With the recent interest on this list-serve about inflatable vests and tethers, and the comments that going overboard when single-handed is unlikely to have a good outcome, I have been thinking about possible ways to improve the chances of self-rescue. My father always trailed a 100 foot polypropylene line (so it would float) off the stern, with a knot at the end. He hoped to be able to grab that and then haul himself back to the stern transom. Of course a ladder off the stern would be crucial, which he did not have. But as this list-serve has noted, it is very unlikely that one would be strong enough to pull along the line back to the boat unless the boat were nearly stationary.
Would it be possible to rig a drogue (sea anchor?) in a bag on the stern so that when you pull the line trailing off the stern, the drogue would deploy? I have no experience using drogues or sea anchors, but are they capable of slowing the boat, with sails full, to a knot or two? That might be slow enough to enable one to pull oneself back to the boat. The stern ladder would also need a cord to pull so that it would fold down, and be deep enough so that 1 or 2 steps would be underwater. The larger drogues are 6 – 8 feet in diameter, so that might be sufficient. One could also rig a trip line to the engine so if it were running, it would stop. This idea must have occurred to many others, but I have never seen it proposed. Obviously one would rig the drogue bag and stern line only when single handing – not racing. But the bags I have seen for full-sized sea anchars are not huge, so it would not take up a lot of space behind the helmsman. Has this been tried? Do any of you have experience with deploying large drogues and seeing how slowly the boat moves? If I had one, it would be interesting to try it out on a warm day and with plenty of help around. Eric Frank Cat's Paw C&C 35 Mk II Mattapoisett, MA
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