"Gary"

My thinking with regards to recovering someone from the water (me)
is to use the main boom and the vang.

I'm reluctant to advocate getting involved with the mainsail. Getting
an engine started when things are tense introduces a lot of
distraction and delay. If it ever isn't going to start, that will be
the time. You need the mainsail to be a sail. Getting the main down
is also not an operation I would want to undertake while trying to
keep an eye on that little head.

Circling around to make best use of a lifesling is a jibing maneuver
and everyone is going to be standing up and looking around. Bad time
to be vangless. Then, when you get the POB attached to the vang,
inattention by the helmsman could lead to a jibe. How would you like
your ribs to be the vang anchor in 30 knots of wind?

Your SOP should be as workable as possible in extreme conditions
because that's when you'll probably need it.

I think in your case, the angle of the backstay to the boat's side
might make it tough to work a tackle.

The backstay lines right up with the transom which is fairly smooth.
The boarding ladder is off to one side. I think it would be like
dragging a net of fish up the stern ramp of a dragger. Not pretty and
probably bruising to the ribs but the POB wouldn't be swinging around
and someone on the ladder could offer lots of assistance. I think it
would work except in a big seaway where the ladder and lower edge of
the transom would be a hazard as the boat pitched.


I think a single line and block fails the mechanical advantage
requirement.

Certainly. But, led to the big sheet winch? I would permanently mount
a block at the base of one of the backstay legs. The line would go up
to the hoisting block and back to the chainplate siezed to the
backstay leg at a couple of points. The coil would be taped or seized
with breakable stuff to a stern pulpit stanchion. It would just be a
matter of breaking all the light twine and pulling out less than two
feet of slack to clip into the lifesling. Then, around the winch and
crank.

I like this idea more as I think about it. Adding blocks to turn it
into a tackle makes it something that needs to be stored in a locker.
Then, you are rummaging instead of rescuing. It's also quicker to
pull out a single part if you need more slack to get to another
location, say the lifesling ends up on the quarter, than to extend a
tackle.

If I had a boat with a conventional transom and no boarding ladder,
I'd be thinking of something different although probably not the vang.

I think every boat should have a boarding ladder. What about a
portable one that goes over the side?

--

Roger Long