MOB
Hello all

I was reading an Olin Stephens story (see this link, read the fourth part:

http://www.stormy.ca/stormy/index.html I have tried hard over the years to make sure I never had a crew member go over the side and have been lucky to have succeeded so far, but I remain fearful because I know that it can always happen. I wonder if anyone in this group has had to deal with a MOB situation? What method did you use to get the person back aboard? Do you actually practice MOB sailing maneuvers? - I rarely have the same crew aboard one week to the next to train in this way, but have decided to do it at least with my kids this summer as they are old enough and should learn. Anyway, I am interested in having a discussion on the forum that might help educate me better to be ready for one of the worst emergencies a boat can face, MOB.

Thanks,

Geoff
Corazon, 411 #41

Hello Geoff,

at the beginning of each season we always do some MOB exercises with a buoy, later in the year (summer!) with Mama or Papa or kid (8 years) with life vest in the water- never Mama AND Papa in the water. For the three of us and the boat we find it most practible to immediately ease the main and tack without easing the genoa so that the boat is heaved to. This manouvre also can easily be done by the kid steering. Once heaved to the boat is stable, it is drifting in direction of the MOB and the remaining adult on board has both hands to throw a line or whatever.

Once we have a connection to the MOB we take the spi- or genoa halyard to winch the person on board from midship. Due to the ups and downs of the stern in waves we decided not to use the ladder at the stern to avoid head injuries.

You are right - the best is to avoid such a situation. But it is even better to be prepared - try it with the kids, it is lots of fun, especially when YOU are the buoy in the water...:-)

Cheers,

Toni (toge, 38/113)

Geoff:

I was involved with a real man-overboard situation many years ago when doing foredeck with a very good friend.  We were both very experienced racers with many years of experience.  My friend was in the process of blowing the guy shackle at the spinnaker pole end for a spinnaker take down when the shock of the release hurled him overboard.  I was standing 20 feet behind him at the mast when it happened and I shouted "man-overboard" while running back to the stern to throw over the horseshoe. We finally recovered him but you should read my thoughts on this below..

1. Very rarely does a person go overboard in calm seas, light air , in daylight. It is much more likely to be windy, rough seas, and sometimes at night.  In my case it was windy and very choppy seas.  The boat was moving at 10 knots and when my friend hit the water as the boat had almost sailed half a boat length.

2. We rarely consider the possibility that when one falls overboard they might be injured.  In my case my friend had dislocated his elbow when the spinnaker pole hit his arm and was in great pain.  We did not know this at the time and only found out when we finally cam along side him and he yelled out that he was hurt.

3. I immiedately threw the horseshoe overboard.  This is really false hope on a windy day.  If it is windy throwing a horseshoe overboard causes the horseshoe to fly straight out for perhaps 8 feet before it immediately changes direction and sails away downwind landing no where close to the person in the water. I knew this was going to happen but I did it anyway knowing it would at least mark a location, albeit very approximate.  Remember now the boat is still moving at 10 knots, the spinnaker is being taken down and we have not headed into the wind to do the now common "quick-stop".

4. I was doing my MOB spotter duty when the skipper asked me where is the MOB?  I momentarily turned my head away from my friend in the water to say "he's over there about 70 yards away" when I turned back I lost sight of him.  A blonde haired guy amongst a sea of white caps and 4 foot seas disappers instantly.  Thru a miracle the skipper who has incredible eye sight saw him and we were able to get back to him.

5. It took about 10 minutes until we brought the boat along side my friend in the water to find that he is hurt and only has the use of one arm.  He was incapable of helping himself except to barely tread water.  (This was during the era where pfd vests like we have today were not available and no one wore pfds and it was pure adrenalin that kept my friend treading water to stay afloat.)  We had no swim ladder so I had a crew member hold on to me as I reached over the side to my friend in the water and tied a line to his belt to keep him from floating away.  There was brief discussion as to how to get my friend aboard. Should we try to rig a sling?, hoist him up on a halyard?, swing the boom out and use a block/tackle?, etc.  It was all too complicated and I made the decision that we were just going to reach over the side and grab him with all hands and just get him aboard, which is exactly what we did and it works.

6. Once we got my friend aboard we layed him down on the deck where he instantly went into shock.  Fortunately we had a doctor aboard that day and he immediately wrapped him up to keep warm and managed to keep my friend as comfortable as possible while we motored back to shore where we had arranged for an emergenct medical team to meet us.

We were very lucky to have recovered my friend that day.  I still remember it vividly and recount it to my shipmates whenever we do a MOB practice.

Sorry for this long winded answer to your original question.   My suggestion to you is to practice crew safety often and to practice MOB drills as often as possible.  But you should keep in mind that it never occurs on a calm, sunny day with no injuries so you must try to anticipate the worst. 

Fair winds,

Hiro

Dear Hiro

thanks very much for this very detailed post, I really appreciated reading it, we should learn a lot from your experience.

Fair winds!

Matteo (38/067 Only You)

Great post, thank you very much - of course you are right about the conditions and risk of injury.  Those factors are what make MOB situations the most frightening thing to contemplate or face, no doubt.  If I go through this life and never have to face one for real, I will be happy.  It was in reading about the Tillinghast tragedy aboard the Hamrahin the 1935 transatlantic race that started giving me the creeps about MOB - anway, thanks again, Hiro - good story, thankfully it was not night time.....do you still sail with the guy who went over?

Geoff

Hiro -

An observation, and then a question - On my last boat, my horsehoe was tied to a weighted MOB pole with flag, a strobe light and drogue on the horseshoe besides, so all that gear went over at one time, connected, which should prevent excessive drift, at least compared to the horseshoe alone, so my observation is to have that kind of setup, which is called for in most of the offshore safety specs.  My question which goes along with this is - has anyone deployed the MOB modules that autoinflate a bouy and 'pole'?  My Swan has two of these, but I am inclined to go 'old school' and duplicate my old rig.

Thoughts?

Geoff

Hello Geoff:

You are correct in that a horse shoe attached to MOB pole and strobe would help tremendously in keeping the horse shoe from flying away but that day, when my friend went overboard, we did not have them attached since it was a short day race. 

I am a bit old school when it comes to things aboard ship and do not like the self-inflating MOM system since it relies 100% on the unit self-inflating when it lands in the water.  I just do not want to take that risk and also the maintenance of the unit.  Therefore I rely on the keep it simple method and use a standard MOB pole with strobe attached to my horse shoe.  The deployment of all three elemnts takes a couple of seconds longer but it works.

One other technique you should practice is to start throwing anything in the cockpit area that floats over the side immediately after a MOB.  Seat cushions, water bottles, garbage, etc.   This leaves a debris trail behind the boat which makes it a lot easier to see in the water and helps back tracking to the MOB.

My friend who went MOB has since moved to Texas and I do not get a chance to race with him anymore.  a shame.

Regards,

Hiro