As to Wally's last point, I bought one of those Plastimo emergency boarding ladders a while back and it is really hard to get up one of those onto the boat in calm conditions. I would not want to try it with a boat lurching in high seas. Dave
On Mar 13, 2013, at 12:24 PM, Wally Bryant wrote: > Wow. I'm glad that comedy didn't end in tragedy. > > 1) What were they doing off the boat in the first place? Was there no > warning of weather coming? I've had folks laugh at me when I see lightning > 20 miles off shore and insist that I gobble my tacos and get back to the boat. > > 2) Driving a dinghy through that kind of surf while sitting on the tubes? > There's this thing called 'Center of Gravity.' I tend to keep my butt in the > bottom of the dinghy in anything other than calm conditions. One lurch and > you can go splash, and it really doesn't matter if you have a good excuse for > falling overboard. The bottom line is to avoid falling overboard. > > 3) Boarding ladders. No one ever leaves my boat, even in dead calm > conditions, without the boarding ladder down. It extends far enough to have > two rungs below water, and is located amidships. I took the original stern > ladder, had two more rungs welded on, and it now clamps onto the boat with > bolts. The clamps are strong enough to withstand just about anything -- in > fact I once took off at 3 a.m. and forgot that the ladder was down, and spend > an entire day bashing into 6 foot square waves with the ladder down on the > starboard side. (Ooops.) > > 4) Regarding rope ladders. I made one just for getting back into the dinghy, > and decided it was worthless. I now keep it snapped to the stern, next to > the Monitor, so that it can be pulled down if needed. I figure if I *do* end > up overboard and that's my only option for getting back on the boat that > adrenaline will give me the strength to deal with it. > > Wal > > > Tom B wrote: >> Not C&C related, but worth sharing. >> >> http://youtube.com/watch?v=M6gMDlTTN6A >> >> Tom B > > > -- > s/v Stella Blue > www.wbryant.com > > > _______________________________________________ > This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album > http://www.cncphotoalbum.com > [email protected] David Knecht, Ph.D. Professor and Head of Microscopy Facility Department of Molecular and Cell Biology U-3125 91 N. Eagleville Rd. University of Connecticut Storrs, CT 06269 860-486-2200 860-486-4331 (fax)
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