"Capt. JG" wrote in message
...

My initial thought is that the situations when someone goes aglub do not
usually lend themselves to having any useful help from an unattached dink.
The typical situation would be one of fairly high winds and seas, and
losing a dink in those conditions would disappear it almost immediately
from the area. A dink made of what you describe would be highly
susceptible to being wind-blown; thus, something with more windage would
be a disadvantage. My personal preference would be to throw multiple
objects that float, which is described as littering the water.

In addition, the generally accepted rule of preventing hypothermia is for
the MOB *not* to attempt to swim, as this uses up useful heat reserves in
a futile attempt to catch the boat. In practice, with a conscious person,
that's going to be ignored if the rescue boat is within a boat length or
less. If the person is conscious, I would talk to them as well as other
crew members, for one thing telling the MOB not to swim.

I certainly understand the tempting nature of using the dink, but I think
the deficit outweighs the advantage.

I'm fortunate that I've never experienced a true MOB emergency, but I've
been in the water on practice MOBs, and I've been aboard when others have
gone over deliberately. Well, I did push a woman into the water in the BVI
once, so I could get some recovery practice, but she didn't spill her
drink, so I don't think that counts. g

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com


"J",

Valid thoughts, many of which were on my mind as well. Thanks for the reply!
:-)