January 28, 2020 BOATING SAFETY / CHRIS HOFMANN

JANUARY 28, 2020

BOATING SAFETY

CHRIS HOFMANN

This was a presentation on boating safety with detailed discussion about the incident that happened last spring in Monterey where a skipper fell overboard during challenging conditions during a race.  As usual, the presentation was fantastic with active participation by many in attendance.

Chris talked about hypothermia setting in and explained the 1-10-1 concept of the onset of hypothermia.  The first “1” represents the first minute of immersion in 50-60 degree water and the shock experienced with this first immersion.  Frequently when people first hit the cold water the  reaction is to gasp and breath in air, or water.  Surviving the initial plunge, it takes about 1 minute to acclimate and to calm down.  The next number ‘10’ represents 10 minutes of time where you have good mental capacity and can think and act rationally.  The last 1 represents the survival time of 1 hour in our cool waters in Monterey bay.  I presume these numbers pertain to a fit 30 year old sailor and may be a bit shorter for an older (not fit) sailor such as myself.

Chris talked about the complexity of a man overboard situation.  No two boats are the same and no two days are the same.  When dealing with the various conditions that can be experienced on the bay, it only makes sense to at least be familiar with your boat and to practice man overboard situations on your boat.  Chris also pointed out that in an emergency situation Murphy’s law comes into play and simple tasks can be very difficult to accomplish.  Even tossing a line to a person in the water can be difficult to do if you are urgent and trying to do it quickly.  The old “the hurrydier I go the behinder I get” comes into play.  This is why it is so important to practice man overboard situations.

I have to say that on Pair A Dice, since we have been setting the start line marker and have had to pick it up every week, our skills have gotten much better.  The techniques we have learned after many botched attempts are as follows: 1: approach the object under power of the main only.  2: aim for an area just downwind of the object. 3: have a crew member on the bow with a boat hook always pointing at the object. 4: when directly downwind of the object, release the main and coast up directly into the wind to the object.  By doing this exercise we have become pretty adept at getting the line marker in the variable conditions we have in Monterey Bay.

Chris also had examples of retrieval equipment.  The most predominant one seen on most keel boats is the Life Sling.  The shortcomings with the Life Sling is that it is difficult to toss to a person in the water if there is any wind.  This device is best used by deploying the life ring and tow it behind the boat. Make sure the line is tied to the boat.  If you steer the boat in a tight circle around the MOB, they can grab it and put it around their body.  Once the ring is around the body, it is critical to stop the boat.  Any sustained speed two knots or more cannot be survived by the MOB.  This is where it is critical to know your boat and how to “heave to”

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Heaving to with your boat is a critical maneuver that we should all know and I would think that even with limited resources, if you “heaved to” just to windward of a MOB, everything slows down and you can deal more rationally with the situation at hand.

Another device demonstrated by Chris was a “Throw Rope”.   This is a line coiled inside of a small bag.  The bag seems to be weighted and can be efficiently tossed to a person in the water uncoiling the line as it is tossed.  Once again, it is necessary to slow the boat down once the person is in tow.

We also had a discussion on the different PFD’s available.  Many people are opting to use non inflatable PFDs because of the frequent failures of the inflatable devices.  Chris was kind enough to pull the tab to inflate an inflatable PFD and sure enough, it only partially inflated until the Velcro was undone on the other side.  A partially inflated life jacket would roll you over with your face down where you don’t want to be.

If an incident does happen, there was a discussion about which channel to use to call a MAYDAY?  Mayday alerts are always called on channel 16, but for assistance from local boats ON TUESDAY NIGHTS ONLY use channel 69 (our normal channel) to apprise the fleet of any emergency. It would be critical that the boat in trouble be the one to direct the rescue.  The last thing needed would be 5 boats swooping in at the same time trying to rescue a victim.    If a mayday is called, switch to channel 16 to do so keeping in mind that the Coast Guard will respond from a distance probably by helicopter.

Next Tuesday, Captain Joe Rogers will talk about the history of marine disasters in the Monterey Bay.

See you next Tuesday.

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice