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islander
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4024 Posts

Response Posted - 02/25/2010 : 16:20:17

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Does everyone have their boarding ladder rigged so you can open it from the water?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I also have the ladder held closed with a small Velcro band that I originally had strapped at the top of the rail until this same subject came up a while ago on this forum. I never thought about how I would get back in the boat until then. The strap is now down at the base of the stanchion where I can easily reach it from the water. You can see it in this photo (blue strap). Just one more reason this forum is worth the $22 bucks!

Edited by - on

OJ
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4382 Posts

Response Posted - 02/25/2010 : 17:05:08

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by islander

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Pretty nifty pads on your swim ladder there Scott. Any recollection where those came from?

Edited by - OJ on 02/25/2010 17:05:58

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 02/25/2010 : 20:34:24

I think CD has 'em.

Edited by - on

Unsinkable2
Captain

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USA
273 Posts

Response Posted - 02/25/2010 : 22:41:04

I have my ladder rigged similarly, based on suggestions from this group in another thread. I just used a bungee cord mounted down within easy reach of someone in the water.

I just came from a seminar given by a ranger whose lived, worked, and sailed on Great Salt Lake for many years. He talked about the difficult position many souls have found themselves in after falling overboard in heavy weather and discovering for the first time how much freeboard a sailboat really has. He mentioned creative solutions like climbing the outboard motormount or finding a trailing line, then flipping it up over a cleat - by holding the bitter end you can create a stirrup to step in.

Incidentally, the seminar was sponsored by one of our own association members, Todd Frye. Todd's website is http://www.NowBringMeThatHorizon.com

Edited by - on

OJ
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4382 Posts

Response Posted - 02/26/2010 : 08:13:43

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Unsinkable2
 . . . I how much freeboard a sailboat really has . . .<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

There was an article about a guy who went overboard on a trans-Atlantic crossing. Long story short - the real challenge was not being crushed by a 50' yacht bobbing up and down in 20' seas . . .

Edited by - on

islander
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4024 Posts

Response Posted - 02/26/2010 : 09:00:07

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Pretty nifty pads on your swim ladder there Scott. Any recollection where those came from?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
The pads are from CD. The first time I climbed out of the water after a swim the bare rungs really hurt my feet so they became a must have. You need a heavy duty rivet gun for the SS rivets,But they are a great improvement.http://www.catalinadirect.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display& Product_ID=478

Edited by - on

ruachwrights
Captain

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USA
258 Posts

Response Posted - 02/26/2010 : 09:19:02

Great thread! It looks like you learned a valuable lesson as an experiential learner.

I too am an experiential learner. Cold water is something difficult to manage. Late June of last year we went to Potters cove in Narraganset Bay on a busy day. There were lots of boats so I couldn't anchor very close to the shore. My 60's Cape Dory dingy I was restoring was not finished yet, the air temperature was really hot, so my swim team son and I decided to swim to shore. I can swim a mile in a rapid crawl without much effort and my son can swim two miles without breaking a sweat. The water was cold but bearable to someone used to swimming in Maine and Glacier National Park waters. But as we swam fifty yards toward the shore, I realized three things, my son couldn't hear my shout to turn back because of his own rapid crawl, there was a slow current of even colder water, and the shore was much farther away than I thought because of its high bank and steep incline into the cove. My son and I kept powering through but I could tell that if either of us had not learned about limitations in cold water and went into any sort of panic at all we would have been in trouble. What I thought was 75 yards turned out to be more like 125 yards. When we stepped into the warm air my son and I were lobster red with the rapidly circulating blood and protruding goose bumps. Our lips looked like we had been feasting on blueberries. When I came home I quickly finished the dingy project. We now limit our swimming to quick dips off an anchored transom.

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Dave5041
Former Mainsheet Editor

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USA
3758 Posts

Response Posted - 02/26/2010 : 10:00:29

Interesting related short article on cold water immersion: http://www.ohiodnr.com/watercraft/marchbuckeyeboater/tabid/2201/Default.aspx

Edited by - Dave5041 on 02/26/2010 10:01:51

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 02/26/2010 : 10:19:47

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by ruachwrights
 ...What I thought was 75 yards turned out to be more like 125 yards. When we stepped into the warm air my son and I were lobster red with the rapidly circulating blood and protruding goose bumps. Our lips looked like we had been feasting on blueberries...<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">A classic story! How did you get back to the boat?

I slightly overestimated my abilities some years ago swimming from a sailboat to an island on Lake Erie... I remember no looking forward to swimming back!

Edited by - on

Steve Blackburn
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
1091 Posts

Response Posted - 02/26/2010 : 15:36:01

I was stupid too, twice!

FIRST TIME:
First time was when I was 10 in Guadeloupe in a Club Med with my parents. I wanted to go diving or something and argued with one of the staff (French) and to get rid of me told me that I needed to be able to swim to that buoy over there (in the ocean) and back if I wanted in. He probably thought I wouldn't do it, it was quite far but being 10 I went for it only wearing swim trunks. I barely made it to the ocean buoy and stayed there for a good half hour to recoup then swam back. When I told the staff "ok now what" he couldn't believe I did it and was quite upset (at himself of course). To this day I get shivers thinking of what could've happened if there were the slighest current. What a dumbass he was to even propose I do that and not take him seriously. I guess that's French "humor" for ya. I can just imagine the search party aftewards if something would've gone wrong and this guy being the only one who knew where the kid was.

THE SECOND TIME:
More recent, I think it was last summer while at anchor in a small bay my 11 yo daughter lost her inflatable $10 dolphin that she was swiming on. She swam back to the boat crying and I told her in my confident hero voice "no worries honey, daddy's gonna get it". So the 42 year old daddy dives in. 2 minutes into my swiming I look up and the darn dolphin is about at the same distance as before except the boat is now way back and I'm in the middle of nowhere. So I push it a bit more thinking I'll grab on to it and swim back easily, but there was no way. So with my heart pumping mad I start backstroking back to the boat and finaly got there. I was very embarassed on how stupid that move was for a $10 dolphin which was brought back to me by some other boater later. I quickly figured out that I'm not 20 anymore, but found out when I was already too far away from the boat.

Lesson learned: Never get off the damn boat, no matter what, it's so not worth it. Objects drift away faster than you can swim.

It's amazing I'm still alive!

Edited by - Steve Blackburn on 02/26/2010 15:39:33

John Russell
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3444 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2010 : 11:40:48

After leaving the Air Force, I started a second career in the Training and Development business. In grad school, we learned about the "principles of andragogy" This thread certainly demonstrates the basic priniple that adults learn best from experiences.

Edited by - on

redviking
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1771 Posts

Response Posted - 03/01/2010 : 06:25:52

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">[i]Originally posted by PCP777

Probably her first time on the boat. My partner and I were had sailed up to The Harbor which is a nice entertainment district. We were in his Catalina 27, and this photographer was taking pictures of a very pretty girl for her wedding album. He asked us if there was anyway we would be will to take them out so that he could take pictures of her. They snapped some real nice shots on the bow, and somehow her shoe slipped overboard. Anyways, we rescued the shoe, put them back ashore and went on our way. About a month later he sent us copies of the pics. They turned out great. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Whatcha got!

sten

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PCP777
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1225 Posts

Response Posted - 03/01/2010 : 15:32:41

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by redviking
 <blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">[i]Originally posted by PCP777

Probably her first time on the boat. My partner and I were had sailed up to The Harbor which is a nice entertainment district. We were in his Catalina 27, and this photographer was taking pictures of a very pretty girl for her wedding album. He asked us if there was anyway we would be will to take them out so that he could take pictures of her. They snapped some real nice shots on the bow, and somehow her shoe slipped overboard. Anyways, we rescued the shoe, put them back ashore and went on our way. About a month later he sent us copies of the pics. They turned out great. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Whatcha got!

sten
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

LOL, I'll have to search for those pics, it was a few months ago...

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