Thanks Jim French; I teach in Dana Point.
You brought up some interesting points, like why aren''t crew wearing pfd s when they fall overboard. Probably the ones that are are rescued and not newsworthy but the ones we hear about are not; they should have but didn''t. You mention the skipper making assignments of crew and executing sailing maneuvers, but imagine the skipper''s overboard and the crew is only one or two and inexperienced. That''s why we simply aim the boat at the person; the skipper can yell from the water "turn right", "turn left" but this only works if the driver is quick to respond. We call it "knee jerk reaction" and must be practiced. The return should be within 30 sec. which is pretty hard using the old standard techniques. We used to use the crash gybe [with heads down of course] but the heave to is quicker.
The recovery into the
jib must be done with the sheet tight and sail dumped into the water making a sling. We''ve tried the elevator with the loop of
line alongside the boat cranked up with the
winch and found it takes a pretty agile person to balance there. The
jib sling seems like the best to use with an injured MOB, even if you have to wait for rescue.
Great stories Jim!!