Recovering somone from the water

[Millermob]

Theres a 2 page spread about recovering a MOB in the latest issue of Rib International if anyones interested.

[whiteminiman]

Various methods are also tested in Practical Boat Owner - February 2007 edition.

Just to comment about the osteopath - most of them will disagree with virtually every sport/activity going as it puts some strain on some part of the body. If the osteopaths/chiropractors/physiotherapists of the world had their way, everyone would be wrapped in bubble wrap and barely move.

I'm not saying that he's wrong, but I can't see anyone causing any major spinal damage hauling someone in by their harness as has been described.

Cheers, WMM

[Oogs]

I've been reading the posts on MOB recovery & feel that I have something to add. On Sunday 11 /11/2006 I was a casualty along with my mate when our 5.2m speedboat sunk 1m east of Yarmouth IOW. Firstly the most important factor of recovery is your personal equipment and clothing. I was in the water for 21 minuites in total. We were swamped by one large sea which broke the windshield & cut out the engine. Within 30s the boat was going down with following seas plopping over the transom. We both had many layers of clothing & most importantly immersion suits & co2 lifejackets.
Without the life jacket I feel I would have drowned in 5 mins. The immersion suit acts as bouyancy as well as preventing heat loss & I would have been suffering the affects of hypothermia without it. Two points I want to make clear are that when you're in the water the seas are breaking over your head & you start to hyperventilate but in a controlled rythmic manner. Upon my departure of the boat I grabbed the handheld VHF & mini flares, it took me ages to open the waterproof bag of the radio & get the Mayday out.
2nd major point... if you part company with you vessel & there is no one left onboard to pick you up... it is extremely unlikely that you will get back to your boat, the tide & windage will affect you & you boat very differently.
At first I was floating beside the sinking bow then I was 75m off the boat, when I was picked up I was back by the boat again.
I was recovered by the crew of the "CENRED" ferry in their 3.5m rib in a faultless recovery... I had my back against the port tube and they put their arms under mine & I flopped me into the rib like a wet mackerel... with ease.
An interesting account of my mates rescue by the Yacht "KEHAAR" is published in the current (feb) edition of PBO.

Summary:

Always wear your lifejacket!

Buy an immersion suit & wear it!! around £30 on ebay.

Have a grab bag with flares & your Handheld VHF - Radio must be Jis7, don't go for one in a waterproof bag! I bought a Cobra 400 for less than £53 from the states... £136 here!

Wear a light marker on your life jacket during darker hours.

Buy a Seago sprayhood- you will breathe normally & not injest any sea water- £17 on ebay!

Do not waste energy swimming - you will tire very quickly & get nowhere fast!!

Sit in the water with your knees to your chest & wait for the troops to rally... 8 agency's & numerous boats & shipping came to my aid on a bleak november afternoon.

On a lighter note... if in our rib, we would have opened the elephant trunks & chucked it forward all the way back to Calshot.

[Biggles]

Oogs,

Glad that your here to share your experiences. What you have said is a lesson to all small boat owners. Three most important bits of kit seem to be Drysuit/Immersion suit, Lifejacket and waterproof radio.

By the way what type of speed boat were you out in, got any photos of it as it wasn't exactly small, and what were the conditions ?

[Biggles]

By the way do those sprayhood work with any lifejacket. I've never been able to work out if they'll work on mine.

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by Biggles

By the way do those sprayhood work with any lifejacket. I've never been able to work out if they'll work on mine.

I've been wondering that too. How do they attach?

[borat]

Originally Posted by Oogs

I've been reading the posts on MOB recovery & feel that I have something to add. On Sunday 11 /11/2006 I was a casualty along with my mate when our 5.2m speedboat sunk 1m east of Yarmouth IOW. Firstly the most important factor of recovery is your personal equipment and clothing. I was in the water for 21 minuites in total. We were swamped by one large sea which broke the windshield & cut out the engine. Within 30s the boat was going down with following seas plopping over the transom. We both had many layers of clothing & most importantly immersion suits & co2 lifejackets.
Without the life jacket I feel I would have drowned in 5 mins. The immersion suit acts as bouyancy as well as preventing heat loss & I would have been suffering the affects of hypothermia without it. Two points I want to make clear are that when you're in the water the seas are breaking over your head & you start to hyperventilate but in a controlled rythmic manner. Upon my departure of the boat I grabbed the handheld VHF & mini flares, it took me ages to open the waterproof bag of the radio & get the Mayday out.
2nd major point... if you part company with you vessel & there is no one left onboard to pick you up... it is extremely unlikely that you will get back to your boat, the tide & windage will affect you & you boat very differently.
At first I was floating beside the sinking bow then I was 75m off the boat, when I was picked up I was back by the boat again.
I was recovered by the crew of the "CENRED" ferry in their 3.5m rib in a faultless recovery... I had my back against the port tube and they put their arms under mine & I flopped me into the rib like a wet mackerel... with ease.
An interesting account of my mates rescue by the Yacht "KEHAAR" is published in the current (feb) edition of PBO.

Summary:

Always wear your lifejacket!

Buy an immersion suit & wear it!! around £30 on ebay.

Have a grab bag with flares & your Handheld VHF - Radio must be Jis7, don't go for one in a waterproof bag! I bought a Cobra 400 for less than £53 from the states... £136 here!

Wear a light marker on your life jacket during darker hours.

Buy a Seago sprayhood- you will breathe normally & not injest any sea water- £17 on ebay!

Do not waste energy swimming - you will tire very quickly & get nowhere fast!!

Sit in the water with your knees to your chest & wait for the troops to rally... 8 agency's & numerous boats & shipping came to my aid on a bleak november afternoon.

On a lighter note... if in our rib, we would have opened the elephant trunks & chucked it forward all the way back to Calshot.

Hi there,
you say do not use a waterproof bag with your radio because it caused a delay in your mayday. Are you referring to a aqapac radio case or a large bag.
The reason i ask is that i keep my hand portable strapped to my life jacket and find using it left in the aqapac case easy to opperate.
regards
pete

[Oogs]

Hi all, I'm quite new to RIBnet so hav'nt worked it all out yet.
Answers to your questions.
The Boat was a 17' Rostyle speedboat built in the USA, Suzuki DT140.
Weather was F4-F5 gusting to F6. This was our 2nd trip on "Seadancer" & all seemed fine. On the way up from Cowes we were going wiyh the ebb tide & the wind. After a pie & pint at the KH Yarmouth we departed heading into the wind & against the tide. The boat was handleing well and all was ok... we hit a bit of messy water & shipped 1 big'un over the bow. Upon deliberations the conditions worsened whilst we were in the pub but looked smooth when leavong Yarmouth. Also the nature of the enclosed bow is that the foredeck has a decline of 15 deg or so, when the bow hit a sea I think it acted as a diving plane & buried her nose further in!! The trim & tilt switch is also suspect & may have trimmed in pushing the bow down.... I don't really know how it happened as both Jules & I didn't see it coming... it just happened. I used to drive ribs, (Atlantic 21, 5.4 Seariders, Artic 22's etc) for 7 years in the Offshore support industry for Colne Shipping Ltd Lowestoft.
We actually got the boat back... the Customs Cutter "Searcher" put a line on her bow which was pointing towards the sky & dragged her to Yarmouth enterance, the Harbour Taxi took over just as she sunk in the harbour & bumped her along the bottom to the HM slipway. At LW the guy from the water taxi went back to the boat & pumped out & secured. We went across the next day with the trailer & picked her up.... 2 days later & 6 hrs underwater we got the Suzi going again!! Good as new!

I can't remember which bag the radio was in but it was the re-seal strip I had a problem with... you can't even bite through them let alone open with cold wet hands.

The Seago spray hood is not attached to the lifejacket, it is an independent piece of kit that fits over your head & secures around your neck. It comes in a pouch with a velcro fastening that will fit around the webbing on any lifejacket.

Will post pic's of "Seadancer", renamed "Widowmaker" when worked out how to!

It's really good that so much interest lately has been on life preservation & recovery. Boating in the Solent on a sunny July day is great, but if you go out all year round it is a completely different sport.

[Biggles]

My aim always is to not sink or ruin my boat. Thats why I like the RIB. You can fill it with water and empty it out pretty easy. Is that what you thought ?

I'm not one to point a finger, as I don't know the full story, but do you think maybe you were going too fast, ie if you had been going slower would you have not stuffed, or had the boat reached its limit in the F6 conditions.

Also I think I'll be investing in a sprayhood soon.

Anymore experiences you can think of from that fateful day. How has the boats electrics and cables etc been since then. Did you take or use anything special to get the saltwater out ?

[Oogs]

Hi Biggles, as said we ummed & arred over it. I estimate I was going about 12knts, didn't see any large seas coming. I don't think it's just a case of a bad boat & a nasty sea that popped in!
I havn't actually got my sprayhood yet.. eagerly awaiting it as the info was given to me..... I have a mate with a chandlery business so everything comes at trade price, good eh! Havn't been out since as the Humber is out of commision... thats another story when it's all sorted out!

Yeah, the engine... if you submerge your engine ( 2-stroke ), DO NOT DRAIN THE SEA WATER OUT untill you are 100% ready to work on it. Whilst the carbs & cylinders are full of briny the oxidisation process will be slow as there is no air to react with the salt & metal. You need to be quick though!
My mate drained the 2t oil & washed out the resovoir with petrol, then undid the drains on all 4 carbs (float bowls), removed spark plugs then turned engine over by hand using the teeth on the fly wheel. Meanwhile the electrics were sprayed with loads of WD40. "QUICKSILVER STORAGE SEAL" was pumped into all 4 chokes on carbs & all cylinders. Connected power & spun engine over. We repeated with storage seal & turned over again.
Fitted a new clean supply of petrol & put the 2t oil back in place. Turned engine over untill we could see petrol coming out of the cylinders.
The next bit was the best... put flush muffs on, new plugs in.... Started first time, smoked like a bstard, thats the storage seal, settled & ran better than before. All this took was about 40mins.

[Oogs]

Sorry only mentioned half the stuff.... from my experience the conditions were not that bad! All reports on the incident... PBO, Solent TV, have been bigged up a little!! as you would expect. Bramble met although a few miles off recorded F4 as I would have said. I think the boat caught us out & I wish I knew what it was... when the engine stalled she was so heavy at the stern the seas just kept plopping in. Jules is convinced I said " Dive Dive Dive" not Hythe Hythe Hythe during our conversations in the pub.

I took the control box apart & sprayed all the electrics & re-greased the box, in conv's with Suzi dealer he stated that all ECU's & CDI units are 100% waterproof... that apears to be so in our case! Only problem to note is the battery cable terminals rotted to shit in no time. Have run the unit up a few times now & she starts first time & runs well.

[Clive]

Originally Posted by Paul F

Clive
Not to knock you back at all with your recovery hopes. But i see you are a pac22 bod.
Just bear in mind those tubes are quite big and sit high when at rest. so may have to try it further aft than normal.
I havnt tried the feet first yet but will try it next time afloat and will let you know how i get on
Paul

Thanks paul as you can imagine we are very cautious about attempting this with my dearly beloved so we had planned to give it a go in the lee of old harry rocks on a fine summers day about ten feet from the shore with a jet ski just incase [not exactly your average MOB scenario] but we daren't think about that...Call the coast guard..

[jyasaki]

Originally Posted by Oogs

The next bit was the best... put flush muffs on, new plugs in.... Started first time, smoked like a bstard, thats the storage seal, settled & ran better than before. All this took was about 40mins.

Seems like a lot of trouble for a tune-up.

Glad to hear the outcome was much better than it could have been (in more ways than one.)

jky

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Clive

Thanks paul as you can imagine we are very cautious about attempting this with my dearly beloved

Clive, we always recover divers over the stern of my P22 rather than over the tubes. I would recover a cas the same way.

Pete

[Clive]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Clive, we always recover divers over the stern of my P22 rather than over the tubes. I would recover a cas the same way.

Pete

Thanks Pete but i have some concerns about using the stern as my wife cannot feel her legs or move them she may clout them on the exhaust fitting or the drive leg. and its a boody long way past the engine hood back to the console
when you are trying to manouvre a 6 foot person who has a greater upper body mass;.] than me.
She would also be unaware if she cut her legs and was bleeding to death.
I know it sounds melodramatic but we have to concider it.
thanks again for your input
clive

[codprawn]

Good article on recovery methods in Practical Boat owner this month. One of the best methods is one I actually suggested a while ago - orange plastic fencing as used on building sites - they said it works really well so my suggestions aren't so bad after all........

[Top banana]

Bet theres loads of that orange fencing lying about in wales, what with all them sheep. is that where the idea came from codders.

[Clive]

To some this could be veiwed as kiddy porn HAHA!!!
No names mentioned....

[Top banana]

wonder where that orange meshing has gone, bet some ribbers been there first,practising MOB tecniques.