Man over board
Ever given it thought? I hope so.
The casualty.
You hit the water. One thought should go through your mind
Put your hands up in front of mouth and nose to stop choking while you calm your hyperventilation due to sudden cold water immersion. If you choke you will asphyxiate and become unconscious. That’s not helpful!
Tighten your crutch strap and clip your self to anything floating.
The boat
Must be rigged and ready and its crew drilled in the procedure. there’s no time to learn it now!
Your method of hoisting, boarding ladder, boathooks, tethers etc need to be available now! Not stuffed into the bottom of a locker.
The rescue
Hove to. Engines on.
Ladder down on lee side.
These happen while helm manoeuvres back to casualty.
Other jobs? Send a mayday. Press the MOB button on GPS to give you a search datum if you lose him.
Get a boat hook and lasso ready. You’ll need more harness line tethers, get some spares ones on deck.
Helm manoeuvres vessel along side the man over board with the WIND ON THE BEAM. A crewman is clipped on and down the ladder before we get there. As soon as contact made STOP the lee side engine ( we don’t need a leg in the prop)
Quickly secure the cas. Your ladder should have a tether and large carribenna permanently attached for this purpose. No point looking around for one now.
Key point here is to secure casualty. Do not just grab him
Lots of methods of recovery. Here’s one of ours. Note here legs are supported with a spare harness tape under the knees. Hoist on Lifejacket only and we make breathing very hard indeed and we can’t get them over the guard rail. Of course this also helps with hydrostatic squeeze problems ( warm blood flooding legs as water pressure comes off)
Clearly you might not need all this lot. maybe he can swim back and climb onto a sugar scoop. Maybe you can chuck him a line. BUT maybe he’s unconscious and maybe its too rough for the sugar scoop? Think on it and come see us if you need some help. There is a lot more to MOB than that drill you did on your day skip course