One of the dangers of being "thethered" to your sailboat

[Sea Hunt Video]

I am hopeful the below will allow you to read The Miami Herald article about a solo sailor who apparently fell overboard while "thethered" to his sailboat and, presumably drowned when unable to either re-board or disengage from the thether. Very, very sad.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/31/v ... found.html

[mashenden]

Mental note - no communistic bondage. Am I wrong?

[joemerchant]

You titled the thread as "One of the dangers of being "thethered" to you sailboat," and started the whole thing in a negative way. How about a positive spin...

Having been one who's life was saved by being hooked on, I would say you have to weigh the options yourself. I have to say from my experience one of the things I felt when reading this article was at least the body was found with the boat - a positive. If he were not thethered, would the boat have been found without a body never lending to closure for his family?

The article did mention that he had a personal eprib that activated when he went over, but did not stay with him and the boat. If he had gone over and stayed with the eprib, would he have made it long enough for rescue?

Lot's of speculation. But one thing for sure is bad things can happen out there really fast and whether or not seems more of a case of choosing your evils. The only absolute from this is that singlehanded sailing is a far greater risk than with crew and the probability of him being alive today if he had taken crew with him is almost 100%.

Risk - Accept it, Mitigate it, or Transfer it (get insurance, not blame someone else).

[rorik]

Here in Puget Sound, the average water temperature is ~50 degrees.
Some of the tidal currents in the area can reach 6 - 7 knots.
If you fall overboard, it takes about 10 - 15 minutes before you lose the ability to swim.
It takes 30 - 60 minutes to die of hypothermia.
Then you drown for good measure.
I wear a harness with short tethers.

[Sea Hunt Video]

You titled the thread as "One of the dangers of being "thethered" to you sailboat," and started the whole thing in a negative way. How about a positive spin...

Having been one who's life was saved by being hooked on, I would say you have to weigh the options yourself. I have to say from my experience one of the things I felt when reading this article was at least the body was found with the boat - a positive. If he were not thethered, would the boat have been found without a body never lending to closure for his family?

The article did mention that he had a personal eprib that activated when he went over, but did not stay with him and the boat. If he had gone over and stayed with the eprib, would he have made it long enough for rescue?

Lot's of speculation. But one thing for sure is bad things can happen out there really fast and whether or not seems more of a case of choosing your evils. The only absolute from this is that singlehanded sailing is a far greater risk than with crew and the probability of him being alive today if he had taken crew with him is almost 100%.

Risk - Accept it, Mitigate it, or Transfer it (get insurance, not blame someone else).

Joe: You express very valid points and arguments. I did not intend to be as negative as you perceived in my post. Re-reading my post, I agree with your comments.

I do not plan on crossing oceans. My "sea horizons" will be limited to Biscayne Bay and the Florida Keys - once I learn and earn the skills. The chances of surviving after falling overboard while sailing solo in the Bay or the Keys (comparatively warm waters even in Winter months), and assuming you are not tethered and dragged along by your sailboat until you drown, are pretty good. You should be able to swim to shore or get picked up by one of a lot of boaters and sailors on the water.

I should have clarified my thoughts about the dangers of being tethered and should have made clear they come from a true rookie/tadpole sailor who knows very little about sailing - but a little more about surviving in a water environment for a long time.

Thank you for your post.

[Steve Laume]

I too was bothered by the "one of the dangers" heading but just let it go. So what are the other dangers?

I rarely wear any sort of floatation device but will tether myself to the boat most of the time I am out alone or if weather is bad. I haven't done a great deal of experimentation but believe that a proper tether along with jack lines will keep you on board in most loss of balance situations. Floating in a PFD while watching your boat quickly vanish into the sunset or night would be a very cruel fate. I would much rather take my chances dragging along side if it came to that. My tether also has a quick release that is always on the outside of anything else I am wearing and centered on my chest within easy reach of my right hand. You always have the option to cut lose but I would be extremely reluctant to do so.

Even with a crewed boat the tether makes a world of sense. Would I really trust one or two people to locate and be able to come around and retrieve me in conditions that would have sent me over the side in the first place? What if no one saw you go over the side? If I was being pulled along side I believe I could wake the dead and summon them to assist me. If you bob up a hundred yards astern and start screaming or blowing a whistle that might not be enough to alert someone sleeping down below, before you were already very far away.

The article didn't give a whole lot of specific information. I suppose it did say he drowned but why? He could have be unconscious when he hit the water.

I for one would want to stay with the boat at all costs, even if that meant only an immediate discovery of the body, Steve.

[Neil Gordon]

He also fell off a tri, which suggests he might have been dragged at significantly higher speed than if he had gone over a more conventional vessel.

[Steve Laume]

Yikes, I didn't even think about the fact that it was a multi hull. I suppose it would be possible to go off the bow and be dragged under the boat at a very high speed. It would be more likely that the hull would come down and knock you out as well.

One of the safety features of having a slower mono hull, Steve.

[Sea Hunt Video]

Steve, Neil, Joe and all:

Your posts make a lot of sense and add a lot to think about.

My experience in this area does NOT come from sailing but from other water activities. I believe there was a thread 1-2 years ago discussing the issue of thethers, MOBs, etc. I posted then, and respectfully repeat here, that it is VERY difficult to climb back onto a sailboat with even moderate freeboard - even when you are NOT thethered to the boat.

We are in the warm summer months - even in Maine the water temps are all the way up to 55 degrees Experiment. Whether at a dock or a mooring, try climbing back on board your sailboat without assistance (solo sailor) and without using a boarding ladder (which should be deployed for your experiment but would probably not be deployed in a real world scenario). I doubt even a few of us could do it. I know with certainty I could not. There was a day (a long time ago) when I could have done so. Not any more.

IF YOU DO TRY IT, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SAFETY PERSON ON BOARD TO HELP YOU GET ABOARD IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO DO SO SOLO; DEPLOYING YOUR BOARDING LADDER AS A SAFETY STEP IS ALSO A GOOD IDEA.

If you cannot climb back on board when your sailboat is stationary (dock or mooring), think how much more difficult it would be to climb back on board when your sailboat is moving (even at a very slow speed). You have to overcome your weight and its gravity, plus the forces of the water pushing/moving against you.

I am guessing the unfortunate sailor in the article was thethered, fell over (cause unknown), perhaps tried to get back aboard (if he was conscious) and eventually succumbed to the forces of water pushing against him and drowned. As my initial post said, very, very sad.

The issue with the EPIRB appears to be unknowable. It may have been with him and dislodged when he fell, or while trying to climb back aboard or after he drowned. It may have fallen off his sailboat during whatever event caused him to fall overboard.

For me, in my limited sailing environment (Biscayne Bay and the Keys), I would not want to be thethered to my sailboat if I fell over. I would have my PFD, inflate it and either wait for a passing sailboat or swim slowly towards shore. Steve, as you suggested, if someone else is aboard, then being thethered may make more sense because this other POB can help you in getting back aboard. My thoughts (rookie/tadpole) were based solely on a solo sailor.

It is also interesting that the article said he was en route from Ft. Myers to Key West. I am even less of a navigator than a sailor but I would think that it would be difficult for a sailboat to not run into one of the Florida Keys. How this saiboat managed to navigate around (or through) the Florida Keys without a captain is pretty amazing.

[Neil Gordon]

Think also about how your boat is set up to sail. Using an autopilot or hand steering? A little weather helm can be your friend if you fall off.

[Steve Laume]

Robert, I may well be the exception but I can definitely climb back onto Raven alone and without a boarding ladder. I do this on a routine basis by means of the Monitor wind vane frame. I have considered a rope step or a transom mounted one to make it even easier but it hasn't seemed necessary.

I think that getting back aboard would be even easier if the boat was sailing than if you are at anchor or a dock. If you are tethered and it still allows you to go over the side it will most likely be on the lee side. This puts the rail very close to or at the water line. The tether will be looped over the life lines and be pulling you up to the rail. It seems like it would only be a matter of grabbing a hold of whatever you could and hauling yourself back through the life lines. That might not be as easy as it sounds but desperation does wonders for performance.

All of this discussion assumes a solo sailor with a wind vane or auto pilot engaged. If that is not the case then the boat rounds up and you have some time to work things out or wait until someone notices a boat acting very strangely. If you fell off untethered while hand steering without a tether the boat would still round up but it would probably be too far away to catch before it drifted off. Someone might notice it but you could be anywhere by that time. It would be reported as a boat adrift and mariners would be advised to keep a look out but you might not be anywhere near the boat by the time it was discovered.

If nothing else should inspire you to use a tether then you should consider your beloved boat. Do you really want to abandon her and fend for yourself with no regard for her well being? That just boarders on evil and is definitely a selfish attitude, so tether up and take care of yourself as well as your boat. You can always release the tether but it is hard to attach one once you are in the water, Steve.

[rorik]

If you move the jacklines from the deck to the coachroof and use shorter tethers ( ~3' vs. ~6'), you can reach everything but the water.
If you can't reach the water unless something breaks completely, climbing back on board is an almost moot point.
A shorter tether reduce body velocity when you do lose your balance. The lower velocity reduces shock loading of the tether and harness which means you're less likely to get injured from the harness.

[Shinok]

It seems contrary to the purpose of being tethered in if you can go overboard, to me anyway. We haven't setup jacklines yet, but I've read a few books and guides that cover it, they all indicate the tether should be short enough to keep you from falling over the side.

I am not sure I'd ever rig a system that let you go over the side, especially not into the water, it seems pointless to do so for reasons already mentioned here. I'd rather float for a few hours than get dragged behind the boat. The better option being in the boat, of course

[joemerchant]

There was a time when there was an argument about seat belts in cars as being more dangerous because you may not be able to get out fast enough if going into the water or fire. I kid you not, this was a real argument back in the 70's when considering making it mandatory.

Everything is shear speculation in his case. The time it saved me, the winds were flakey and my autopilot went into confusion mode. It was a cold watch, so I was sitting close to the cabin trunk. When the pilot went into confusion, I started to make my way to the helm when the boat decided to jibe and the boom came smashing into my head. It took a few minutes before the rest of the crew was roused and came on deck to find me half over the life lines knocked cold. In that time at night, and knocked cold, there would have been zero chance I would be here to talk about that today. At that point in life, I didn't believe in wearing a harness, but the skipper on that boat required anyone on deck alone be hooked to the boat.

I can pull out scenarios of people in car wrecks who may have died in fire or drown because they could not get their seatbelt off. But even more cases where it has saved people. So, an argument against safety equipment seems wrong to me, in my opinion. There are many ways to mitigate the risk, but each has its own margin of error and it becomes a personal choice. But I don't feel it is right to criticize the decision of a dead man who’s time came up, especially when he left no question regarding his demise for his family and friends to be saddled with false hope.

Just from this simple article, I can pretty well surmise that he was far more prudent a sailor than most. The ONLY argument is really the risks associated with sailing single-handed, because I have never been able to build jacklines that would keep me on the boat 100% of the time while giving enough freedom of movement to work the boat. I will accept the risk that 20% of the time I could go over, but 80% I will stay on the boat.

This guy did, what appears to be, everything right and still passed away. If I had a dollar for everything I have done stupid out there and lived to tell about it through shear dumb luck... Well, that should be what we talk about.

Let me tell you about the time the fuel pump on my atomic 4 went out years ago and I put gas in a coffee can with a hose to the carb to keep it running to get in. Dumb luck kept that boat from blowing sky high. But the guy at the fuel dock who had blowers running and did everything right had a little gas leaked from the fill hose and the boat caught fire. Why did Captain Stupid (Me) survive without a scratch when Mr. Prudent had his boat burn to the water line?

[joemerchant]

Robert, I may well be the exception but I can definitely climb back onto Raven alone and without a boarding ladder. I do this on a routine basis by means of the Monitor wind vane frame. I have considered a rope step or a transom mounted one to make it even easier but it hasn't seemed necessary.

I miss those days of being able to do that, but now days....

I do believe that everyone should be able to deploy the swim ladder from the water. On all the boats I have owned, it has always seemed like a really easy modification if nothing more than a line long enough to reach it. It was on the list of things that made the 300 MS more attractive to us and even the cat can get back up on her own.