Even in moderate breezes, rescuers often speed past the person in the water, prompting many experts to suggest practicing recovery in a variety of conditions, and using the engine, if needed, to make up for any lost momentum. Rethinking the MOB Recovery Spate of accidents calls for re-assessment of long-held rescue practices. By Two years ago, we raised concerns able to quickly climb back aboard. Mo- over high stakes sailing adventure ments later, another “pay for adventure” an overboard recovery failures charters such as the Clipper Round crew, Simon Speirs, was also tossed Mhave become a frequent head- the World Yacht Race (see January overboard. line, and details about these tragedies 2017, (“Risk Management and Renting Speirs was clipped in, but a longer hold lessons worth learning. Adventure,” January 2017). tether caused him to be pressed against Recent, back-to-back incidents have Recently, the UK Marine Accident the hull and dragged through the heavy involved safety gear malfunctions, Investigation Branch released their seas at 9.3 knots, even though the skip- shortfalls in boat handling skills, and evaluation of the fatal MOB incident per had immediately tacked the boat

All photos by lapses in sound decision making. They aboard CV30 “Great Britain.” It lends to put Speirs on the high side. The re- have also caused several aspects of res- support to the issues we’ve raised in a maining five crew on the foredeck, all cue orthodoxy to come into question. multiple reports, and are raising again of whom had been involved in the sail We’ve previously covered rescue here (see March 2018, “Safety Teth- dousing effort, were unable to hoist techniques such as the Quickstep, ers Under Scrutiny”). Speirs back aboard. Figure-8, and towed Lifesling in great On November 18, 2017, the crew of detail (see January 2010, “Man-over- CV30 was comprised of one pro sailor CREW RESPONSE board Retrieval Techniques,”). However, and 16 amateurs. The boat had depart- The bowman handed him a halyard in the wake of the recent tragic incidents, ed Cape Town, South Africa, and was with an open shackle to clip to his it is time to reevaluate these skills. 1,500 miles from Fremantle, Australia harness, but the load on the tether The big question is whether these when the crew of the 75-foot, 35-ton made accessing the attachment point hallmark safety responses still meet boat scrambled to reduce sail. The paid very difficult. the needs of racers, cruisers and day captain was at the helm when a big wave While struggling to connect the sailors alike? Are jacklines and tethers slammed into the port quarter slewing halyard’s snap shackle and having keeping sailors safer, and are the nar- the boat to starboard, precipitating an been dragged through the water for row bows and wide-open aft decks on accidental jibe. almost five minutes, things got even modern race boats and cruisers sound The bowman, who was helping to worse. There was a loud snapping ergonomic advancements in sailboat wrestle down a piston-hanked, No. 3 sound as Speirs’s tether clip de- design or an accident-prone advent of Yankee (high cut jib) went over the formed and relinquished its hold naval architecture? side. He was tethered to the boat and on the jackline.

SEPTEMBER 2019 7 TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

A ten-foot length of line with a Tylaska shackle can be attached directly to the tether of a person in the water. Tether Lanyard Simplifies MOB Recovery

or years, safety advocates have touted the use of a four- victim can clear the rail. Adding a preventer and setting up Fpart block and tackle attached to the end of the boom as the mainsail halyard as a makeshift topping lift will help tame the hoist of choice. It affords a great dockside demo, but put the boom, but there’s a far more efficient way to hoist a victim to use in a rolling seaway, a crew quickly notes that boat mo- out of the water. All it takes is a spinnaker halyard and a two- tion causes the boom to flail about and the hurriedly dropped speed self-tailing winch. It gets even more useful if you add mainsail further complicates using the boom as a hoisting tool. a 10-foot pennant with a spliced eye and a small diameter, The lack of a topping lift and the result of overloading a jawed, heavy duty, latching-type snap shackle. rigid vang can cause the outboard end of the boom to dip Adding the rescue pennant increases the reach of the spin- so low that the hoisting tackle is chock-a-block before the naker halyard and allows a rescuer to clip onto a victim’s har-

The double-action clip had been sail—he too was pitched over the life- towed alongside at speed has a danger caught under a bow cleat laterally load- lines. Fortunately, he had both his long all its own. ed and failed due to the unanticipated and short tether clipped and was quickly The safety valve in such scenarios is angle of pull (see March 2018). hauled back aboard. the ability to immediately tack into a With the headsail only three-quarters It took three approaches and a total heave-to position or at least slow down of the way down, and an override on of 32 minutes to recover Speirs, who by coming head to wind. Unfortunately, the mainsheet winch, the CV30 was far was unresponsive when brought back when racing with a spinnaker up, run- from under control and ready for tight aboard. The recovery was completed in ners set and/or a preventer engaged, MOB recover maneuvering. half of the time of the rescues on Lake such an abrupt change in direction and The crew’s response to the situation Michigan during the 2017 and 2018 change in rig load, can lead to more included deploying MOB gear, elec- Chicago Mac Races. It was twice as fast trouble—even a dismasting. tronically marking the position, start- as the recovery of Sarah Young’s body ing the engine, and coping with run- in the 2015-16 Clipper Race. The MAIB DRAG-AND-DROWN EFFECT ning rigging damage that hampered report mentioned that since the intro- The drag-and-drown effect first came to maneuverability. duction of the CV-70s there have been the forefront in the 1999 doublehanded The initial attempt at recovery failed, 15 reported MOB incidents in which Farallon’s Race when Harvey Shlasky the partially doused Yankee started to crew have gone overboard tethered to and Van Selst were pitched from the self-hoist in the strong breeze and pitch- jacklines and quickly hauled back on J-29 they were sailing during a severe ing seaway. And just as another crew board. It seems that not separating from knock down. Both men were tethered went forward to cope with the flogging the boat can be a big plus, but being and wearing inflatable PFDs. Selst’s life

8 SEPTEMBER 2019 WWW. COM TIPS AND TECHNIQUES TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

ness, Lifesling or tether. There’s an extra value provided by keep the victim from this approach. The small-jawed snap shackle will trap a later- becoming an active ally loaded and twisted free tether clip (see adjacent photo). pendulum. They can Plus, it’s easy to set up by a rescuer rather than needing the be accelerated by victim to secure the halyard. pitch, roll and yaw For example, in the CV30 incident, Simon Speirs was and their three cous- dragged alongside the big sloop for five minutes while those ins surge, heave, and on the foredeck were unable to haul him back aboard. The sway. bowman had the right idea when he went for a spinnaker The best way to ac- halyard. Unfortunately, Speirs’s webbing attachment point complish this is with on his inflatable PFD was pulled taught and was so hard to another crew using a access that Spiers was unable to clip on the halyard. To expect short line to keep the a victim being dragged in the water to make this connec- victim from swing- tion—whether or not the tether is taught—is bound to fail. ing as the rig gyrates An alternate approach, afforded by the halyard pennant in the seaway. Ideally, eliminates the victim’s role in attaching the halyard. This ap- there’s enough crew proach eliminates the need to connect directly to a ring or to handle the vessel webbing on the victim’s inflatable life jacket. and still have at least The halyard snap shackle is clipped to the spliced eye in the two people avail- pennant and the pennant’s snap shackle is clipped around able to cope with the the victim’s tether webbing by a person on board. As the halyard connection halyard is tensioned, the PIW’s head and shoulders lift out and winching up the If the hook disengages from the of the water. victim. jackline or hard point on deck, In the CV30 situation, the fouled, laterally loaded jackline The double hand- the lifting lanyard will still be clip failure may still have occurred. But the victim would have ing crew that loses a attached, since the tether hook remained attached to the boat via the small diameter, ro- person overboard be- (blue) can’t pass through the bustly built, snap shackle (Tylaska T-12 pictured). Such a heavy comes a single hand- Tylaska snap shackle. duty snap shackle would have prevented the damaged tether er and faces a major clip from slipping through its latched jaws. This would result challenge when it in ongoing attachment to the boat and a means of lifting the comes to the recovery maneuver and getting the victim person back aboard. It does not require the PIW to clip them- back aboard. The Lifesling, or a similar device, is their best selves on and it prevents a laterally loaded, failed tether clip, friend, because it provides a streamlined means of making from releasing the victim. contact with the victim, adds extra floatation and is keeps No technique is perfect, and when employing a halyard the PIW connected to the boat ready to be hoisted from recovery, especially in a significant seaway, it’s important to the water.

jacket inflated and he was able to climb tether that will keep the head of a MOB found in speed under sail, and I agree back on board, but Shlasky’s PFD did as close to the toerail as possible. And completely. not inflate and Selst was unable to haul finally, there’s the age-old sail-dousing However, in a recent email exchange, him out of the water. challenge. Bolt rope luffs, piston hanks, Bill and I also concurred that there are Shlasky was being towed astern at slides, slugs and various furling sys- times when speed is just what you don’t just a few knots of boat speed due to tems each have their own idiosyncra- want. We were focused on the final part sails not being completely doused. Be- sies. Having a low-friction track and car of a MOB recovery approach and the ing towed through a rough seaway, set up to handle the mainsail or a down difficulty that arises in making contact even at slow speeds, significantly in- haul line on a piston-hanked jib help with the person in the water (PIW). creases chance of aspirating water and to get the sails down in extremis. Well- Post incident analysis has revealed drowning. maintained roller furling headsails are that in many cases too much boat speed One of the lessons learned from this like an extra set of hands for the short- hampers rather than helps the recovery. tragic incident was the importance of handed crew. The final approach to the PIW needs to not running jacklines all the way to conclude with an “as slow as possible” the very stern of the boat. Terminating SLOW YOUR APPROACH contact with the victim. We conclud- them further forward prevents a person “Fast is fun,” is a slogan popularized ed that recent incidents on the Great in the water (PIW) from being dragged by Bill Lee, the Wizard of Santa Cruz Lakes, Monterey Bay and in the Clipper in the turbulence of the stern wake. and a key player in the development Cup highlight a need for boat-handling A subsequent lesson was the value of of ULDB ocean racers. He coined the skill that’s more akin to picking up a a taught, inboard jackline and a short phrase to highlight the exhilaration mooring under sail than it is to extra

SEPTEMBER 2019 9 TIPS AND TECHNIQUES TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

True wind True wind

2 Bear off

7 When victim grabs line, 1 Tack into steer head-to-wind and drop heave-to 3 Douse jib, mainsail, haul in Lifesling, position, boom and hoist. eased. bring main 2 Sheet in to centerline 6 Tack mainsail 3 Jibe Crew overboard Crew 1 Deploy overboard lifesling

7 Round up, 4 Jibe, start lose way engine, leave in neutral 4 Start engine, leave postion 5 Reach toward in neutral, douse/furl person in the water headsail 2 6 Close reach. 5 Steer onto a beam reach 3 Douse spinnaker, round up 1

4 Tack, beat, or Revisiting Recovery motor toward 2 All hands prep to person in the water douse spinnaker Techniques for MOB Under

cean sailing in a modern race boat or multihull with a high Ohorsepower rig makes double-digit boat speed attain- 5 Contact and power recover person able and complicates a MOB rescue. Our research suggests in the water that no single MOB tactic works for all occasions. 1 Point, The higher speeds attainable by modern boats is one of deploy COB gear, mark the most compelling arguments for re-examening overboard position. practices. If a crew goes over the side at double-digit speed and is not tethered to the boat, it becomes a guaranteed “adios” encounter. How far you leave the PIW behind de- Crew overboard pends upon how long it takes to slow the boat, cope with a 3 True wind spinnaker douse and get things turned around. To continue to sail away at the start of a rescue seems counterintuitive, however, abrupt maneuvering can result in At the cry of “man overboard!” rescue gear is immediately spin outs, knockdowns and create a chance for boat damage jettisoned, a lookout is assigned, buttons pushed, radio calls and more people in the water—further lessening the chance made, and all hands rally on deck with three things in mind: get of a good outcome. the boat slowed down, reduce sail, and head back to the victim.

speed at the starting line. in which the engine can be essential to everyone that it’s not wounds from pro- In many cases, the wild card is the quick recovery. The real killer is the in- pellers that is claiming lives. It is the in- seaway. It complicates even momentari- ability to stay on station and connect ability to make secure contact with the ly holding a vessel head-to-wind. with the person in the water. person in the water. Safety experts have long worried All too often we hear about multiple about the risk of the propeller harm- misses, excess time in the water and the DESIGN IMPLICATIONS ing the PIW, but there clearly instances recovery of a lifeless body. It’s clear to Part of the risk of a MOB incident in-

10 SEPTEMBER 2019 WWW. COM TIPS AND TECHNIQUES TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

Spinnakers present special difficul- ties, and one approach worth trying is the controlled “letterbox” method of dropping a spinnaker. This involves hauling the chute through the slot be- tween the mainsail foot and the boom (loose footed main only). This leads and flattens out the sail, sending it directly below through the main hatch. With the spinnaker down, the main center- lined, and all lines out of the water, the engine is started and the vessel is head- ed on a reciprocal course back toward the victim. The crew uses every position-finding asset available to augment the search for the person in the water. These include AIS beacon, GPS MOB position, VHF voice/DSC, FLIR scope, the victim’s vi- sual light, (7x50) binos, whistle, and mir- Even with a tethered victim, lifting them aboard presents several challenges. As pool ror. When sighted, an approach plan is practice sessions revealed, it is possible for the victim to slip out of a loose harness. used that sets up the vessel so contact is made just as the boat loses way and is in a nearly head to wind position. is aboard, especially if they have had actual ocean surf Bridging the gap, making contact,and securing the victim rescue experience, the risk may be justifiable. to the vessel is crucial. But tall-rigged, light-displacement ves- Often the person in the water is fatigued, hypothermic, and sels don’t like to slow down and holding them on station is panicked enough to have trouble doing their share in the res- difficult. This means that the window of opportunity to con- cue. If a rescue swimmer is used, they should be tethered to nect the victim to the vessel closes quickly. the boat, meaning there’s another loose line in the water. But Having multiple crew ready with throw lines can be a big if that’s what it takes to get a victim securely attached to the plus, as is the deployment of a Lifesling, just in case the final boat and ready to be hoisted, it may be worth putting a res- approach is a little too fast. The big debate is whether or not cue swimmer to work. to use a rescue swimmer. On one hand putting more people SKILLS CREW OVERBOARD STRATEGIES in the water can elevate rather than mitigate risk. But if a trained lifesaver PROXIMITY EASE FULL CREW SHORTHANDED

None of the tested maneuvers are ideal QUICK STOP Excellent Good Very Good Fair for all circumstances. On a fully-crewed raceboat, the Quick Stop can be very FIGURE 8 Fair Excellent Very Good Good effective, but for shorthanded cruisers, motoring back to the victim might well FAST RETURN Very Good Good Very Good Fair be the best choice. Some maneuvers will work better for certain boats, or certain LIFESLING Very Good Good Good Excellent circumstances. For more detailed descrip- tions of each recovery routine, see the text UNDER POWER Very Good Very Good Very Good Excellent and illustrations on the adjacent page.

volves the success of sailboat design. helmsman can adjust or how adeptly there’s a learning curve involved in get- Performance, in a boat speed context, the crew can cope with a foredeck that’s ting the most from such gear. has greatly improved. Double-digit falling into a wave trough. These ampli- Along with the faster boats comes velocity creates more multi-axis accel- fied energy transfers increase the likeli- a growing preference for wide-open eration due to seaway impacts. These hood of a sailor being launched in an spaces astern. Big race boats with La- energy transfers require a faster reac- unwanted direction. Harnesses, tethers ser-like profiles feature wide sterns and tion time regardless of how quickly the and jacklines can mitigate the risk, but not much of a cockpit well. Handholds

SEPTEMBER 2019 11 TECH TIPS Tips to Preventing a Crew Overboard Incident ome simple steps can reduce the it impossible to fall off. If this is not pos- ing surfaces when heeled. And even Srisk of a crew overboard incident. sible, remember that at over 15 knots if a surface is too steep to walk on, the harness and tether will tear you in when a foot is placed there in a stum- SMALLER BOATS half; you will be better off without a ble, good non-skid will make the slide • Keep low and use one-meter teth- tether if you go over the rail. PFD and considerably slower and often times er going forward. Double tether when PLB always. recoverable. working. Sit down. Some days the only • Rigging must be foolproof at • A swimmer-accessible ladder is a smart way to move forward of the mast speed. Over time, you become accus- must for cruisers and short-handed rac- is to scoot. tomed to the speed and it is easy to ers. There have been serious incidents, • The long tether may be used in become complacent. even at anchor, when a sailor suddenly cockpit, but only rarely on deck. • In-shore and supervised racing. If learned how difficult it is to reboard a • The decks are thinner; every at- MOB recovery is fast and dependable, high freeboard boat from the water. tachment requires a backing plate to it is probably safer to fall cleanly into A ladder can be a great aid to recov- spread the load. the water than to be caught by a teth- ering an uninjured MOB. However, it • With outboard-powered boats, the er, hanging over the side. This is NOT may not be usable in rough weather tether must never reach past the tran- an excuse for lax sailing practices; use and do not assume the victim will be som. Propellers kill. short tethers that will keep you on- able to get to it. board and move carefully. Be certain • Lines in the water. A common rea- MULTIHULLS of your MOB recovery drill. PFDs and son for not being able to start the en- • Run the jacklines well inboard personal locator beacons are essential. gine during MOB recovery is the risk of when possible. Night and bad weather can invalidate fouling the prop with lines in the water. • Stop jacklines 4 feet short of front this exception very quickly. Keep the tails tidied up at all times so edge of tramps or front beam; the that this is not a risk. If you need the en- greatest MOB risk is a sudden stop OTHER TIPS gine, spend just a few minutes hauling when the boat slams into a wave. • Some sailors add chest-high life- the line in. Shorthanded or with less • Tramp lacing must only be used as lines between the shrouds—a practice skilled crew, using the engine may be a hardpoint if it is at least 7 mm and is that has its cons (see June 2018). the safest way. tied off at frequent intervals to prevent • Add non-skid anywhere your foot • A parting thought, many of us a zippering failure. can go. Areas around hatches and reach a balance of risk that we are com- cleats are too often left slick. fortable with and become complacent. FAST BOATS • Add non-skid on steep slopes. Of- Experience alone does not automati- • Don’t fall in. The tether must make ten sloping cabin sides become walk- cally make you a safer sailor.

are few and far between and there’s not CREW CAPABILITY MATTERS From the start it became clear that much to reach for when a breaking wave Last spring, noted author and marine most participants didn’t have a clear sweeps the stern quarter. safety expert John Rousmaniere and I understanding of the rescue maneu- Tales of sailors being knocked over participated in the Hampton Mariners vers and 75 percent of those executing a or washed through leeward lifelines are Museum Safety at Sea Seminar. Just be- quickstop maneuver were flying by vic- growing more common. When it comes fore the session began, we chatted about tims on a beam reach. Organizers quick- time to cope with a crew overboard in- the findings of the 2005 San Francisco ly shifted gears and the first day became cident, step one has already failed. MOB Symposium—a large-scale train- an instructional experience rather than It is the designer, builder, skipper, ing/research project put together by a data gathering opportunity. and victim’s effort to prevent the MOB Chuck Hawley and other West Coast The attendees were retaught the incident in the first place. Contributory safety advocates. Quickstop, Figure-8, Reach-Return and factors can include poor nonskid, insuffi- One of the lingering memories Lifesling recoveries. It improved profi- cient handholds, poor jackline setup, and from that symposium was how the ciency, but there was still a high inci- tether use, bad decision-making,,and game plan had to be changed on the dence of rescue attempt failure due to crew agility. Once a person goes over very first day. Initially, the project was excess speed during the final approach. the side, a well-practiced reflex action is envisioned to be a crew recovery tech- It resulted in too little time to effectively needed and time is the big enemy. When nique test bed, with attendees demon- secure the victim to the vessel. All the it comes to rescue maneuvers, the right strating varied rescue techniques and testing was done inside the Bay, so the choice depends on vessel design, crew evaluators using GPS recorded data to complexity added by a significant sea- size and skill, and the conditions at hand. quantify results. way was not experienced.

12 SEPTEMBER 2019 WWW. COM SAFETY AND SEAMANSHIP

HEAVY WEATHER RESCUES A few years later, while working at the U.S. Naval Academy, I had a chance to take a fit, agile, mid- shipman crew to sea and ob- serve dexterity put to good use. It was during the winter “offseason,” and we had pre- positioned two Navy 44 sloops in Jacksonville, Fla. Over spring break, a couple of crews of mid- shipmen were shuttled south filled with the expectation that their “sortie” would be a run to Key West’s “Margaritaville.” Instead, after a couple of day- sail training sessions, we set off with intentions to do some win- Once the person in the water above ter Gulf Stream crew overboard is being hoisted aboard, the violent recovery practice. motion of a boat in a storm can put Our dummy was appropriate- them at risk of injury (right). Getting ly named Oscar. “Oscar,” used to into a lifesling while wearing your denote the letter “O” in the pho- PFD is more challenging than it may netic alphabet, is also the mari- seem, especially if conditions are time code (and signal flag) used rough (above). to announce that there is a per- son overboard. Our “Oscar” was a large fender with a big bucket tied to a much greater challenge and a Lifes- against shorthanded crews. In a dou- one end. Training involved the famil- ling tow would have been the preferred ble-handed cruising or racing context, iar use of the Quickstop maneuver, a approach. one of sailors becomes a victim and the tactic that works well with these heavy We also tested the no-jibe, reach- other a single-hander. The person still displacement, ruggedly built 44-foot and-tack type of recoveries, and found on board has twice the obligation he or sloops (see August 2008). it interesting to note that one of the key she had just a few moments ago. The Crews were quite familiar with the challenges was the same as what ham- sail handling requirements alone are maneuver, but the 20-knots plus condi- pers the Quickstop. In both there’s a daunting. Rescue maneuvering adds a tions and typical eight-foot Gulf Stream need to maintain an awareness of where whole new level of complexity. At this sea state caused considerable difficulty. the victim is situated in relation to the juncture, a Lifesling and a reliable en- The key lesson learned was that the fa- boat and to true wind. gine become the tools of the trade for miliar, close reach approach to the victim Often the boat turns toward the victim the cruising or racing sailor. (jib doused) needed to be sailed just a lit- when it is still upwind of the PIW and as For more on man overboard re- tle deeper, in order to use the mainsheet the approach unfolds, the crew can’t de- covery techniques, see ( Janu- as an effective throttle or brake. This power without turning upwind and away ary 2010, “Man Overboard Retrieval helped keep headway maintained as the from the victim. Even with the mainsheet Techniques.” Our digital eBook “MOB bow pitched in the confused seaway. The fully eased, there’s enough flow over the Prevention and Recovery” available in engine was started in the final approach, sail to provide too much boat speed and our online bookstore (www.practical- but kept in neutral unless a final nudge the result is a victim “flyby”. sailor.com/books) integrates retrieval was needed. Recovery involved using a Boats with sharply swept back spread- technique with our testing and re- boat hook to snag the fender. ers are more prone to this problem. The search into harness, tethers, and other Success indicated that the crew did cure lies in steering deep enough during MOB prevention gear. get close to the victim and kept boat the initial phase of the recovery to allow speed to a minimum, but if Oscar was a close reach approach to the PIW and Voyager, writer, educator, and a fre- life size, the actual reboarding would to use the mainsheet to accelerate and quent contributor, is have been much more complex. The decelerate during the final approach. the former Vanderstar Chair at the U.S. maneuver greatly benefited from hav- Naval Academy. His book The Art of ing an eight-person crew. CONCLUSION Seamanship, is available at the Attempting a shorthanded Quick- One thing is certain, when it comes to online bookstore (www.practical- stop in a building sea, would have been a MOB incident—the deck is stacked sailor.com/books).

SEPTEMBER 2019 13