Singlehanded MOB Procedure

[Head Sail]

I think the video Marke14 cited should be required viewing by all skippers.
After viewing it and reading all your helpful comments, I'm concluding that for singlehanded MOB recovery the salient points are:
1. Immediately stop the boat (you have no spotter and retrieval will take longer);
2. Minimize sail handling (no one to do it for you);
3. Therefore, heave to and stop boat to windward of MOB;
4. Need easy maneuverability, therefore start engine and release (or furl/drop sails);
5. Toss lifesling or throw bag and haul MOB to boat;
6. Use halyard and winch to bring a deadweight MOB onto swim platform (or over the side if none).
Any comments, pro or con?
I plan to test this out (with my crew doing nothing except timing) in different wind conditions and points of sail.

I think the first thing you do is immediately through your horseshoe life ring. This serves as a floatation device for the MOB and serves as a visual marker for their location should you lose sight. Come back and through your life sling to bring the MOB to the boat. Then use main halyard to winch aboard.

 

[jssailem]

I plan to test this out

I like the summary and the action to test the procedures... How about coming up here to the North country and having a crew volunteer jump in so we can try out the ideas..

 

[Hayden Watson]

I think the first thing you do is immediately through your horseshoe life ring. This serves as a floatation device for the MOB and serves as a visual marker for their location should you lose sight. Come back and through your life sling to bring the MOB to the boat. Then use main halyard to winch aboard.

I would agree with you if you are using the Quick Stop or Figure 8 but if you are tacking to hove-to the idea is to stop the boat ASAP directly to windward of the MOB. If you are traveling at 5 knots then in the time it takes to deploy the MOB gear you will travel 2-3 boat lengths. That is distance that you will need to return to get to windward. My boat will not coast that far with backed jib so I would come up short. I think it is better to get parked in the correct position and then decide what to throw at the MOB. If the cause of the overboard was too much libation then it might be a full beer can (right at the head). ;>)

 

[AlastairLC]

How about coming up here to the North country and having a crew volunteer jump in so we can try out the ideas..

Sorry jssailem, I got rid of all my cold weather gear when I moved to Arizona.

 

[Daveinet]

4. Need easy maneuverability, therefore start engine and release (or furl/drop sails);

Just to add emphasis, plan to motorsail. Lowering the sails is probably a low priority, just use the motor to overcome anything the sails are doing that you don't want them to. maybe blow the jib, to increase steering.

 

[Kermit]

This thread has convinced me of one thing. I need to practice what I learned. Then try some of the other techniques y’all suggested. (Maybe that’s two things.)

 

[Parsons]

... just use the motor to overcome anything the sails are doing that you don't want them to. maybe blow the jib, to increase steering.

I've never tried, for fear of shredding something, but I'll bet that my puny little 30 hp diesel will not overcome anything the sails are doing. At most, I think that using full power I may be able to turn the boat into the wind for a dowsing of sails. Will someone with more time and money than I have try to overcome a larger boat on a beam reach with their diesel?

 

[Warren Milberg]

One thing is for sure: dealing with a MOB situation will, in all probability, be different and more difficult than you think. Getting a conscious person up out the water and back aboard is hard; getting an unconscious person up and out is near impossible. To me, the first thing I want to do is stop the boat to windward of the MOB. Stop by any means you can and try to drift down on the MOB. Practice this whenever you can and as often as you can.

 

[jssailem]

Identifying someone is overboard can be problematic if there are only two persons aboard and one is sleeping. So the development of "Personal MOB" devices. I just read the Panbo by Ben Ellison review of MOB devices and it is sobering.
https://www.panbo.com/archives/2017/08/testing_ais_mob_beacons_acrs_dsc_feature_especially.html
Who goes out and tests their equipment to see if it really works. We had a tiff on the forum about VHF radio checks. It seems we boaters are willing to believe the manufacturers of our rescue equipment have got it all correct. Do they?
Here Ben was stopped by the CG regarding a MOB radio broadcast false alarm.
https://www.panbo.com/archives/2017/08/lessons_learned_by_causing_a_false_ais_mob_alert.html
Bet this one tide the boys up for a while. But like the Canadian Mounties they got their man.

 

[Daveinet]

I've never tried, for fear of shredding something, but I'll bet that my puny little 30 hp diesel will not overcome anything the sails are doing. At most, I think that using full power I may be able to turn the boat into the wind for a dowsing of sails. Will someone with more time and money than I have try to overcome a larger boat on a beam reach with their diesel?

Overcome may have been interpreted too strongly. Its more about the added control provided by motorsailing. Sometimes under sail you may not turn as quickly or sharply as you could with the addition of the motor. Sails tend to steer the boat, so you are overcoming that tendency. I was not intending that you could be in direct competition with the sails. Yes, of course the sails win in anything over 10 knots.

 

[shemandr]

I posted about my favor to the quick stop but in reading so many posts I wonder this: Wouldn't be better to deploy a life ring on a line and circle the victim as you would pick up a fallen water skier? In my only real life experience in MOB, which was when a boat sank in one of our races, that is what the rescuing boats did. They struck their sails first, then started the engines, deployed the life rings and circled the victims who grabbed the life rings and were reeled in and boarded (Not so easy). Four people were MOB, in full foul weather gear, in 60 degree water, in daylight, in rough water and were rescued. That's not bad. One reason they circled is that they didn't know exactly where the sunken boat was. The mast height was approximately the water depth so there was a danger of holing the rescue boats coming down a wave, which were up to 6'. Everyone was out of the water in less than 10 minutes. Circling worked in that case. Of course the OP was about short handed MOB's. In this case there were dozens of racing boats in the vicinity, pretty skilled crews and ample people power to execute rescue maneuvers. Nevertheless, circling was effective.

 

[AlastairLC]

From what I've read, circling is an effective procedure. The only slight negatives are:
1. It takes longer, and
2. Unless the rings are equipped with drogues, they don't close on the MOB.

 

[David in Sandusky]

I’m with AlastairLC. Immediately heave to, start engine in neutral. (Hopefully you can heave to in reach of MOB, but dropping sails and circling with Lifesling is practically possible if you are close to MOB.) Hit MOB. Lifesling to MOB. Rig Vang to end of boom. Use Vang to haul MOB aboard.

We will give this a try next season.

 

[Hayden Watson]

I’m with AlastairLC. Immediately heave to, start engine in neutral. (Hopefully you can heave to in reach of MOB, but dropping sails and circling with Lifesling is practically possible if you are close to MOB.) Hit MOB. Lifesling to MOB. Rig Vang to end of boom. Use Vang to haul MOB aboard.

We will give this a try next season.

I would leave the sails up and remain hove-to. You can use the motor to push forward or back to allow it to drift down to the mob while keeping the boat in a hove-to attitude.

 

[shemandr]

I'm not trying to argue. I am reporting what worked in a particular situation when 4 people were in rough water and were all recovered. You can say what you would do, or what someone else should do, but this is what was done. No one hove to. It's a datapoint.
A slightly humorous sidebar to that story is that I sailed with one of the MOB victims this summer. Before raising the sails she checked the lazarette latches very carefully. It was reported that the lazarette opened on the sunken boat and allowed a large amount of water to flow below. I called her on it and she laughed, but said "Never again."

 

[Daveinet]

Having pulled skiers and tubers, circling kind of works, but the rope tends to follow the path of the boat, rather than dragging across the path of the MOB. When we drop the skier, you slam the throttle wide open and crank the wheel as hard as you can. you end up turning back, almost on your previous path. That is why I suggest starting the engine, so you can make a true 180 degree turn and motorsail.

 

[dziedzicmj]

Wouldn't be better to deploy a life ring on a line and circle the victim as you would pick up a fallen water skier

This is how the Life Sling works.

 

[Parsons]

LifeSling - RTFM - "read the F-ing manual" and practice! I bought my boat and found that after 17-years ownership, the PO did not attach the end of the LifeSling line to the boat. If they had actually deployed it, the line would have run out of the bag and the MOB would have been floating around. After firmly attaching it to a stern stanchion, I did a quick-stop MOB drill which is essentially how the LifeSling maneuver works. Getting the line to a bobbing fender is not as easy as it sounds, so a bit of practice is needed.

Daveinet, the 'slam the throttle wide open' works on a motorboat because the pivot point is so far forward. If you accelerate and turn, the stern drifts wide of your turn and makes the turn tighter - like drifting a car. A sailboat is designed to not have lateral drift, so it tracks the keel. A fin keel boat, however, can turn very tightly so a quick stop is really the best way to stop by the MOB.

 

[JamesG161]

so a quick stop is really the best way to stop by the MOB.

and if in high seas and conscious MOB...

1) Head directly at MOB until 2 sailboat lengths from him.. then cut engine to neutral to drift then..
2) Hard a Port ... then as he is passing the bow...
3) Hard a Starboard... until MOB passes Midships then...
4) Hard a Port and Hard engine Reverse to stop drift.

The Life Sling will be put within the MOB's reach.
Jim...

PS: Tell all aboard, it they are the MOB, don't worry I won't run over them[Stay still] and I will bring them the Life Sling rope.

 

[Daveinet]

Pasons, A motorboat turns sharply because the water exiting the prop is directed at the rudder and is directed nearly straight sideways. Same for your inboard in your saillboat or rotating your outboard, which is even more effective. Because of the keel, a sailboat under motor is able to turn around in a smaller area than a power boat of the same length. The problem with turning under sail is that you must have forward momentum in order to make the turn. Otherwise you have no water moving across the rudder to steer. The slower the boat goes the less control you have. If you turn a sailboat to quickly, it stalls out and you end up in irons. Turning under sail alone requires a much larger circle - farther away from the MOB.