"Larry" wrote in message
...
Gary wrote in
news:5UxDf.375770$2k.201451
@pd7tw1no:


Of course, all these cures assume, wrongly, that the person in
the water
is:
A) Awake and alert
B) Able to pull himself up and climb a ladder
c) Not hypothermic, which easily negates A) and B)

Not wrongly, Larry. The most common situation is awake and active,
so this is what you should design for.

If you design and train to meet this case, then by all means move
on to train and equip for the more rare combinations. You'll note
that the permanent ladder solution (which can be pulled down from
the sea) meets the hypothermia case by speeding recovery. Lacking
A and B will always require competent crew on board.

The following story may have some detail slightly astray, but it
stems from a time I was living in Salcombe and there was a
lifeboat shout - a couple of decades ago.

A very experienced long distance yachtsman (Mr James) went
overboard in the Salcombe Estuary, UK, in winter. He had an
experienced crew aboard. They were on a catamaran. They rapidly
stopped and returned to him. He was perfectly fit, and talking and
joking with his crew as they tried to help him aboard. Their first
quick couple of attempts to get a line around him and hoist him
aboard failed (difficulty in heaving his weight up 5ft with raw
muscle power, I think, but memory is a little faint here). They
started rigging a hoist system, but by the time they had that
ready, he could no longer pass the loop around his body
(hypothermia). A second crw member jumped in to pass the loop
over. James was recovered, but too late. The second crew member
was recovered with difficulty by what was then a very exhausted
crew. He was hypothermic, but recovered.

I know one case doesn't prove a generality, but I guess that's why
I'm keen on sea accessible ladders.

And personally, I haven't found a rope ladder that meets the case.
They've been fitted to some liferafts - but they swing under,
making them impossible to use as ladders. However you can develop
techniques to use them (floating horizontally, putting a foot into
a step, then giving a great horizontal shove) but that requires
rehearsal, and it's not a technique if the freeboard is greater
than a couple of feet.

JimB