Accidents Do Happen To Any Of Us

[Regulo]

Hi, Nigel, welcome. Have you ensured your ladder reaches far enough into the water? My earlier post shows my idiotic assumption that mine would! It just wasn't deep enough under water to be much use. I think these are designed for low freeboard yachts, in my opinion.

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Nigel, 

I would deploy these and check that the bottom rung does go well into the water, it may be that you would have been better off with the 5 rung version also featured on the same page. 

If your is OK but does not payout correctly fix a weight to the bottom the bottom rung.

Regards

Alan 

[Koolwabbit]

Hi rregulo, yes went for four rung model that is fine for my vivacity 650. Would you put one on starboard and one to port ? Outboard is on stern. When I went in it was very difficult to move my legs so am wondering about it being close.

Nigel

[Koolwabbit]

Hi Alan, yep done just that and added lead to bottom rope sides.

Thanks Nigel

[Regulo]

14 minutes ago, Koolwabbit said:

Would you put one on starboard and one to port ?

I suppose the more the merrier! Whatever you feel will help you. If you intend to do a lot of solo boating, probably a good idea.

 

[Bound2Please]

I have to say experiencing just wet jeans, not sure a rope ladder would be as good as the rope with a loop. I have tried climbing a rope ladder in the past in dry cloths from a firm ground. Its much harder than you realise. I am looking at a ladder that will reach about 2 ft at least under water, but more importantly rigid and the rungs about 6 ins from the hull.

Just remember it was a hot day no shirt on just jeans and it was more of a struggle than i ever want to go through again. I have been thinking long and hard about an emergency ladder since. One question I asked our local swimming pool installer was why do the ladders go so deep in the water... You wont really like the reply I got, but it makes sense, to get out of a pool if the ladder isnt well under the surface the energy used to climb out is beyond a lot of peoples strength. This remember is from a pool in swimwear. Think about it I have been a lot.

Charlie

[Koolwabbit]

I'm definately not going back in to test it !! Lol

[Vaughan]

Perhaps I could add something about getting people out of the water, as Nigel's post has reminded me of a method I used to use if I wanted to anchor and go for a swim in the Etang de Thau, near Sete.

Assuming you are on a Broads type boat, then take the stern rope and make a loop (or bight) to drop down about a foot below the surface. Tie this off on the cleat and make a second bight to drop down about 6ins above the surface. Tie this off and then pass the tail of the rope through the handrail on the aft cabin top, and drop it down into the water.

The person getting out will then have two rope rungs and another rope to get hold of, and haul himself up by the arms.

It is not just the ladder that counts : you have to have a rail or a rope a bit higher up, to haul up with. If someone falls in, then someone else on the boat can rig this up quite quickly. 

One other thing, of course - always switch the engine off before you try to recover someone from the water.

[addicted]

Last year on two occasions Tony had to get somebody out of the water. The first one was an  elderly man who had fallen off the pontoon at the stern of his boat opposite our berth. He had a chap with him who didn't seem to know what to do. Tony borrowed a dinghy and went over to them. The man in the water was wearing several layers of very heavy clothing. The method Tony has always used is to, bounce the person in the water      which gives enough momentum to get them into a sitting position on to the bank from there it's relatively easy.The other person was a young woman who had misjudged getting onto her bathing platform while boarding her boat carrying  clothing and slipped down between the bathing platform and the pontoon, she deployed the same method  bouncing her up and down in the water and fromvtherevinto a sitting position on the pontoon. It was a year forvrescues as we also had someone come banging on the boat at 2.00am wanting help to get her large labrador out of the water. Tony tied a rope  round it's middle and used the bouncing method to get it out. All good fun!

 

 

Carole

 

[riyadhcrew]

Done Carole.