Boarding ladders: a personal cautionary tale

[robwm]

The recent, separate, discussion on boarding ladders under the "CD27 swim ladder" post has prompted me to share an experience that I had recently. Please excuse the length of my tale but I think it deserves it as a "lesson learned".

I have owned and used sailboats continuously over the past 20 years, and over that period of time must have stepped on and off my boats and onto their docks several thousand times or more. It has become a "second nature" activity not requiring much deep thought.

This came to a stop two weeks ago when I somehow slipped off the dock edge while stepping off my boat. I was being careful, I was looking at the dock's edge and conscious of my action to step off, I still remember noting that my right foot was on the dock edge, and yet my foot/shoe somehow slipped off the dock's edge and I fell between the boat and the dock.

I was lucky in that I slipped literally straight in, feet first and did not hit my head on either boat or dock while falling through the 2 foot space between them. As I floated up, bewildered, I grabbed part of the dock's structure and was able to hold myself there while I assessed the situation.

I quickly realized I had a problem in getting out. The top of the dock is about 2/3 feet above the water surface and well beyond my ability to lift myself straight up, the dock's floats have straight sides and offer no holds onto which I could latch a leg to lift myself out (I tried, and as a result my legs look like twenty rabid cats decided to use them for scratching poles), "Hunky Dory" has no swim ladder and is even harder to climb onto than the dock, and, it was a weekday with no other sailors/people obviously around.

After considering my options, I decided that I would try to swim over to nearby sailboats on the chance that one of them had a ladder and if not, I would then try to swim to the nearest shoreline about 20-30 yards away. Luckily, just as I started my swim, I heard two other people several docks away and yelled for help. They came over immediately and helped me to climb onto the dock and out of my predicament.

Nothing like an experience such as this to highlight the potential safety pitfalls around our beloved sailboats; whether on open waters or at a dock and while doing mundane and frequent routine tasks. I was lucky in this instance. I was not injured (other than lots of scratches), the weather was warm and calm, the water was warm and calm, I had a dock to cling to, I had a nearby shore to swim to as an ultimate fallback, and, my boat was not moving away from me.

What I didn't have was (is) a ladder, not on the boat, not on the dock. Also, had I been in open waters, sailing alone as I do nearly 100% of the time, I also wouldn't have been able to get back on board. The need to have the equipment to get back on board from the water is, of course not news to me, nor I suspect news to most of you. However, the urgency in ensuring that there is a boarding ladder on my boat has become "the news". Can't ignore that it isn't there anymore.

As of now, getting a ladder for "Hunky Dory", and a ladder for the dock for good measure, have taken precedence over other improvements. One lesson learned.

Robert
Hunky Dory,
CD22, Hull 122
Lake Travis, Texas

[Keith]

Glad that you are OK.

MOONDANCE has boarding ladder off the stern and I rigged a trip line that hangs down to just above the water line. It is easy to reach while in the water and deploys quite easily. Like Robert I sail 100% single handed and fortunately I have never needed to use the trip line.

Keith

[BernieA]

I had an incident occurred a few days ago along a similar vein. My brother and I were at mooring balls about 50 yards apart in Mystery Bay, WA. he was on the foredeck of his Columbia 26 and had his inflatable dinghy alongside near the Stern. I had just laid down to take a nap in my CD28 when I heard a bang and splash. when I came up on deck I could see him struggling to get into his dinghy. I watched for about 10 seconds and realized he couldn't get back in. I quickly rigged my boarding ladder, released the mooring, and motored over to him, where he was able to climb aboard my boat and transfer back to his.
We took a few steps to address the situation. He was not wearing a PFD when he fell overboard. He does now. He hadn't rigged his boarding ladder while working on deck. He does now. He found out that his boarding ladder doesn't float. He fixed that by adding pool noodles to the rails. I checked to see if my ladder floats, and it does. He took his inflatable over to the beach and figured out how to get back into it by adding a rope loop to use as a step to aid hoisting himself back up. The water is cold in the Pacific Northwest, so if you fall in you don't have a lot of time to help yourself. He was lucky that circumstances worked out the way they did.

Bernie
CD28 S/V Pinafore
Sequim Bay, WA

[Brimag]

Wow, the things you take for granted about sailing! I also sail single handed quite a bit and do have a swim ladder. The problem with my set up is my telescoping ladder is tied up snugly to my upper sternrail. Glad I read this post, now to the drawing board. P.S. I have worked at a marina and several years ago a employee fell in and could not swim. Luckily someone heard him and two people pulled him out. Several ladder's were installed . P.S. just bought new self inflatable vests last year and use them every time. Brian M Typhoon Senior. Annie M

[Keith]

Someone asked me how I rigged the rip line. I tied a loop into the standing part of the line then ran the line under the hand hold that is attached to the rear deck and tied a simple slip knot (half of a shoe lace knot) through the loop. It has never come loose inadvertently and with a tug from the water it deploys. As I'm looking at my pic I realize two things:

1. I didn't get a good pic of the actual loop and slip knot. I'll take one today and resend.
2. I should put a knot or loop on the end of the line.

Keith

Ladder Release.jpg

[gonesail]

i have a foldaway boarding ladder mounted on a genoa track amidships. it is a nice ladder but there is no good way to deploy it from the water. i should have a backup rope ladder available I guess.

[Tod Mills]

This technique for boarding an inflatable dinghy seems like it works pretty slick. It isn't something I would have thought to try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvEYdAhZ_L0

[John Stone]

From the water, at the bow of my boat, I can reach up and grab a sprit shroud. From there I lift a foot to the bob stay (which I lowered during the rebuild) to just above the waterline). Then stand up and crawl over the bulwarks. Done it many times.

Jim Walsh has some kind of cool rope ladder in a tube he mounted into the stern of Orion. He posted a picture on the forum. Might be a good solution for some folks.

[mgphl52]

This technique for boarding an inflatable dinghy seems like it works pretty slick. It isn't something I would have thought to try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvEYdAhZ_L0

Yikes! Looks like a process I could drown trying to complete...

[Keith]

Her's the close up of the slip knot

slip knot.jpg

Keith

[Jim Walsh]

http://www.capedory.org/board/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=37181

My solution.....