Crew Overboard Return and Recovery

By Ian Savidge 

We are constantly emphasizing the importance of staying on-board your 

boat at all times, and this is particularly important in the early part of the 

season, when the lake is at its coldest. Hypothermia may set in as little as 

five minutes, and so, in the event of a crew-overboard situation, it is 

critically important for you to be able to return to your COB within about 

a minute, and to get him/her back on board within another couple of 

minutes. 

So the first essential is to practice your COB return maneuver until you can get back to the 

person in the water quickly and accurately. Remember, and practice, the essentials: 

If someone goes overboard, immediately appoint a spotter and go onto a 

beam-reach (hitting a beam-reach is the key to the triangular return method). 

Sail away 4 – 6 boat lengths, come about and take a broad reach course at an angle to 

the COB. 

Judge the moment to head up towards the COB, so that you approach him/her on a 

close reach. This gives you complete control on your speed, and will allow you to 

come to a complete stop beside the COB on your windward side. 

Throw the life-sling to the COB and secure him/her to the boat. 

If you have performed the COB return maneuver within a minute, then the person 

overboard should still be able to help themselves, in which case the fastest and simplest 

way of getting them out of the water is for them to use the deck ladder that is required 

standard equipment on all our boats. 

Floating Life-Sling 

Every HSC boat is now equipped with a floating life-sling. You will greatly increase your 

chances of completing a speedy crew overboard recovery by keeping the floating life-sling 

ready for use at all times. The life-sling should be kept clipped to the polypropylene throw- 

line, which should be uncoiled and ready to use before every trip, perhaps just inside the 

cabin. 

The benefits of the life-sling are two-fold. Firstly, by throwing the sling to the person in 

the water, who then slips it around his/her shoulders, you should be able to get your COB 

quickly back to the boat, even if your crew-retrieval maneuver has not been perfectly 

executed. Secondly, the life-sling will provide an excellent strap for helping you haul your 

COB back on board.

We strongly urge all skippers and crew to familiarize yourselves with the life-sling, and to 

practice throwing the life-sling and throw-line from the dock or boat. Also, since 

polypropylene throw-lines are notoriously unruly when uncoiled, you should make sure 

before leaving the dock that it is ready to be deployed. 

Short-Handed Recovery - Sharks and J24s 

Once you have brought your crew back to the boat, it may still be quite difficult to get 

them back on board, particularly if you are sailing short-handed, or if the COB is unable to 

help him/herself. 

In the case of the Sharks and J24s, if you cannot lift the person bodily back onto the boat, 

your best resource is to use the mainsheet block and tackle as a lifting device. To help 

you use this, the lower ends of all the mainsheet blocks on the Sharks and J24s have been 

fitted with carabiners that can be unclipped from the traveller and attached to the life-sling 

that hopefully will be around the COB. By hauling on the main-sheet, the 4:1 ratio of the 

tackle will make it much easier to lift your crew back on board. 

However, if your crew is unable to help him/herself, you may not have enough clearance 

below the boom, to allow you to haul him/her up sufficiently to clear the deck. In this case, 

the remedy is to raise the boom as high in the air as possible, with the mainsheet block and 

tackle still attached to the COB and to the boom. The extra height of the boom will allow 

you much more swing room for bringing your crew back on board. 

To raise the boom, we suggest dropping the sail, detaching the main halyard, and looping it 

as far down around the boom as possible - in the case of the Sharks, it may be necessary to 

first loop a sail-tie around the boom, and then attach the sail-tie to the halyard. By hauling 

on the main halyard, the boom will be raised as high as it will go, and you should then be 

able to haul on the mainsheet and lift your crew back on board. 

Short-handed Recovery - Big Boats 

Crew recovery on a big boat may be very difficult, if the COB is unable to help 

him/herself. You must first get the life-sling around the person as quickly as possible – this 

may entail looping a line over the side, so that a crew member can step down and help get 

the life-sling around the COB. 

The boom-vang now becomes your main resource. It is detachable on all the HSC big 

boats, and sufficiently long to use as a 4:1 block-and-tackle. The boom-vang should be 

detached and clipped to a pre-selected halyard or to the boom itself. Make sure that the 

boom-vang is reversed, so that the lower block is uppermost when clipped to the boom or 

halyard– this means you will be hauling down on the boom-vang, and gives you more 

height for hauling the COB over the lifelines and back on board. The other end should be 

clipped to the life-sling around the COB. 

It is really important that the skipper should pre-select a suitable halyard before setting out, 

and advise the crew. In a high wind, the boom may not be suitable to use, and all the crew 

should know exactly which halyard has been designated as a ‘rescue’ halyard, and where it

is attached to the boat. 

Above all, it is important to practice all these maneuvers. COB clinics will take place on a 

regular basis, and extra ones can be arranged. HSC has an enviable safety record, but 

accidents can and MAY happen – it is whether we are prepared for them that really counts. 

Last reviewed on February 19, 2008.dc 

This userpage was printed from Humber Sailing Club 

http://www.humbersailingclub.com 

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