Dave wrote:
On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 18:35:40 -0000, in rec.boats.cruising you wrote:


A quick exit from cold water is the most important criterion. The
colder, the quicker the exit must be. For most marina and harbour
dunks, stern boarding is safe, and they're the most common events.
As many people have discovered, it's very difficult to board a
hard dinghy from the water.


I always carry a rope ladder with plastic rungs stored in a canvas bag with
the ladder fastened to the pushpit and a poly pull rope trailing with about
6' in the water from the stern. If push comes to shove I can pull on the
rope and get the ladder down for boarding. I also always wear a harness when
going forward. My one concern (other than being knocked unconscious) is that
if I go in the drink the harness could keep me so far forward that I
wouldn't be able to reach the pull rope.

My wife boat me one of those rope ladders with plastic rungs last year
because she was worried about me getting into the boat if I fell off. I
jumped over and tried it and it was extremely difficult to climb when
the boat was anchored and stable and I was just wearing a bathing suit.
We regard the ladder as junk. We are still trying to figure out a
better way. We do have a proper boarding ladder that extends a couple
feet into the water but it is heavy and sits in a locker when we are
sailing. I would like one of those custom jobs that flips down from the
pushpit ad drops deep into the water and doesn't push away when you step
on it. I am even thinking of having a step put in the trailing edge of
the rudder to facilitate reboarding.

Gaz