Have Tailing Lines Ever Saved A Solo Sailor?

[Kettlewell]

Thought--instead of the usual jackline (aka trip line) you hook your safety harness to on deck, how about a spare haliard or line coming from up the mast somewhere? It would allow you to cover a lot of territory on deck without unclipping, and if you fell you wouldn't go overboard and be trailed along. You might have to rig it up with a length adjuster of some sort.

[zboss]

At 7 knots you would need a little more than 236 yards of line to have 1 minute chance of disengaging the tiller. Add 236 yards for every minute extra.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by zboss

At 7 knots you would need a little more than 236 yards of line to have 1 minute chance of disengaging the tiller. Add 236 yards for every minute extra.

Ha! There's something else I don't worry about!

[Kettlewell]

The first time you forget about the trailing line and wind it up on your prop immobilizing your boat as you try to thread your way into the reef entrance with sails down, I suspect will be the last time you use it.

[zeehag]

who consistently cruises at 7 kts.....most are slightly slower--and you can count on 5kts ...kinda..mebbe
..
lines astern can be a truly bad thing....something about a propeller, despite being protected by the rudder.......

[knottygurl]

I setup a trailing line that will cut the engine by placing a plunger from a jetski/outboard kill switch with the coil clipped onto the line, a wedge is under the tiller pilot which also has the similar coil line that as attached to the line, about 8 feet of slack at the stern just aft of the tiller pilot. the line then goes overboard and is around 300 feet with a red and white pool float that has reflective tape on it.
I have tested this setup many times and it does work regardless of 2 NM or 7 NM. A calm state or 6-8 foot waves It always trips and the heads to wind and stalls.
I have a bungee on my boarding ladder and can pull it to the lower position from the water and get back on board. Even with an outboard I have never worried about propfouling when moving forward, reverse of course will pose a different outcome.

[boatman61]

Trailing lines is really only a viable thing for smaller boats.. 37ft and under.. and with a tiller.. unless you've a waterproof WP remote you always carry (useful solo).. in which case.. no lines.
Old salts talk about it but I've heard/read of no real life experience..
Don't bother personally as despite being a good swimmer I doubt recovery time from a tumble would be enough unless in my speedo.. any clothes/shoes and I'd be stuffed.
So buy a remote...

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Trailing lines is really only a viable thing for smaller boats.. 37ft and under.. and with a tiller.. unless you've a waterproof WP remote you always carry (useful solo).. in which case.. no lines.
Old salts talk about it but I've heard/read of no real life experience..
Don't bother personally as despite being a good swimmer I doubt recovery time from a tumble would be enough unless in my speedo.. any clothes/shoes and I'd be stuffed.
So buy a remote...

Remotes generally have a short range (~10m) so you would have to be activating it as you fell over. How good are your reflexes? .

[zboss]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

Ha! There's something else I don't worry about!

I just pulled 7 out of the air. If you are at 5 knots, you still need 168 yards for one minute. That's 1.5 football fields.

So assuming you want to increase the chances of survival and made that 2 minutes, you would need over 300 yards of line... I wonder how much drag that would add.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

Remotes generally have a short range (~10m) so you would have to be activating it as you fell over. How good are your reflexes? .

'Boom' free... pretty good..
Most likely place I'd go over is the foredeck.. fewer strong grabs and a wilder bucking motion.. figure its as good a chance as/if any..

[endoftheroad]

Out of 100 people I bet about half of one person drag a line, tripline whatever.

[Matt sachs]

With an electric auto pilot, how hard would it be to have a proximity sensor on your pfd. If you get to far away, it does a hard turn one way or the other and holds it until reset. Is it more complex than that? I'm a newby maybe it is out there already.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Thought--instead of the usual jackline (aka trip line) you hook your safety harness to on deck, how about a spare haliard or line coming from up the mast somewhere? It would allow you to cover a lot of territory on deck without unclipping, and if you fell you wouldn't go overboard and be trailed along. You might have to rig it up with a length adjuster of some sort.

Try it. Or rather, don't.

If the boat is heeling you will be hanging to one side, perhaps 15 feet from the boat, as you slowly loose the ability to breath. Maybe you will be in the water too. Certainly of no value to the single hander. You could tie a large sail bag to a spare halyard in a blow to test this.

If you have enough slack to allow moving to the bow, when you move to the cabin top there will be aplenty of slack in the halyard to wrap around the spreaders in some manner of knot. Most sailors have done this once.

If you don't leave enough slack when you step off the cabin top and move to the bow it will take you off your feet.

It does nothing to keep you on the deck. It gives no lateral stability.

I tried this (I was writing an article and it had been suggested as a good idea for catamarans) in fair weather and it was a disaster. When using handlines and tethers in rough weather you pull UPWARDS to keep your feet on the deck (anytime I see someone pushing down on life lines I know I'm watching a lubber). Any tether pulling up is wrong.

[boatman61]

But its great Yachtie bar 'Bull Poo'...

[Viking Sailor]

More thoughts...

The use of the parachute sea anchor is suggested for sailboats making an offshore passages. It is intended to unconditionally stop the sailboat with no possibility for it sailing off in some other direction. Plus, once back on board there is no hurry to retrieve the sea anchor.

The details on how to permanently mount the parachute sea anchor on the stern is most likely unique to each installation.

It is hard to foul a prop if the trip line is floating on the surface. Water ski, crab line .etc.

If the boat is close enough to shore that fouling the trip line is a concern -- haul in the trip line. You will most likely be able to swim to shore anyway.

When sailing where the water is cold it is a good idea for solo (all) sailors to ware a wetsuit. They are cheap and will really extend the amount of time you can survive in the water.