Safety considerations in your boat

Further to my discussion a few posts ago about what to carry on a PFD as safety equipment, I’ve done a little more pondering. This was bought about by a comment from a reader who asked how easy it was to get back into Arwen with a fully inflated life jacket on.

Well I have no idea actually but I suspect pretty difficult. I know that my old jacket can be deflated using the end of the cap which goes over the oral inflation tube. But how easy would it be to do that when bouncing around in waves with spray over your face whilst trying to hold onto a boat which had capsized? It is nigh on impossible to swim with a fully inflated life jacket that’s for sure, since you are lying on your back.

So, in truth, I suspect that I will continue to rely on my Palm Kaikoura PFD and the life jackets will be for any guests on board Arwen although both her indoors and daughter, when they come sailing, prefer close fitting over the head style PFD’s as well – apparently, they are warmer!!

Now to the issue of accidently falling overboard, I remember reading somewhere that most dinghies will luff up into the wind automatically because of the loss of the weight of the crew member and as long as he or she didn’t cleat the main or tiller. Now I confess I’m not sure that Arwen would be that considerate, thus on longer voyages along the coast, I tend to clip myself into a harness. I can install temporary jack lines which run down one side of the centre-case and which are secured in aft footwell and on forward centre-case plank by shackles through bolted deck eye pads. The harness is 2m long and slides along the jack lines meaning that I can move freely along the length of the boat unimpeded. When wearing my PFD, I also have a harness bib affair that goes over the top of it into which the harness tether clips.

The greatest times of risk for MOB are when I am moving along the length of the boat, or when dropping mainsail and tying in a reef or two. Otherwise, Arwen has quite a good freeboard on her and I sit well inside her with a back rest and side deck between me and the sea.

When it comes to capsize, an unladen Arwen was fairly easy to upright in calm seas. However, a laden Arwen in waves would be a different beastie and I work on the assumption that she would be swamped. Righting her in such conditions could be hit ad miss. I have installed knotted righting lines to help me turn her over sufficiently that I could reach for the centreboard, but of course, many factors come into play at this point. The weight of my wet clothing, for example, how exhausted I am, how long I have been in the water, the rate of drift, wind speeds, etc.

For getting back over the gunwale I installed some tape loops that can be pulled from under the side decks. They run the length of the hull, either side, and dangle about 20” or so below the gunwale. I can get a foot onto the strap and then push away from the hull slightly so that I almost get into a standing position alongside the hull, sufficient that I can then topple over the gunwale into the swamped cockpit.

A manoeuvre that would be somewhat difficult in a fully inflated life jacket!