by William Riker

Created on: November 06, 2007

Yachting should include man overboard drills including tossing over a life ring or some floating object to be recovered. When I served as a navigator in the US Navy, my ship practiced man overboard drills often by throwing Oscar the man-sized dummy overboard. In shark infested water, old timers suggested we should throw over pollywogs, but that is another story. Before anyone goes overboard, life rings with lights that activate on hitting the water should be placed within reach of all other crew members because the life ring should hit the man overboard when he hits the water. The first thing along with tossing the life ring should be an instantaneous yell: "man overboard, starboard (or port) side." The yachtsman or bridge officer should turn the bow toward the side of the yacht where the person fell from. This instant action will move the stern of the yacht away from the man in the water and hopefully he will not be ripped apart by the propeller. The yacht should keep turning to a course forty five degrees from the original course, hold that new course for one minute, then execute a semi-circle in the opposite direction until the reciprocal of the original course shows on the compass. On paper, this will look like a tear drop with the yacht going back on its exact track to where the man fell overboard. Bring the yacht alongside the man in the water. On a calm day either side is okay. On a rough day, bring the yacht upwind of man in the water so the yacht creates a calm area. Reverse the propellers to bring the yacht to a stop so the yacht drifts toward the man and he can be thrown a rope and pulled on board. I have seen a poorly handled pickup by a person new at yachting run over the dummy which is another good reason to practice this drill before the real event happens. Going back to the shark waters, it is a good idea to bring up a rifle to shoot sharks if they start circling. Now, if you are a person in the water who does not have a competent crew to come and get you or they did not see you go overboard, you might be floating there awhile. Don't panic. If you have pants on, pull them off, put them over your shoulders, tie a knot at the bottom of each leg, and whip the waistline over your head to fill the pant legs with air to use as a float. If you do not have pants but have a shirt, that is almost as good. By the way, we never lost a sailor falling overboard even though my little tin can was in hurricanes with eighty to one hundred foot waves.

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