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 Winter
Drills Improve Overboard Skills by
Mark King
One of the most frightening
emergencies on the water occurs when a person goes overboard accidentally.
An overboard emergency is seldom a simple matter of turning around
and recovering the person. You need to suddenly be keenly aware
of where you are, how the wind is blowing, how the current is travelling,
how fast you are travelling and in what direction.
In order to acquire your Pleasure Craft Operator
Card, you must know a few simple ideas about overboard recovery.
The Canadian Coast Guard mandates that you should
know how to use buoyant heaving lines, lifebuoys and/or boarding
devices in the recovery. It demands that you know how to use the
equipment and your vessel to properly recover a person and that
you know it is important to practice those procedures to become
familiar with the equipment. Practice will familiarize you with
the tasks that must be completed and how your boat moves.
It sounds like a lot. But, it is basic information.
Different boating safety organizations will tell you different techniques
to use to recover a person who has fallen overboard. This is one
area where you can never have enough knowledge. It pays to know
a number of techniques. (Top)
You have three concerns when a person goes overboard;
how long the person can stay afloat, how quickly you can find the
person and how you will bring the person back on board. All overboard
drills assume that someone notices the person leaving the boat.
What if you are the only other person on board?
Proper procedures demand that whoever witnesses
the overboard immediately shouts the word “Overboard!” so that the
skipper and the remainder of the crew can hear, take notice and
take action. As skipper, you must do several things all at once.
Cut all power to your props and check your compass heading or take
a bearing ahead of you and behind you.
At the same time, your crew should be throwing a
floating object in the direction of the person who is overboard.
Throwing a series of floating objects and leaving a trail in the
water will help you find your way back to the person.
Even if it is blowing hard, following the trail
and heading upwind should bring you close. A person in the water
will not drift as quickly as floating objects on top of the water
so if you keep heading upwind as you follow your floating trail,
you will pass close by. In an ideal world, the person who has gone
overboard will be wearing a lifejacket equipped with a strobe and
a whistle. In the real world, this seldom happens unless you are
a serious cruiser operating at night and in rough water. (Top)
Whoever sees the person go overboard should remain
the lookout person, moving to the highest vantage point on the boat
without losing sight of the person who has gone overboard.
How long your victim can remain in the water depends
on a number of factors including whether or not they were wearing
a lifejacket, the temperature of the water and injuries. An unconscious
or hypothermic person will not stay afloat properly for long. There
is no best way to make your way back to the person.
Some advocate stopping immediately, travelling for
a set distance at right angles and then circling back to find your
original position. Others suggest stopping, turning 180 degrees
and heading on a reciprocal course until you locate the victim.
Once in reach, if they do not already have access
to a buoyant line, or other floating object, it is important to
make contact with one immediately.
If you maneuver the boat so that you are heading
upwind at an angle to the person, you can cut power in time to ensure
you do not run them over.
Some boaters, if the person is conscious and alert,
will operate in smaller circles around the person, while dragging
a recovery line and floating device. (Top)
In the case of a child an elderly person or an
injured person, a member of the crew may have to enter the water
to assist. Make sure that person has extra floatation and if the
person in the water is panicking, they must stay well clear while
they assist.
It is a complex process and one that must be carried
out with precision in extreme emergencies.
This winter, while you are dreaming about boating,
think for a few moments about how you would handle an overboard
situation. Do you have adequate equipment located in the correct
places on your boat? Is your regular crew trained to assist? When
you launch next year, practice.
Start by trying to recover a lifejacket on a calm
day. Then try something heavier. Then try a person.
Wait for rougher weather and try it all again. You
will quickly learn how it becomes more complicated in those circumstances.
Throughout the summer, hold spontaneous drills. Throw something
overboard and yell “Overboard!” Your crew will learn how to react
quickly and stay alert for potential problems. There are many variables
in overboard situations. Being familiar with the basics will help
ease the problems if a real emergency arises. (Top)
(Lifeline is produced through the Safe Boater Training Program,
a certification program for recreational boaters.)
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