Surf Rolled Yacht - RIB to the Rescue!

[Neil R]

Fascinating series of photos of a yacht being rolled in some surf.

Apologies if posted before!

http://sfsurvey.com/photos/sail/imagepages/image1.htm

[Action Man]

enough said. particularly about the use of lifejackets.....there is an excuse to get a RIB if ever there was one

[Jono]

Originally Posted by Action Man

...there is an excuse to get a RIB if ever there was one

Why? It's just as easy to feck' up with a RIB in the surf and roll it...

[Shaggy]

A good 8ft+ set wave that took the yacht out, he should have been on a surfboard not a yacht, you wouldn’t want to be in that impact zone with anything other than a IRB.

Top marks to the surfers for getting in there to help, very dodgy with all the cables trailing in the water and the boat sinking, looks like the boogie board rider gave the skipper a lift out lucky chap.

Moral of the story: If you see a load of surfers in the water in front of you, have a look over your shoulder as you are likely to be in a surf brake.

This is the legendary reef brake just outside Porthleven harbour:

http://www.cornwall-beaches.co.uk/Porthleven-beach.htm


Shaggy

[codprawn]

Brilliant pics and a credit to the surfers who resued him - coastguard arrived far too late - surfers were in the right place at the right time which is what counts!!!

Always amazes me that in the USA everything has to be bigger and better EXCEPT for their rescue helicopters - most are way too small and many don't even have a winch - even the ones that do are underpowered so no winch man comes down or pretty rarely - usually the casualty has to help themselves!!!

[gingercoastie]

I hate to stand up for the colonies, but..........

The average helo rescue involves picking up a max of 2-3 people, more often just 1.

The main reason for having to wich the casualty and the winchman together is that in the UK we use 1 or 2 single lift strops [the one that goes under your arms], if the casualty is tempted to reach up and hold onto the wich wire etc, which isd a natural reaction, then there is the possibility of falling clear of the strop. Therefore the wicnchman stays with the casualty to hopefully prevent it. The american rescue basket is a system that enables the casualty to quickly manouver themselves into a wichable position without having to worry about making sure everything is done up tight. If the casualty is unable to do this themselves then a rescue swimmer will jump from the helo to assist.

Finally all USCG helo's have winches. Not always obvious on the dauphan as it can be folded back out of the way. So I beleive thier helcopters are perfectly suited to the role. It is also worth pointing out that both the USCG helos are alot faster than our own Seaking (which by the way entered service in 1969).

[Matt]

Now I'm not a helicopter expert - but to my inexperienced eye reckon I can see a winch on the helicopter.

Originally Posted by codprawn

Always amazes me that in the USA everything has to be bigger and better EXCEPT for their rescue helicopters - most are way too small and many don't even have a winch - even the ones that do are underpowered so no winch man comes down or pretty rarely - usually the casualty has to help themselves!!!

[Scary Des]

It looks like the yachtsman got it all wrong, it looks like he has gybed the main but not brought the jib over so loosing way If you have enough forward motion you can surf a yacht and although it can be a bit hairy you don’t usually get rolled Des

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by gingercoastie

I hate to stand up for the colonies, but the average helo rescue involves picking up a max of 2-3 people, more often just 1.


The main reason for having to wich the casualty and the winchman together is that in the UK we use 1 or 2 single lift strops [the one that goes under your arms], if the casualty is tempted to reach up and hold onto the wich wire etc, which isd a natural reaction, then there is the possibility of falling clear of the strop. Therefore the wicnchman stays with the casualty to hopefully prevent it. The american rescue basket is a system that enables the casualty to quickly manouver themselves into a wichable position without having to worry about making sure everything is done up tight. If the casualty is unable to do this themselves then a rescue swimmer will jump from the helo to assist.

Finally all USCG helo's have winches. Not always obvious on the dauphan as it can be folded back out of the way.

Not only on about the coastguard ones - many times I have seen rescues using Yank choppers where they have just dangled a rope to lift people out of the way.

I have seen the American basket system in action several times - looks dodgy to me - especially in rough conditions - wouldn't fancy a clout from that thing across the head!!!

The Yanks don't seem to like to standardise much - for example the US Navy have totally different ways of doing things compared to the USAF - for example in flight refulling by the US Navy is done the British way but the USAF use their own systen that is not cross compatible.

[DM]

Originally Posted by Jono

Why? It's just as easy to feck' up with a RIB in the surf and roll it..

You've been listening to the hardboat brigade too much. Next time you're out in a chop, ram it into reverse, fill your rib up to the gunnels and note how stable it becomes. Then try the same in a hard boat and note how fast it takes you to swim ashore.

DM