The comment made only partly in jest by Gino Morrelli about the extreme difficulty of recovering a sailor who has fallen off a big multihull is entirely borne out in reality. Daniel Gilard (far left) was lost from Jet Services V during the La Baule-Dakar racing two-handed with Halvard Mabire. Skipper Olivier Moussy (left) was washed off his fully crewed Orma 60 Laiterie Mont St Michel during the 1988 Quebec-St Malo. The sobering truth is that the number of successful MOB recoveries made by a large racing multihull is vanishingly small
Lake Ontario and a trapped crew barely survived, having to cut through the nets. On our Farrier 33 we believe the chance of becoming a disabled MOB is a higher risk than capsize. But to mitigate capsize risk we mount one-handed dive knifes on our auto inflate lifejackets.’ Conclusion: For multis the basic MOB
enough under sail to tow a Lifesling except in very light air (when the engine is better). In breeze it is best to drop sails and use the engine and Lifesling. If the outboard is ineffective due to the seas the alternate strategy is close-hauled/close-reaching with a luffing mainsail and performing a leeward pick-up, using the Lifesling as a throwing device at close range. Testing the steering, stopping and holding position of the tri with its mainsail up is essential to developing an effective MOB Plan. For aerodynamics and simplicity many
small tris have mainsail luff ropes that slot into the mast. The mains furl nicely if the boat is head to wind, and the boom is angled properly. However, these sails cannot be reliably dropped quickly in an emergency. These rigs are unsuitable for offshore racing. Luff slides are a must for dropping the main- sail quickly in an emergency. Pete’s Farrier 33 was correctly fitted with luff slides.
Large high-performance multis Cats like Club Med and PlayStation used to dominate this space, but those days are gone. Powerful tris ranging from 50ft LOA up to almost 40m Ultims now dominate: names like Argo (MOD70) and Maxis like Edmund de Rothschild and Banque Popu- laire. My brain trust for these machines includes Chad Corning (Argo), Stan Honey (PlayStation, Groupama 3, Comanche) and designer Gino Morrelli (PlayStation). It is interesting that there is a conver-
gence of MOB strategy among these tris and the dominant 100ft monohull Comanche. To state it simply, these boats are so hard to manoeuvre at slow speed with their mix of light weight, minimal underwater surfaces and marginal engine propulsion (if any) that they cannot safely be brought alongside the MOB. Even if they successfully come alongside the MOB their foils, slamming hulls, overhanging chines (Comanche) and risk that the bow may blow off quickly when the boat stops all present huge threats to the MOB and/or a rescue crew lowered in a harness. Under power these boats come alongside
48 SEAHORSE
the MOB at a range of about 30m, send out a trained rescue swimmer secured by an 8-10mm Dyneema line. When the MOB is also secured to the line the spin- naker halyard is snapped to the rescue line (usually Midline Lift style) and, with the awesome winch power on tap, is rapidly brought back to the boat, rising out of the water as they approach the hull with no risk of the bow blowing over them. Given their speeds these boats depend
entirely on AIS to find the MOB. Imagine what it takes to stop one of these monsters, sail back to the MOB (engine is too slow), sail past the MOB close aboard tossing flotation if necessary, stop several boat lengths away, lower all sails and motor closer to the MOB for recovery? As Argo’s pro Chad Corning said: ‘If you are the MOB, plan on being in the water at least 20-30 minutes or more.’ Dry suits with insulation, the best PFD, personal AIS beacon and courage are all essential. To close the topic of MOB recovery on
these monsters, for those with a morbid sense of humour, consider Gino and Stan’s recollection of the PlayStation crew’s view of the chances of rescuing an MOB. Stan: ‘We considered giving the helms-
man a gun to shoot the poor MOB as he flew by.’ Gino: ‘The sick joke onboard was if you
went overboard with the boat at full tilt we would just re-divide the sandwiches and reset the watches.’ Sailor humour, but remember Rule One: stay aboard. Especially at 30 to 40kt!
Tether and lifejacket controversy Pete Pattullo: ‘Over the past 20+ years performance multi crew have struggled with a concern not found on monohulls or heavier multis: the perception that wearing traditional or self-inflating lifejackets and using tethers is high risk due to potential for capsize and being trapped underneath. ‘There were a couple of examples on the
Great Lakes. A cat capsized and both crew were trapped and perished on Lake Huron. Then the tri Cheeky Monkey capsized on
Recovery premises of monos are still valid: wear a lifejacket, carry a knife, carry a personal AIS beacon (PAB), stay aboard, practise on your own boat and make an MOB Plan. However, the techniques may be quite different given the wildly variable characteristics of multis. Low-performance cruising multis, pri-
marily cats, are closest to the monos with the major differences being the very high freeboard, poor helmsman visibility and proximity of the propellers to an MOB. Sailors such as Margaret Pommert have good MOB Plans for this class of multi. Large racer-cruiser multis, primarily
cats, are more sensitive to losing stability during a QuickStop and need to be handled accordingly. Otherwise they handle much like their lower-performance cruising cousins. However, these bigger cats have props on both hulls, adding to their manoeuvrability at low speed. Small racer/cruiser multis tend to be
lightweight tris with generous sailplans and outboard motors. MOB evolutions with these tris are radically different from the cruising and racer/cruiser cats and racer/cruiser monos. We have the benefit of a cadre of skilled sailors like Pete Pattullo who have developed very effective MOB Plans. More real-time evaluation in heavy wind and seas is required. Large high-performance multis are
almost exclusively tris up to 40m. Like the large high-octane monos such as Comanche, none of these yachts can safely come alongside the MOB. Often they don’t have auxiliary propulsion! These are professional programmes that depend on trained Rescue Swimmers to make contact with the MOB. This assumes the boat can get back and stop near the MOB. Seahorse and the Storm Trysail Club
look forward to critical input and new ideas from all you capable multihull sailors, especially our friends in France!
Thank you to the following contributors: Chad Corning, Chuck Hawley, Stan Honey, Robin Knox-Johnston, Gino Morrelli, Pete Pattullo, Margaret Pommert, Ralf Steitz, Dick York
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