above the nipples???? Perhaps a hangman's noose around your neck? Attach to an earing? Through your nose?.... perhaps that part of the responce was intended for a different forum??? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Don't you think that being dragged backwards (from above the nipples) might be even better? I'm thinking that when dragged forward there is an up swell of water created by the body through the water, that wants to charge right up your nose.

Backwards might create a low pressure area where you may have a chance to find some breathable air.

Any way you slice it though, draging in the water is far more dangerous that most people can envision.

I suggest that everyone do the trolling game. Hook up a tow line and take turns hauling one another through the water. The towee can signal the tower with a lifted hand, to stall the boat. The tower can watch the towee and stall when things look dangerous. All of this should be done with a life vest on so that the towee can let go at any time and float while recovering from ingested water.

You'll learn lots!

GARY

No tether.

I'm scared to death of getting left behind by a boat thats on its own (its happened to me before)

Even more scared of being keel hauled by it.

Just this past Tybee, one sailor tried to hang onto a righting line as the boat began to accelerate and the line pulled him underwater and eventually he had to let go. It only takes one gulp of water to drown. No way, no how, am I wearing a tether. I WILL carry a line with me that I can use for various purposes (like throwing over a sideways boat to the crew who might be hanging upside down on some rigging) but I really believe that a tether is more of a liability than not having one.

Alan carried a line bag that he could chuck to Trey in the event he went overboard. Its similar to the things that the kayakers use I think.

A good eye opener for this is to learn to barefoot (waterski with no skis). For those who have never tried it, here's a quick overview. For a deep water start, you hook your toes over the line, lay back in the water and get drug until the boat gets up enough speed for you to sit up, then stand up.

All this sounds good except once you start moving through the water you start getting pushed under. Your immediate reaction is to sit up to try to get air. By sitting up toward the surface, the water flow now forces you under water... very far under water. To get to the surface, you have to do the opposite of what your brain is telling you to do... arch your back as far as you can and that brings you to the top. The toughest part of this whole process is from 5 to about 15/20 mph. At those speeds you have to hold your breath because you don't have a big enough pocket of air above your head to breath. Once you're going faster than that, the water is starting to get firmer, you have a bigger air pocket and you can start to sit up a little.

I don't think too many of our cats when unmanned with a person dragging behind is going to accelerate past 20 mph to enable the tethered skipper to do a deep water barefoot start... or even a$$ skip across the water.

I suspect that being drug behind a ski boat would help a lot of you decide whether or not you really want to be tied to a boat doing 10 or 15 mph. Don't forget to try feet first too, just so you know what it will be like if you're tied on a little lower than your armpits.

This is starting to get wordy but one more thing to try. Remember the part about hooking your toes over the ski rope to get started... when falling off a cat, you won't have the luxury of first hooking your toes, then telling the driver to "hit it". So just for giggles (or gurgles), try starting without your feet over the line, then once you're moving try getting your feet through the water and hooked back on the line so you can arch your back and plane to the top of the water.

Yes, there is a chance that the weight of the tethered skipper will tip the boat over, but I sure wouldn't want to be that person hooked to the boat by a line that I can't let go of.

That said, for you guys on bigger water, I don't know what the right answer is, but for me on my smaller inland lakes... I always have a life vest and at least a wet suit on, I'll drift/swim to one of the heavily populated shores where I can call for help from some vacationers house. I'll worry about getting the pieces of my boat back after I'm on dry ground.

I've spoken to a couple of Worrell/Tybee vet friends and have come up with the same answers from them. No.

I remember flipping once in a storm and looking at the GPS... it said 6 mph... while on our side!!!! If tethered in that situation you'd be drowned.

we made our righting line extra long so you could have a chance to grab on and hang on - but all it does is tow you unrecoverabley.

On my A-cat, I intend to clip the mainsheet to me through a quick release snap shackle. At least with the mainsheet as a tether, it will very likely flip the boat.

We use tethers similar to this, but not as long (about 8ft stretched out) - we'll only clip in if the weather is getting really big and we are a way off shore. They make me feel better - but I see it as a personal choice issue - do you want to drown attached to the boat or die of exposure because you lost contact with the boat and no one could find you? (try spotting someone in the water from the air)

The tethers clip to a spectra line strung across the tramp from the side shroud attachments. This gives us good freedom of movement when tacking or gybing .

What I haven't tried is releasing the tether while being dragged by the boat or hanging with full body weight on the tether. Does anyone have experience with this? Quick release shackles release easily when not loaded - but will they release with 190lbs load?

I've been dragged behind the boat and had to let go or drown. Luckily Jeremy from Surf City Catamarans was right next to me in a safety boat.

Perhaps we need to do some tether release experiments in controlled waters.

Chris.

How about just hanging a foot off the ground with a snap shackle... hold it... be back in a second...

I just put eye splices in some parellel core line for new halyards for my 31 (cheap line, but can't see spending 2$/ft for 80 feet x 3 <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> ) with snap shackles.

Requires a little bit of a tug but it should work. 170lbs standing from the line. If the shackle doesn't release freely under no load (one of mine requires a little more force) then don't use it. If it opens freely then it should work.

Having done the Tybee 500 and quite a few distance races I can say that I would not want to be tethered to the boat from a central point.

However the jury is still out on if I would tether to the mainsheet with a quick release. That doesn't sound like a bad idea.

All I know is when I come off the boat the first thing I want is a breath of air. If I have to hold my breath for 10 seconds that's could be the last 10 seconds that I live. It just takes one errant gulp of water to kill you.

For example try running a mile and then holding your breath for 10 seconds. It's pretty hard. Panic sets in and could kill you.

I've also fallen off my share of boats. Even in distance races I'd rather take my chances swimming to shore or being rescued possibly with my locator beacon.

On big boats I'm all for tethering myself in bad weather. That's to keep me on the boat though. Not for falling off and being drug.

I say leave it up to the sailors. They'll find what works for them and use it.

Mike Hill
N20 #1005

Would it not be possible to rig the tether so it locks the steering over? One way or another the boat won't go that far before stopping.

Cheshirecatman

Tie it off to a tiller arm would be the easiest, but I bet you'd break something pulling it over that hard.

I was thinking tie it off to somewhere on the bow, so the boat will turn up into the wind and stop, or flip, once you hit the water. Of course in a big squall, even if (when) the boat flips, it's going to be going away from you at a pretty good clip, on it's side, but if you could get it to turn bows upwind, that might help slow it down.

I've been watching this thread with interest and have to say I wouldn't ever want to be tied to a cat. It just seems like another line to get wrapped around something (neck, wrist, leg etc) in a pitch and cause some real damage. I have rescued people with their mainsheet wrapped around their body and completely incapacitated (Hobie 16/20 North Americans).

But on the other hand...
At the Tiger Worlds in Santa Barbara, we rescued around 10 crews that were separated from boats over the course of racing. In 25 kts a boat on its side will travel waaaay faster than a person can swim. We would mostly spot the boat over from mid course and then head upwind to scoop the skipper and crew. It's very difficult to see people in the water in those conditions, even though we knew they were not far from our position. Oftentimes, one of the crew would still be with the boat and they would point us in the direction of the man overboard. It was pretty hectic. A teather might have been a good option in this case, but it just seems like a heck of a liability.

I did get several calls from people overboard on the VHF. They would guide me to their position. And pretty much every coast guard and harbor patrol boat has an RDF on board. A VHF in the lifejacket should be mandatory along with a few rocket flairs just in case, but I'm not convinced about the tether yet. Too much stuff to get tangled up in if you need a quick escape.

We're probably going to start doing this in the future - the Team of David Lennard and Mike Krantz used to carry waterproof smoke bombs in their pocket so that if separated, they could light one and the person on the boat could find them easier.

I never have and never will wear a tether when sailing 1-up. I dependent on the death grip on the mainsheet when the comes to that (and have done so in the past). It is also a reflex of mine to start swimming agressively towards the boat as soon as I hit the water.

Once or twice I've been pulled along halveway submerged when hanging on to the mainsheet by a boat that didn't immediately flip when I departed. I'm totally convinced that a skipper will not be able to unhook himself in such a situation when tethered by a carabine or something. With the death grip I can hang on as long as I can and then still let go if I have to.

A side effect of hanging onto the mainsheet is that you automatically pull the mainsheet tight which typically flips the boat after a few seconds if it doesn't flip immediately after I have "stepped off".


I do sail singlehanded quite often and have done so in all conditions, mostly in 12knots and higher as those are typical conditions for us over here. And I have flipped it often enough to know the drill by reflex. Personally, I don't understand when people get seperated from the boat when singlehanding. As a rare occurance maybe but not in the numbers reported in this thread (A-cats / Tiger worlds)

Wouter

I don't hear about it that much either, but as they say it only takes once. A guy spent 2 hours in the water (51 F) a few weeks ago after losing his H16. Sun was going down, harbor patrol found him around 7:30pm in a "severely hypothermic state." That's a bit close for comfort if you ask me. A VHF and flares (at least here in SC) would have greatly increases his chances of survival.

The Tiger worlds in Santa Barbara was pretty extreme sailing to say the least. Ask anyone that was on the water <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />
About mid week I was so beat from plucking you guys out of the water that during a wonderful burrito dinner I had to go lay down in the car and fell asleep at 6:30pm. Highly uncharacteristic of me to miss a regatta party. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Perhaps you should cut back on the burritos!!!

Didn't even get to enjoy one bite <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />