Man Overboard Drills

[kuriti]

Me and my 9 yr old 1st mate went out yesterday for some MOB drills. I tied two milk jugs together about 3 feet apart and filled them about a fourth of the way to slow drift. Then he heaved them over and yelled the warning. I tried both the quick stop and figure eight methods with different points of sails. It was about 53 degrees and 10-12 kts. Not howling, but good wind. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. I wasn't using a boat hook, just leaning over and grabbing. I had dread until now, thinking this process would be really difficult. Once in the gulf of mexico, we lost the mast float off a 21' catamaran and couldn't retrieve it, though my buddy wasn't that great a sailor and cats don't maneuver as well as the SJ. I preferred the quick stop, despite the jybe. The hard part was actually making sure you go downwind by a boat length or two so that you are close reaching when you get back to Oscar. Too broad a reach when returning makes it hard to slow down. These boats are so nimble that it is possible to circle too close, not allowing you to get far enough downwind to come up to Oscar. I left the jib alone and on a close reach, I didn't touch the main either through the jybe until i needed to lose speed approaching Oscar. Figure eight made more sense while sailing off the wind and avoids the jybe, but I doubt I would have the presence of mind in a real MOB situation to remember it. We were pretty maxed out on wind for the sails we were carrying and i wasn't worried about tearing anything up with a controlled jybe.

I also practiced heaving to. I had done it in lighter wind, but not lately. In more moderate winds, gusting up to 14kts, i found it more difficult. I have read this is typical of fin keeled boats because they sail to wind so well that they want to tack. I found this true, but once the boat lost headway, it worked.

If you haven't tried these it is definitely worth the peace of mind, especially with kids aboard. I still have no plan should i fall off!

Kuriti

[Capndar]

Great! - I used to do that with my kids....a real test - toss a catalope over and wait 30 seconds....then call MOB - they are tought to find, and about the size of a human head

Mike R

[kuriti]

I forgot to mention that I also decided I need to buy a floating throw line and keep it in the lazarette. I had to circle around on a few attempts where I was just 3-4 feet too far. A throw line would also work well if you had turned her around too hard and ended up farther upwind than is ideal but still close enough to toss a line.