Once is too often – Part III


Seamanship student – and educator – Rich du Moulin from the Storm Trysail Club moves onto the daunting subject of man overboard recovery sailing shorthanded


Like most double-handed sailors, I was converted to shorthanded sailing by the missionary zeal of other DH sailors, in my case friends like Bjorn Johnson and Rich Wilson. The fleet of almost 100 DH entries in the 2023 Fastnet illustrates the dynamic growth of this type of racing. Here we will discuss the challenge of MOB recovery when racing or cruising shorthanded; many of the challenges and solutions also apply to crews of three or four. I have observed in general that the sea-


manship practices and steering/sail han- dling equipment of experienced DH sailors are similar whether racing or cruising. Per- haps the biggest differences are how hard they push the boat and the time dedicated to better cooking! We will also review what any conscious MOB can do to maximise their chance of survival and explore a few other issues including dragging by tether.


50 SEAHORSE


Key challenges in a shorthanded MOB situation include: l Without a dedicated ‘pointer’, visual contact is usually lost l Most of the recovery requires the helm to be abandoned l Shortage of manpower


Loss of visual contact This is a challenge for a full crew. For DH there is no way you can focus on the MOB. You have too much to do. Years ago when we first practised DH MOB with float cushions we eventually had to give up after we lost all of them. With modern electronics there is no


excuse not to have a (working) MOB button in the cockpit that can immediately be activated to enable navigation back to the close vicinity of the MOB. I find the MOB function on most cockpit displays is hard to find and not intuitive. I prefer a big red button – obvious to everyone – fitted into a recess that triggers the entire system. Of course you quickly stop the boat and


release the MOM8 or other flotation/strobe, but it is already likely to be too far from the MOB to offer immediate support. DH sailors must always wear a PFD and expect to be in the water for 5-10 minutes to half an


hour depending on conditions and the speed of the boat. (They should also be tethered – especially alone on watch – and not become an MOB in the first place). It should be mandatory for crew to be


fitted with personal AIS beacons. This complements the MOB button and works remarkably well. In night-time tests we taped an AIS beacon to a mooring stick barely 6in out of the water. Its range was about 3 miles. From 1 mile out, without coming on deck for a visual, our navigator directed us back to within one boat length of the beacon. With local permission, experiment with an old AIS beacon. A Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) is satellite-based and does not signal the boat; the location will not be available in time. In America the Coastguard heli- copters do receive a PLB signal, but not AIS. But offshore only AIS can be received locally by all boats in the vicinity.


No helmsman Once the boat is stopped the one remain- ing crew must abandon the helm for several minutes to prepare to return to the MOB: drop (or roll) the headsail (DH crews should never employ a headfoil), check for lines over the side, start engine in


PAUL WYETH


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