Single Handed & Tiller Pilot

[Richard G.]

Wondering what systems some of you may have worked out to knock the auto pilot off the tiller should you be knocked overboard...even if you are harnessed to the boat.

Thanks,

Richard

[Warren Kaplan]

Richard,

I don't have any systems for doing that.....but now you got me thinking about it.

I suspect a very long line hooked from the pilot to my harness would work because it would only get tensioned if I went overboard. Of course that line might be annoying and in the way quite a bit when normally in the cockpit or moving around the deck.

[Ray Garcia]

Single handing, the first time I used the ST2000 I was elated I could walk to the bow. Later that day I was unnerved at the thought of falling overboard. I always make sure I am aware of what I am doing when using the autopilot. When sailing I always walk up the windward side and always with one hand on the boat. I plan my movement on deck before I leave. If conditions warrant a harness I will put it on especially at night. Other than using common sense I really don't know what system is available to disengage the autopilot if you should go over the side. At least for a tiller pilot that is.

Note to self: Using tiller pilot, stay on the boat no matter what.

[The Patriot]

Wondering what systems some of you may have worked out to knock the auto pilot off the tiller should you be knocked overboard ... even if you are harnessed to the boat ...

Alarming and important question. I have encountered other solo sailors who have tired or suggested methods, mostly for windvanes. Some vanes have a "kick out" feature that can accommodate one or another method (c.f., Navik). I have not yet come up with a method whose benefits outweigh its drawbacks. Dragging some sort of poly line is obviously a first approach.

However this is not always a good idea, especially in restricted waters with other pleasure boat traffic. I recall being anchored inside Barnegat Inlet and watching a foreign-flagged yacht enter the inlet and head for the anchorage. It wasn't too long before the floating "safety" line he was dragging became tangled somehow with his vane and the propeller, resulting in a mess while he was setting the anchor. I rowed over and eventually he and I got things squared away. Of course he should have secured the line prior to entering the inlet, but that didn't happen in this instance. I have also read or heard about systems that employ some sort of remote device worn on the body that supposedly cuts power to the A/P.

More of an issue in my view is how one might even survive being dragged along the side of a yacht, even at "only" 4 knots. I have enough trouble getting back on board a CD 28 without a ladder while the boat is at anchor.

My offshore mantra goes something like this: "I am simply not getting off this boat."

[Neil Gordon]

Just a few observations and comments:

Under sail, cutting the power won't stop the boat. You'll just curse how well you balanced the sails.

I think the tiller needs to be free if you want the boat to round up and stop.

Motoring, cutting the power or popping the vane off the tiller, the boat will still keep going, so that's not a solution.

Rather than some long line from tiller pilot to tether, perhaps a shorter line from tiller pilot to jackline, that pops the tiller pilot off the pin given sufficient tension on the jack line.

[dugout]

It may sound simple but many take this all too lightly. The real key is don't go overboard. Stopping the boat is of no use if you can't safely get back on board and in the conditions most find themselves washed out of a cockpit, this is the real concern. Harness tethers which are short enough to keep your center mass inside the rail and hard center-line mounting points are the keys to avoiding this issue completely.
Most jack line, tether, and harness systems are worse than nothing. Stay in the boat as if your life depends on it because most of the time it truly does, when single-handing. Even a couple on a watch system is single-handing.
Be safe, wear the harness when on deck, and snap in, period, end of issue!

Ed

[Russell]

If your using a newer raymarine autopilot or tiller pilot, you could install their wireless remote and keep the control attached to your harness. Seems as fool proof as you could get for an electric autopilot.

Personally, I dont have a particular system. I focus my energies on making sure I stay in the boat. I primarily use a windvane, have thought of trailing lines, but in the best case scenerio I cannot imagine myself making thinking fast enough after the fall, then swimming to the line before the boat was well past me. I have never heard a single story of a single hander going overboard and any of the theoretical ideas people come up with actually saving them. Why is that? Because single handers who go overboard dont live to tell the tale.

Stay in the boat. If near shore wear an inflatible at all times with a whistle at least (or handheld vhf or person epirb at most) attached to your PDF. If offshore, expect to die ( dont wear any inflation device offshore, prefering to die quicker rather then suffer floating aound in a PDF hundreds of miles from anywhere).

I ALWAYS wear a harness, even if just sailing about an anchorage. In the cockpit I dont always clip on, but in night and foul weather I always do, and leaving the cockpit I always do reguardless of conditions.

[John Vigor]

I have never heard a single story of a single hander going overboard and any of the theoretical ideas people come up with actually saving them. Why is that? Because single handers who go overboard dont live to tell the tale.

Not quite true. Yukio Hasebe, famous Japanese singlehander of the 1980s, told me he fell overboard while approaching Australia with his self-steering wind vane deployed.

He was harnessed, but his tether was just long enough to hold him against the boat's quarter where he scraped up and down against barnacles in the swells for many hours. He couldn't pull himself on board.

Eventually, when he was exhausted, near death, and bleeding badly, his boat ran on the Great Barrier Reef. It was completely wrecked, but Yukio managed to scramble ahsore and was eventually spotted and rescued.

This experience didn't put him off. He got another boat, a 30-foot Yamaha called Pink Maru Maru, and continued his solo circumnavigation. We met in Port Elizabeth while we were each waiting for the right weather to round the Cape.

Cheers,

John Vigor

[Russell]

Ok John, I will give you that one

But you have to admit, my point generally holds true. By sheer stroke of luck (funny to call it that!) he hit a reef! It was no contrived and wishful thinking method of trailing some line that allowed him to live.

On my old boat (a catalina 30) I actually experimented, I trailed a line off the boat, sailing to windward at 5 knots, I had a friend take the helm and told him the drill, I climbed down the swim ladder, grabbed the line and jumped in. I nearly dislocated my shoulder holding on, the sheer force is utterly increadable. Unless the boat is hardly moving, no line trailed behind the boat, weather to disengage a windvane or autopilot, will be reached in time.. If you go overboard singlehanding, even if tethered, your chances of getting back aboard or stopping the boat are almost nil. Stay on the boat! Contrived methods of stopping the boat do little more then ad to false sense of security.

[Warren Kaplan]

Ok John, I will give you that one
If you go overboard singlehanding, even if tethered, your chances of getting back aboard or stopping the boat are almost nil. Stay on the boat!

What about these emergency boarding ladders. The ladders that hang stored from the rail or lifeline with a trip line hanging overboard. You swim to the trip line, which is reachable from the water surface, pull that line, and the emergency ladder is deployed so you can climb up it, (obviously if you aren't too beat up from the fall).

I've only seen pictures of these ladders and I have never seen them in use, even in a demonstration. Any comments from anyone??

[Russell]

What about these emergency boarding ladders. The ladders that hang stored from the rail or lifeline with a trip line hanging overboard. You swim to the trip line, which is reachable from the water surface, pull that line, and the emergency ladder is deployed so you can climb up it, (obviously if you aren't too beat up from the fall).

I've only seen pictures of these ladders and I have never seen them in use, even in a demonstration. Any comments from anyone??

I have one. Plastimo makes a nice one. Its as good as any rope style ladder, as in its difficult at best to use, but in a bind you will get aboard. But its primarily for if the boat is not moving or barely moving. If the boat is moving there is no way you would get to it in time and even if you did with a moving boat it would hardly be useable.

I am not suggesting people dont invest in one, but dont expect it to save your ass underway when single handing. But trip and fall overboard when anchored? Its terrific and certainly worth owning for anyone, singlehanding or otherwise.

[Richard G.]

Warren,

Just ordered one of the Wichard Emergency Ladders. They recommend two, one for each side. I'll try one first to see if it works. Also planning on having a short tether made up to help me stay on the boat as this of course is the best idea.

[Jim Davis]

I also have been towed behind the boat, at five knots it is virtually impossible to pull yourself to the boat. Young men in prime condition might do it, but...... At that speed the water may well strip your clothing off as well. Also in my military days I made several parachute jumps into water, the stuff is a lot harder than you think.

On the Raymarine man over board alarm. I was on a boat last fall that had the system, we were supposed to use it. There were so many false alarms that the owner returned the gadgets to Raytheon. This was after having a Ray tech set the system up twice.

Moral - safety harness, short tethers attached to the windward side of the boat and stay off the lee side if at all possible. Don't go over!

[tartansailor]

First off I thoroughly concur with the dictum: "Stay tethered in the boat"
Now having said that, I tied up a rope ladder as described in: "The Marlinspike Sailor by Hervey Garrett Smith. It lays on the gunnel way aft, within easy reach of a swimmer. I plan to tie up another one for the port side.
Wind vanes and auto pilots are not for me, after all, the whole idea of sailing, is to sail. IMHO.
Others are free to disagree.

Dick

[Neil Gordon]

I also have been towed behind the boat, at five knots it is virtually impossible to pull yourself to the boat.

Anyone wanting to test this without actually jumping in the water should just try reeling in their dinghy a foot or two while sailing at five knots.