How Do Couples Cruisers Fall Off Boats?

[taxwizz]

I have heard that an extremely large percentage of men go overboard with their fly open.
And that is how the bodies are found.
Seriously.

[Tingum]

Gravity get um!

[dadster3]

As someone who is planning to sail single-handed, falling overboard is a death sentence. All of the recommended safeguards--tether, pfd, automatic destress/location beeper etc--are really commonsense. I plan to install netting along the lifelines as well and would like to make the lifelines taller. IMO they are too low, just the right height to flip you right over the side if you lose your balance and fall/lean against them.

[Telemark43]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

I think the most common scenario is the idiot was not attached (with a leash and harness) to the boat. You only go overboard if not attached to the boat.



I stopped wearing an auto pfd too. I am moving on to a neoprene water ski vest. In some cases you improve your chances if you can swim some distance fast (to a line thrown from the deck, to a buoy, to a dinghy, to the stern) etc.


In an auto pdf you get first shocked by the blow up then you can't swim because the bloody thing tries to keep you with your face up.Looking at the sun and waiting for slow death.



I think auto pdfs can be truly dangerous for experienced crews on well sailed boats (think of an inversed boat). They are good for crews that are not skilled seamen though.


b.

When one is fully awake and conscious, uninjured, you make a point. However, I believe in the majority of cases one is likely unconscious, injured, or otherwise impaired and the likely hood of swimming a few feet offshore seriously assisting in their rescue is unreasonable.
Consider that if the boat was not moving and the person in the water was uninjured, could they alone climb back aboard unaided offshore? And if injured in any fashion... a very difficult task.

[foufou]

Although my brother was racing at the time the incident that washed him and his crew off his boat was not race related exactly. It was rogue wave probably triple the height of the average - his estimate.
Not tethered at the time they ended up swimming but as luck was with them, another boat nearby had seen the event and rescued them within a few minutes. And lucky twice in the same event that boat was a catamaran with steps up the reverse transom and so easy to board!

[Cpt Pat]

Originally Posted by thinwater

As a general rule, your spouse is the one person you can spend weeks, months, or years with and not want to kill them.

Speak for yourself, my friend. If you are happily married, you are part of a fortunate minority. Count your blessings! Almost 50 percent of all marriages in the United States will end in divorce or separation. Researchers estimate that 41 percent of all first marriages end in divorce. Most of the rest trudge on in quiet desperation. I can think of only two reasons people still get married in this culture: money, and, delusional optimism.

I suppose there's a "process of elimination" involved -- those couples who don't end up hating each other don't have unfortunate "accidents." But I can't think of an environment more conducive to murder, for incompatible couples, than a long voyage in a small boat at sea. Such a voyage would be best undertaken prior to marriage. If there are any incompatibility kinks, they're sure to show themselves, and at least there's light at the end of that tunnel: arriving ashore.

I suspect the number of deaths due to all forms of "accident" are greatly diminished by the existence of modern no-fault divorce laws.

As for the true accidents, the ones I'm familiar with involve one spouse falling overboard, followed by the second spouse falling overboard trying to save the first. My own search of man overboard procedures couldn't find even one that recommended inflating the liferaft for the victim - so the crew could take his/her time in recovering the victim before hypothermia sets in. Have you ever had to actually try to hoist a cold semi-conscious person aboard? It ain't easy - especially for those of you with high sided high freeboard floating buses.

There are also anecdotal stories that when lost bodies were recovered from the sea, a high percentage of the victims' flies were open...

[DEAN2140]

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

A gentle shove does the job, I find...

Those Kiwis have a great sense of humor. Made me laugh.

[Checkswrecks]

Originally Posted by taxwizz

I have heard that an extremely large percentage of men go overboard with their fly open.
And that is how the bodies are found.
Seriously.

I've heard the same repeatedly. And alcohol in their toxicology report.

[tkeithlu]

My only misadventure of type was as a teenager slipping when returning from changing a jib, grabbing the close-hauled boom, and looking down at a hammerhead shark.

Much older and a bit wiser, no one on deck without an inflatable life vest, no one leaving the wheelhouse at sea without the other person on watch, radios, lights, and inflatable fluorescent sausage attached to each belt, radar reflector and fluorescent flag on pole for man overboard, electric winch with life ring and carabiner on the boat deck, because I doubt that my wife could winch me in by hand. I won't comment about my winching her in, because the statistics clearly show that women who have put on a few pounds live longer than the men who mention it.

[Cpt Pat]

Originally Posted by dadster3

As someone who is planning to sail single-handed, falling overboard is a death sentence. All of the recommended safeguards--tether, pfd, automatic destress/location beeper etc--are really commonsense. I plan to install netting along the lifelines as well and would like to make the lifelines taller. IMO they are too low, just the right height to flip you right over the side if you lose your balance and fall/lean against them.

Agreed. When it's ruff - I wear a helmet. And I have one for any guest aboard. Every head injury I've gotten occurred down in the cabin, and I got tired of showing up to work on Mondays with black eyes and bumps. A helmet has other advantages: it doesn't fly off in the wind, it's warmer than a hat, and it's a convenient place to attach a light. Below is a short vid of how I'm outfitted: helmet, float coat, foam water skiing vest underneath (it's warm and I don't bruise my ribs) tether and harness attached to a cockpit hardpoint. Macho? Maybe not. But who's looking?

There's nothing original about my outfit: I just looked up what the Coasties wear - and copied it.

After being nearly impaled by lifeline stanchions, I removed them. Here's what can happen: you're beating to windward in high sharp swells. A need arises to go to the foredeck. The bow is levered down off a wave by swell at the stern -- and falls faster than freefall while it yaws 30 degrees. There you are - floating weightless over a stanchion and... wham - gravity reasserts itself while you get poked hard in a kidney or the spleen by the stanchion, with all your weight down on a 1 inch diameter pole. Unpleasant. I now run a jackline down the centerline and never, ever, am "unclipped" on deck. I'm not a big believer in lifelines. They encourage false bravado and discourage the use of a jackline and tether.

Some people argue a tether can cause stumbling and entanglements. You get used to it, after a while it's like having a tail that you're always aware of. And if you're still too much of a klutz to avoid tether problems -- that's proof you actually need it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSS46BctscI

[sailorboy1]

I’ve never fallen over, but

The most likely time is dropping the main in choppy conditions. Ever though we have a Dutchman the sail needs help. And yes I know I could probably “fix” it for $1200-1500

[Cpt Pat]

... forgot to mention above:

I have a strip of "super velcro" on the top of my helmet with matching velcro on my AIS MOB transmitter and my strobe light - so I can just plop either on top of the helmet. The stripes on my helmet are retro-reflecting SOLAS tape. I copied all that too from the Coasties. If I end up in the water while singlehanded, I assume I'm doomed. But I want to at least have a fighting chance.

And on the topic of deploying the liferaft for crew overboard - I tell my crew, when I have them, about that plan. That if they can't be retrieved in 10 minutes they will be too cold to assist in their own rescue - so get in the liferaft. Then I tell them that we may decide to just throw them some food and water while we tow them in the raft to our destination -- "so take the seasickness pills and enjoy your voyage."

No one's ever fallen overboard.

[a64pilot]

I think if your in warm water, say Fl for instance and near coastal / in shore and fall in single handed and have an AIS MOB, you have a decent chance, that chance likely goes up with a DSC VHF and maybe again with a PLB / EPIRB.
You can survive a few days in warm water.

The family was going diving in Panama City, we did every weekend, first place we stopped at there was a boat tied into the wreck, it came from our Marina, the Navy base in PC. We went further out in deep water and made a dive and then on the way back that boat was still tied in, I circled it thinking that was odd, but maybe they did a surface interval ate lunch and went to dive the same spot again.
Turns out the man and his daughter were swept away by current, spent that day, the next night and the second day they were found floating. They were fine, but I still feel guilty for not sending my Son down to see if they were on the dive site.

Yes they were in wet suits, but they were fine most of two days and one night.

[FlyingScot]

I'm curious to the differences between monos and cats here.

Being more stable and assuming knockdowns aren't really a thing on cats, it would have to be strong enough to flip over. Or so I believe.

If you were on a cat, would you strap in while in the cockpit?

In regards to peeing, I pee in a bottle in a safe location as opposed to being on the edge of the boat. Harder to fall off from the middle. Even harder down below in the head.

[Cpt Pat]

Originally Posted by FlyingScot

I'm curious to the differences between monos and cats here.

Being more stable and assuming knockdowns aren't really a thing on cats, it would have to be strong enough to flip over. Or so I believe.

If you were on a cat, would you strap in while in the cockpit?

In regards to peeing, I pee in a bottle in a safe location as opposed to being on the edge of the boat. Harder to fall off from the middle. Even harder down below in the head.

Yes, I'd strap (tether) in! And have a good shackle to disconnect. Below is a story of a consequence of the helmsman not strapping in...

Cats are more stable in roll -- until they aren't. Their stability is "binary." Monos are "tender" (heel easily) but usually flip upright (assuming they aren't of radical design and remain floating.) Their stability is linear. My own boat has an "angle of vanishing stability" of 170 degrees. It can roll almost completely inverted and still have enough stability to not continue the roll to inverted. A Cat has, at best, 90 degrees - and usually much less. And then it "turtles," i.e., stays inverted indefinitely.

A Cat can flip inverted with practically no warning when mishandled. I crewed on a 40 foot Cat sailing close-hauled between Marina Del Rey and Catalina. There were possible Santa Ana (Chinook) winds predicted. These are winds that can go from 15 knots to 50 in seconds, arriving as gust fronts much like squalls. I was on the foredeck trying to unfoul a roller furling jib when a gust arrived. I could see it coming at us directly abeam across the water like a shock wave. While I was shouting: "let out the mainsheet!" the boat heeled to about 30 degrees, and the helmsman (the least experienced sailor aboard) lost his footing, slid down the deck, used the his grip on the mainsheet to stay aboard -- and hauled the boom all the way past amidships, causing the main to be taken aback in a 50 knot gust. WHAP! Over it went. Keels in the air. I was under the "trampoline" when my inflatable PFD triggered - momentarily pinning me under.

Today, I always have as knife sheathed on my belt to puncture the PFD air bladders. And I avoid sailing on Cats in all but benign weather. That's just my "burnt child memory," not advice to others.