Man Overboard Pole And Stuff

[Delancey]

Single braid dyneema isn't really all that expensive, we're talking maybe 50' here. Buy a thicker than necessary, takes care of that issue. Can get Sampson Amstel in a bright color, great.

Meanwhile, polypropylene has a terrible feel in the hand and lasts a season or two at best in the tropical sun. Well if people replaced it as often as they should the extra cost of dyneema is offset, so not much of an argument against it.

[Lou254]

How about this mates, what would you all think about a life balloon? It would fill just like your self inflatable life jacket. The teather could be used with a hand held vhf working as an antenna to give you the line of sight off the surface .As said it is very hard to spot something right on the surface. This balloon would be off the surface. The spotters and the helmsman would have a better chance of getting to the crew overboard and deploying a life sling. Consider what if the helsman is the remaining crew both the spotter and helmsman keeping and eye on the small ball size head in even 1-2 foot chop or sunlight glaring across swells would be very hard . A whistle a light and a mirror could all help but what would you think a marker above the surface might be worth? See my post # 43 Kind Regards, Lou

[accomplice]

Originally Posted by DumnMad

Waves and boat roll.

The line is fairly short and light weight so a dyneema line would be like having a thin wire attached to you while being hauled in - no give at all.

There's a difference between a throw-rope/bag, where the COB (MOB) hauls themselves back to the boat holding onto the line -- and a floating line connected to a throw ring or horseshoe buoy.

Please help me understand why in the latter case (COB holding/attached to horseshoe buoy) any "give" is needed, or why a thin line would matter? If anything, I would think a thin line would be preferable because it would allow stowing a longer line in the same volume.

I believe the question by DLincoln3 was regarding replacing line in a Lifesling, which uses a horseshoe buoy. As long as the line is strong enough, visible, and floats, what is wrong with replacing lifesling line with dyneema?

[Kenomac]

Why are you folks trying to fix a problem which doesn't exist? There's nothing wrong with the Lifesling rescue system the way it was designed.

I've used it successfully in it's original configuration.

[mrm]

Originally Posted by Lou254

Ok this is going over like a lead balloon. I can not even get a degrading reply. ??? No one should ever go overboard because it's on hand for the boat and one for work. If you slip the teather will hold you. Anyone worth his salt would have inspected the jackline. Anyone want to say anything about a balloon for a spotting the man. Is it to much like a 007 film ? Kind Regards Lou

Since you asked.. I see two issues with your idea.
First, Helium molecules are small and are problematic to contain for any significant amount of time. You will run into similar problems engineers had when trying to design Hydrogen (also a very small molecule) storage for Hydrogen powered cars.
Second issue is that in a real blow/swell situation, where your idea would help the most, the tethered balloon will likely be blown to the surface (or very near to) by the strong wind, thus limiting its visibility.

[Lou254]

Thank you mrm ! You are crewing a large SV. Your experience and judgement is of great value. I think your right if it is blowing. Or gusting above a certain value it would be hard to spot anything and a balloon is probably going to be at the surface. It would however be a large increase in the size of what the spotter is looking for. It could be two or more times the area above the surface than a small head. Helium stored in a metal cylinder is not to my knowledge subject to extreme degradation. The inflation cylinder would be like the small one in the self inflatable life jackets. The balloon would need to be more durable than a child's party ball on its shape could also be sausage like instead of a ball shape. Please reply with more observations. Thanks, Lou

[nautical62]

Since I do much of my cruising solo, who would throw a man over pole in for me to hopefully find and hang on to?

If the other half of a couple, is down below, what are the chances they will wake up, throw the pole and have the person in the water find it?

Personally, I find keeping myself on/attached to the boat to be a better safety strategy.

[DumnMad]

Originally Posted by accomplice

There's a difference between a throw-rope/bag, where the COB (MOB) hauls themselves back to the boat holding onto the line -- and a floating line connected to a throw ring or horseshoe buoy.

Please help me understand why in the latter case (COB holding/attached to horseshoe buoy) any "give" is needed, or why a thin line would matter? If anything, I would think a thin line would be preferable because it would allow stowing a longer line in the same volume.

Some mentioned catenary taking out the impact - thin & lightweight (Dyneema) relate to little catenary effect.
Wave and boat motion will give some shock load effect on a tight rope as you are hauling or being hauled back to the boat - maybe not that important when you are being rescued
But as Kenomac says why try and fix something tried and tested and not broke?