Alan Adams wrote:
"cramersec" wrote:

I really want to see that done, as it's hard to visualize. The front
deck of, just to pick one, the Jackson AllStar is about 18" long (~.5
m.). The boat is 24" wide. Assuming an AllStar rescuing another AllStar
on the deck and skirt, that leaves, what, 6" of the point of the bow to
sit on? I'm afraid my bum is too big.

The swimmer's boat is across the cockpit, not the front deck. This
means there is quite a lot of deck sticking out. The rescruer leans
right back as the swimmer starts to climb onto the rescuer's front
deck, acting as a counterweight.

In a 6' playboat, there's no more than 36" from the paddler's navel to
the bow, probably less. Put a 24" boat (my Zip is 27" wide, btw) on
your lap and you've got at the most a foot of bow remaining. Perhaps
that's enough, but I wouldn't consider it a lot.

Also I wasn't clear on that you meant by "the swimmer uses his/her legs
instead of arms to do most of the work". Which work is that? Not the
picking up of several gallons of water plus boat onto the deck, that's
arm work for both of them.

In a conventional rescue the swimnmer pulls themself out of the water
onto their boat using almost entirely arm muscles. Unless the swimmer
happens to be someone who does a lot of kayaking, they don't have the
upper body strength to do that. If they are a kayaker, the need for
rescue is remote.

Not if they've been trained in rescues and know how to swim across the
deck instead of pulling up as if they were getting out of a pool.

Next time I'm in the pool, I'll sit on the front of a playboat and see
what happens. Should be fun.

Remember to get the occupier of the boat to lean back. Also remember
the bouyancy provided by the second boat. It is critical to the
success of this form of rescue.

Gotcha.

As I might not have said explicitly, the rescuer has to weigh at least
as much as the swimmer, unless the swimmer is very light. It does work
between two children.

So the moral is, always paddle with at least one person bigger than you
are. Sound advice. I used to always try to paddle with at least one
person who was a stronger boater than me. Then once I realized that
everybody else on the trip was doing the same thing. Scary.

Wait, maybe I can see it. Swimmer climbs on deck, making rescue boat
vertical. Both pull swimmer's boat across between them, making a
vertical cross (+). Swimmer falls off backwards, rescuer's boat drops
to flat, leaving swimmer's boat on his deck, upside down and drained.
Might require swimmer to grasp a bow loop with his toes, but it could
work.

Steve

Alan Adams wrote:
It's quite an effective rescue done between playboats. It has the
advantage that the swimmer uses his/her legs instead of arms to do
most of the work, so an overweight/understrong swimmer can be reunited
with their boat.

In a playboat, you usually have a flat front deck, which gives a nice
step.

When the swimmer is an adult, it gets interesting, because the
rescuer's boat goes nearly vertical, but the swimmer's boat is then
supported by the water, and the rescue can still be made to work. Key
point is asking the swimmer to use their arms to take some of the
weight off their feet/your boat.

And, yes, you do need a reinforced spraydeck.



--
Alan Adams, from Northamptonshire

http://www.nckc.org.uk/