordeck while you free one over ride and have to untangle that jib sheet while trying to unfoul that halyard that just got loose and on and on. With a short tether you cannot work quickly in several different locations and the ability to do so, in bad conditions, is paramount. The inability to reach things can become as big of a hazard as going over. What good is staying on deck if your boat capsizes? Single handing is rough conditions is dangerous and there is no good answer once caught. In moderate/calm conditions the issue is entirely different as problems will rarely require lightning fast responses.
 
Lou 14643

Lou 14643

.
Mar 28, 2005
182
Oday 272 Baltimore
How about something like a "dead man switch?"

What if you had the option of setting a switch that, after say 5 minutes of sailing, sends an alarm for a few seconds, then, if not reset, tacks the boat into the wind. While if the boom knocked you out on your way overboard, you'd already be dead, if you just lost your balance, fell overboard, and watched her sail away, you'd only have at most half a mile to swim back to the boat. You'd only turn this feature on when you were leaving the cockpit. Otherwise it would just stay in normal operational mode.
 
D

DanW9494

.
Aug 30, 2006
118
- - -
Poor man's switch

I read this somewhere Consider a line tied to the end of the tiller, a little slack then the line is tied to the autopilot near where it attachs to the tiller, then it goes vertically thru a block on the top lifeline and is trailed behind the boat. There is a knot in the line a few feet aft of the block to which is attached shock cord which is tied to the lifeline as well and takes up the tension of the trailing line. You're in the water, you locate the trailing line and hold on which disconnects the autopilot and pulls the tiller to the side. You can move the block and shock cord to the windward side when you tack or jibe. For anyone interested, please comment on my idea on post #15 in the harness and tether thread. From waterskiing, i know you cannot pull a swimmer behind a boat without drowning them unless they are on a kneeboard or something that will get them above the water.
 
D

DanW9494

.
Aug 30, 2006
118
- - -
Leeward

put the block on the leeward side, not the windward side, to head up the boat into the wind
 
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