[Public-list] Safety gear for body retreval
Peter Hay
phay at netcom.ca
Fri Mar 31 16:05:10 PST 2006
Very interesting points Don. I think I will make some additions and
changes this year.
Peter H.
Rubicon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Campbell" <dk.campbell at sympatico.ca>
To: "public list, Alberg" <public-list at alberg30.org>
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 10:41 AM
Subject: [Public-list] Safety gear for body retreval
> Getting bodies - fit or unconscious - on board is not easy. I have
> had experience with both and the second is much more difficult. Chances
> are there will be some impairment with the person to be rescued. Both
> situations below ended with successful rescues but they both could have
> been better.
> The first case involved my daughter who forgot she was wearing a
> life jacket sailing a Y-Flyer and attempted to extricate herself from
> the sails after tipping, by swimming under the jib. It was cool
> weather and she was wearing a heavy woollen sweater. Rescue was
> attempted by two men in a 15 foot Boston Whaler and the waves in the
> man-made reservoir were less than 1 foot. Lesley was unconscious when
> her brother managed to get her out from under the sail, before the
> whaler arrived, but it turned out that it was impossible to have both
> men in the boat on the same side, otherwise the Whaler would tip. Then,
> with all the water in her clothes, Lesley was too heavy and slippery for
> one person to get her aboard. The only way she made it in was for her
> brother, in the water, to get his arms under her torso and grab the
> gunwhales and lift his shoulders out of the water so that the body
> rolled downhill into the boat. It helped that he was a wrestler at the
> time, and was both fit and strong. I think there was a touch of
> adrenalin in the system at that point, too. Even a routine rescue is
> never routine. It helps to know ahead what might go wrong, - and that
> was with gunwhales about 12" off the water.
> The other serious case I was involved with was a person swimming in
> an area she should not have been, - about 100 feet from the south gate
> of Lock 8 in the Welland Canal, under the rail as it is known. The rail
> is a buffer of oak that starts out at about 12" thick and four feet
> from top to bottom that is hung on the concrete walls of the approaches
> to the locks of the canal at or slighly above normal water levels. This
> is a rub rail for ships to manoeuver into the lock, (so it wears and is
> very full of splinters as it wears) and with the bow on the rail and 5
> degrees of rudder, any ship will end up in the center of the lock.
> Locks are 80 feet wide and about 750 feet long. The current lakers are
> built to a width and length of 78 x 730 so there is no extra, and these
> guys are good; they don't run the walls in the lock even with a breeze.
> Fortunately, Lock 8 is only a water level control lock and the most I
> have ever moved vertically in that lock is 5 feet, but it is also the
> biggest at 80 x 1100 feet long. I had just exited lock 8 and there was
> a stiff breeze with eddies from Lake Erie hitting the canal, and a small
> voice calling "help", - all unexpected! At any rate the ladder on the
> stern never crossed my mind at the time because and it was difficult to
> control the boat, never mind get close and possibly run over a swimmer.
> I radioed for help from the lockmaster, (who also had control on the
> gate), I asked for no influx of water or extra current for the
> swimmer, moored against the rail, and dropped a ring buoy. In the end,
> it was the fire department who managed to get this person out, after
> they hung a ladder down 10 feet over the side of the canal and made her
> climb out herself. It was not easy as she appeared hypothermic. Then she
> was off in an ambulance.
> There are two different real life examples and not what one normally
> expects.
> I also teach the knot section for the local Power and Sail Squadron.
> Two of my students one year were linemen for the provincial electricity
> company, Hydro One. (They needed no extra on knots). Their knowledge
> was very helpful for rescue because they have the situation where they
> may be electrocuted while in the bucket on the hydraulic arm that gets
> them up to the area on the poles where they need to work. Once down in
> the bucket, which is about 5 feet deep, there is no way out. They all
> have a harness that consists of a web strap around under their arms
> sewn to a ring that sits on their chest. There is a hand operated crane
> that fits onto the edge of the bucket with enough height to lift on the
> ring and get the man over the edge of the bucket.
> There are a number of knots and various line arrangements for
> lifting bodies that are often modifications of a bowline on a bight. Try
> it and see how severely the rope cuts into your body. The ideal is a
> wide strap under the arms and short enough to be snug under load. This
> offers a wider surface than a line, and once under tension, there is no
> way that a body, conscoius or otherwise, can slip out of this system.
> I carry a 48" commercial sling, similar to the one often used attached
> to the cable on a crane when lifting your mast, which has two sewn in
> loops and a legal lifiting capacity printed on the label that I am able
> to quickly attach to a snap shackle and have the vang system to the
> boom, so I have a 4 part lifting system independant of the mainsheet.
> Thus, I have control of the boom with the mainsheet and control of the
> body with my vang system. There is also access to the winches on the
> boat, necessary because a man can pull very little more than 75 lbs on
> a straight pull. It is also a good idea to attach a second support
> (halyard) to the outboard end of the boom to reinforce the topping
> lift or act as a lifting device in its own right.
> The main thing is to have thought out the situation beforehand so
> you have an idea of where to start and not panic. Having a life jacket
> with a harness incorporated sure helps for a start. Getting someone
> injured into a bosun's chair takes too long and is not easy, getting an
> unconscious person into one is next to impossible. The strap is quick
> and easy for any situation. The sling cost less than $12.00 last time I
> bought one at Bunning Rigging in Toronto.
> As for swimming back to a boat, one of the members of the GLAA has a
> friend who was on the German Olympic swim team and they had a bit of a
> bet on how easy it would be to get back to the boat. The swimmer said he
> would have no trouble doing so under almost any conditions, not that he
> was still in olympic condition but he was still a really good swimmer.
> So he chose 3 knots and 25 meters of distance. Well that was not
> possible, so he then said that he could pull himself on a line and get
> back the 25 meters. That failed also becasue as soon as he tried to move
> forward by pulling on the line the bow wave from his forehead covered
> things so well that breathing was impaired. So then he tried on his back
> and the bow wave again inundated him after only one hand over hand. The
> swimmer lost all bets. The net upshot of this is that if you are in the
> water,and tethered to the boat, chances are it will only help locate
> the body. If you do to drag a line or use a line as a safety feature
> while swimming, my son's precaution is to attach a fender to the distant
> end. This will be an additional lump at the end of the line to hang on
> to, with flotation, and will mark the end of the line with or without
> forward motion of the boat.
> Again, having a plan is a great help in avoiding bad events and panic
> in the situation.
> Don
> #528
>
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