First of all the rant! Your employer is being un reasonable in what they
appear to be blackmailing you into! Get out and work for someone decent!

Now the paddling. No shame in struggling to empty a master. They are big
and have very little bouyancy if not airbagged, and I get my 'victim' to do
as much of the work as possible. I am 6ft tall and 17 stone, btw.

My usual rescue technique is to park their boat alongside mine, bow to
stern, they come oaround to the outside of their boat, and then climb up
over their boat to end up lying across the two boats before sliding legs
into their boat and getting themselves seated. They can use the cockpit
rims as hand holds, kicking with their legs helps, and as a last resort i
can reach over them, grab the back of their BA and pull them up. Usually
all I have to do is lie across their boat to steady them. If they can get
hold of my cockpit then rotating the boat will pull them up too.

This is easily converted to the strop rescue, by laying the strop over the
boats and securing it with the victims paddle, or by feeding it back through
itself.

I would always raft up the rest of the group. Might take a while, and even
be beyond some of them, but they will all be trying to stay together!! YOu
will drift with them to a greater or lesser extent, and even if you get a
bit away from them, it is better that they are all more or less together!

If you really can't get victim back into the boat, then you can use the raft
to help you as described by other posters.

Try and get some tips from your employer, it might just be that they don't
understand your concerns, and if asked will provide advice, but i'm not
convinced!

Get along to one of the coach updates, I did one on manual handling and
rescues, and found it very useful. Also if you have access t pool
sessions, you can spen an entertaining hour trying out all sort of weird and
wonderful rescue ideas in the comfort of the pool, and not at your wits end.

Good Luck

MW
"ChipsCheeseandMayo" wrote in message
oups.com...
"I've had three 3 star paddlers involved in rescuing this big lad. he
has sunk two instructors and flooded his own boat in rescues, so if in
that situation you need to find a way that works for you - even if it
isn't textbook. "

Thats the sort of situation I am worried about - any ideas for
unorthodox methods?

For waht its worth the others don't raft up if there is a capsize
a) beyond their abilities
b) they would really catch the wind and be miles away by the time
rescue completed.