"Capt. JG" wrote:
"Goofball_star_dot_etal" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 09:55:43 -0800, "Capt. JG"
wrote:
You said "important in cold water." What I'm saying is that accept in
arctic
conditions, speed shouldn't be considered during a recovery. You should
block it out of your mind as best as you can. Sure, shorter is better than
longer, but even if it takes 30 minutes and you do it right, that's better
than several passes of doing it wrong and saving 10 minutes. You're much
more likely to injure the person in the water or the someone on the boat
or
the boat itself.
I'll give you 3 minutes or forget it..
http://cobs.pol.ac.uk/cobs/fixed/sad...an=3¶m=tmp
Brrr... well, in any case, you'll still live longer than 3 minutes.
Check the bottom of the following for an approximate guide:
http://www.ussartf.org/cold_water_survival.htm
One of the Occupational Health Phys. at work (OcDoc) said a rule of
thumb was that 50% of people survived 50 minutes in water of 50
degrees.
I walked off the back of the pier in November one year (in the Potomac
area, so it was cold), and I could not get my foot up to the ladders
on the dock or on the side of our boat. I eventually climbed out on
our swim ladder. I suppose just swimming to shore would have been a
possibility, or climbing out on the stern platform of one of the
charter fishing boats. But I didn't think of it.
We HAVE practiced pulling each other out of the water (in the summer),
and we can both do it using the jib winches, provided that the person
in the water can attach themselves to the sling. We tested the
auto-inflate PFDs at the same time, and also the ability to get into
the inflatable.
If we attach a tape ladder (flat fabric) to the side of the inflatable
that goes all the way across the top and into the water, then I can
get out into the dinghy. I can put my feet into the steps in the
water and pull on the rungs that are on top of the dinghy with my
hands. This keeps the fact that the ladder is going to swing under
the dinghy to be less important. I have never been able to board our
boat (the big one) from the water except using the swim ladder. Now
whenever we are underway, Bob leaves the swim ladder halfway down, and
you can deploy it the rest of the way from in the water by pulling it
down