Straddle and Paddle self rescue
Jake
I had reason to perform a straddle and paddle self rescue to get
myself out of trouble recently. I'd like to state that if I'd not read
about the technique at length on here (a couple of years ago) I would
probably not be here now to write about it. I think I might have even
taken part in the discussion, but can't find the thread.
Of late I have been sculling up from my home in Hamble up Southampton
Water to take out the ladies 4 I coach for an evening outing from
Woolston, then I scull back. It allows me to not have to sacrifice my
own training. Back in June I would normally get home before dark, but
as the evenings now shorten it's been increasingly difficult. Anyway,
one evening last week there was more than the usual crew faffing with
the four, and we had a long session, so I was boating for home as dusk
descended.
It's only about 25 minutes scull back home depending on tide, though
it was cold weather, it was light wind conditions and I know the water
very well, so I decided to head on out.
About half way back, level with Netley shore, but a long way out
(about half a mile) as the shore takes a dogleg and I was trying to
cut the distance, just as I was accelerating over the wake of a ferry
a blade slapped the water hard whilst feathered on the recovery and
the gate burst open. The capsize was immeadiate, but as seems to often
fortuitously happen in a sculling boat at speed, the involuntary gasp
I took when hitting the water was of air as I slapped into the water
back and bum first.
I will now try to list what happened next in the hope that some of it
might be of value to anyone finding themself in the same position:
(And I'm not saying I did everything right here...)
I retrieve the lost blade and right the boat and put the blade back in
the gate.
Noting the gate is not damaged I curse the manufacturer as it is about
the third time this has happened to me with plastic sculling gates and
I am religious about tightening gates properly.
I take a look around to see if there are any boats about that could
help or if the shore is within shouting distance. There weren't and it
wasn't.
Already feeling the cold I try to get back in the boat. It is a
coastal scull so high out of the water compared with a river boat. I
have got back into river sculls many times with no difficulties but
never managed it with a coastal scull and many others have told me
it's much harder too.
It's so high up over your head and has such a high sacks board that as
you climb on it sinks the blade and rolls on top of you every time.
Each time it ends up upside down again I have to roll it back,
coordinate the blade handles, make sure blades are flat on the water,
marshal my strength and try again. Each time I try it I get colder,
weaker and more frustrated. I try all the tricks, like handles down
low to roll the boat down towards me then lift the handles as I roll
in. I try slithering up the stern canvas then turning round. I can't
get back in.
This is the point I remember the straddle and paddle stuff. I recall
reading a post on here about not getting too cold trying to get into
the boat and if you can't get in pretty quickly just cut your losses
and climb on top out of the cold.
I think I spent about 3 minutes in the water trying to get back in
about 5 times. I was frustrated and angry but not scared. Yet. it was
now dark but theres lots of streetlights and industry on the shores so
I could see stuff OK. I decided to cut my losses and straddle and
paddle. Southampton Water is busy, even at night so I expect I'll
paddle for a few minutes then somebody will see I'm clearly in trouble
and help me out.
I climb on the upturned hull using the riggers with a little
difficulty as I'm already weakened by cold and the boat slowly rolls
over pitching me off as I get on it. It's not going to be as stable as
I thought.
Second time I do it more carefully and climb on OK. I set the blades
pointing straight out behind for least drag with the handles pointing
forward and start paddling.
At this point I see how far I've got to go and feel how cold and weak
I feel. The realisation suddenly dawns that I'm not at all sure I'm
going to make it. I feel like I'm at about 10% strength. After only
about 30 strokes I start to have trouble lifting my hands out of the
water and up to the front of the next stroke. The bit where the hands
are pulling through the water is actually the easy bit as they just
swing through but lifting them back out again they feel so heavy. The
gelcoat starts making sickening cracking noises where I'm resting my
chin on the hull. I start shouting for help but my voice is so weak
and I don't know if there is anybody within earshot anyway so revert
to the paddling, but I don't know if I'm actually getting anywhere. My
girlfriend knows I'm out here but would be unlikely to raise the alarm
for a couple of hours and I doubt I could remain conscious that long.
I can feel myself slipping into drowsiness and an inapropriate sense
of calm and the small part of me that's still making logical decisions
knows this is very bad news.
I try a bit of both hands at once paddling (butterfly type). I try a
bit of alternate hands (crawl type), but couldn't say which is
better. Both hands at once feels a bit faster, but it's more tiring
so you have to stop and rest more. After about half an hour I can't
feel my legs very much as they are in the water and if I lift them out
the boat becomes too unstable, and I know that if it rolls I will
struggle to pull myself back on. Whether butterfly or crawl type of
stroke I work out that the important thing is to just do whatever is
necessary to keep on paddling. I count 20 strokes, then rest, 20
strokes then rest. I change stroke type frequently.
Every time a ferry wake hits me I splay my legs down and out to give
more stability as I fear getting pitched back into the water more than
anything as it's feeling ice cold now as my hands go in.
The most stable way to paddle is to rest the feet on the backstays of
the riggers, quite splayed apart so I'm quite well forward on the bow
part of the boat. This also means I'm not resting on the speedcoach
impeller unit which perversely I'm still bothered about damaging.
Eventually some warmth returns and I can paddle 100 strokes at a time
then take a 15 second rest. I enforce this routine for some time until
I'm able to make a transit across two structures on shore and then I
know I'm actually making some sort of progress as they slip slowly by.
Eventually I reach the mooring buoys in the water then know for sure
I'm making progress without unacceptable lateral drift.
By this point I know I've turned my fortunes round, so even though I'm
passing yachts I could possibly climb up onto I carry on for another
15 minutes or so to the shore, plus being a sailor I know how climbing
out of the water onto yachts is not always as easy as it looks when
you're warm and strong and anyway would I be able to break in and
switch the radio on or would I just die of cold in the cockpit? The
final 'blast' over the last 100 metres to the shore warms me up enough
to be able to stand up and walk up the beach when I get there. A
couple of minutes running up and down on dry land and I'm warm and
strong enough to scull home, though one of my sculls has filled with
water and the other hasn't so balance is interesting. I scull home
about 50 metres off the beach all the way.
A few things that I think made the difference to me and are worthy of
note:
1) I accepted defeat on getting back into the boat fairly early. Even
so I spent too long in the water and I was very nearly too cold/ weak
to climb onto the hull and paddle.
2) By chance I was wearing a surfers rash vest which gives more
insulation than loose clothing. I also had long leggings on my bottom
half rather than shorts which must have helped. By the time I'd
sculled home (10 minutes) I was almost warm again.
3) A small pack of handheld flares might have come in handy, or if I'd
had a light I could have flashed it in distress. Having said that, it
might not have been seen and it would have cost me time and warmth
doing all this.
4) Streetlights on the shore make it look an awful lot closer than it
is, and also make gaguing progress towards the shore difficult. It was
knowledge of sailing and how to work a quick shore transit which made
me realise the paddling was getting me somewhere and led me to dig
deep and carry on rather than give up.
5) The whole way through an episode like this you swing between the
contrary drives of not embarrassing yourself by having the emergency
services called out for you and being in the papers for an embarrasing
reason, and panic that you're going to die and you should have cried
for help sooner. When I got within shouting distance of the shore I
didn't shout, and maybe I should have, but I was fairly sure I was
going to be OK by that point. I wonder if there had been a boat near
at the point I capsized I would have shouted them over or just tried
to get myself out of trouble on my own. I think now I would definitely
shout right from the start if there's anybody about. If it turns out
you don't need help you can always send them away again.
6) I had about a force 1 wind carrying me in. As I lifted my upper
body up higher I could feel it pushing me more. The paddling was
probably as much about keeping me warm as moving the boat. I doubt I
would have made any headway whatsoever against this wind. The
resistance of splashboards, blades riggers etc. feels enormous. This
indicates to me that the downwind shore is probably the one to go for
in most circumstances even if it is further.
7) I made good about half a mile in an hour, with wind assistance. I'm
going to bear this in mind next time I'm sculling half a mile out.
8) I will now always consider equipment failure. I have been sculling
long enough to know that I would be extremely unlikely to capsize due
to human error in any conditions I was going to encounter that
evening. For that reason I considered my trip a relatively safe one.
When a gate popped open it was all that was required to dramatically
change my evening. Part of what drove me on to keep paddling was the
thought that the emergency services would discover a body and a boat
with no equipment failure and both blades correctly in their gates so
people would think I'd died due to a capsize which would have been
wrong. It's pathetic now, but whatever thoughts you need to cling to
to keep you going...
9) I was scared, but didn't panic. I'f I'd allowed myself to sucumb to
panic it may have been a different story. A couple of times I had to
stop my thoughts spiralling out of control by just taking a few deep
breaths.
10) I need to practice getting back into that boat with those blades
and work out some modifications if necessary to make it possible or
easier. Either that or plan my sculling trips expecting to capsize
every time.
11) When I explain what happened to other rowing people and say that I
believe I nearly died, they nod appreciatively but I don't think they
understand how cold you get and how it creeps up on you weakening you
to a life threatening degree before the adrenaline of the moment
allows you to even notice it. It was that close I reckon that if the
wind had been blowing the other way, or if I'd been wearing the
clothes I normally scull in or if it had been a few degrees colder it
could have tipped the balance against me.
Many thanks again to those who have extolled the virtues of the
straddle and paddle method of self rescue here and elsewhere. I
believe it was the descision to do this which turned it around for me
more than anything else.
Jake
Carl Douglas
Phew!
Jake, you survived by yourn intelligent use of what you knew. Thanks
for surviving, not just because we'd all hate to have lost you but,
also, because as an articulate guy you then reported your experience so
graphically & with such clarity. That will certainly save other lives.
I'd not considered that coastal boats could be that bit harder to
re-enter. Good point, well made.
And you were right to let the legs dangle to preserve stability.
I think you'll find that Straddle & Paddle was first promoted to the
wider rowing public here, on RSR, on 16 October 2006, in a thread on the
UKCC level 2 course. It addressed the prevailing madness of the
standard ARA advice - advice that you should swim & tow your boat from
the bow as a supposed means of self rescue. It was that same ARA advice
which had directly killed Sikander Farooq at Reading one bright & cold
January morning & might, very possibly, have killed you on this occasion.
Congratulations, & thanks for such a detailed report -
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf
Email: ca...@carldouglas.co.uk Tel: +44(0)1932-570946 Fax: -563682
URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk (boats) & www.aerowing.co.uk (riggers)
Richard Packer
<ca...@carldouglas.co.uk> wrote:
>Congratulations, & thanks for such a detailed report -
Hear, hear.
But although rsr is widely read (and lurked in), *please* make sure
you submit a write up to your club and regional WSA, and why not write
it up for Rowing and Regatta magazine as well?
Walter Martindale
> URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk(boats) &www.aerowing.co.uk(riggers)
We (when in Canada) used to use the USRA's water safety video,
produced in the late 90s, I believe, which shows people straddling and
paddling, and also lying on the decking of another's boat while being
taken to safety. In the tropics it might be safe to swim the boat in,
but not in the northern hemisphere, not in winter...
W
Charles Carroll
As I read through your account I cannot tell you everything I am reminded
of.
That you kept your head, that you are alive and safe, that you remembered
the things we have been discussing on r.s.r., and had the presence of mind
to use these things, that what might have been a disaster and is now merely
a story - well, all this is a tribute to you.
I am just really glad things worked out for you.
The other three people in you four have really lucked out having you as part
of their crew this December. I hope they appreciate you.
Good luck,
Charles
zeke_hoskin
>
> read more »
Good for you for keeping your head!
Okay, we have an unsafe-equipment issue here. If a boat is too high to
climb into,
it isn't safe to row alone. I realize that the low-volume cockpit of
the Maas 24 I row
means that the rower gets wet far too easily for some applications, so
the facts
that it rows well swamped, bails itself quickly, and is almost
trivially simple to
re-enter don't mean that all other designs should be scrapped.
Ideas come quickly to mind: flexible or removable saxboards,
inflatable sponsons
with re-entry stirrups, ways to swamp the boat until it floats low
enough to climb
into, lashing the oars to keep the boat upright while you climb in via
the stern.
Surely the people more familiar with boat design will have better
ideas than mine.
So how do we do it? Assume for the sake of the exercise that letting
people drown
or die of hypothermia isn't an acceptable option . . . //Zeke Hoskin
Carl Douglas
Simple is always best, so anything requiring swimmers to perform a
series of prior actions before they can rescue themselves might be
fraught with potential for danger. Sponsons inflated prematurely might
defeat the objective of righting the boat. And rowers are lousy at boat
maintenance, so anything requiring removal may not work as intended, or
jam, or simply take too long.
I'm not saying it can't be done, just that I do see problems. We
improve designs, just as we improve & spread news of good self-rescue
techniques, by sharing information & learning from our mishaps. But
that does not necessarily bring convergent evolution. So we have to
consider all possibilities.
I have upset some in FISA by suggesting that it was not their place to
be setting design rules for coastal & off-shore rowing craft. My case
is that such boats have always evolved for the waters on which they are
used &, in unsheltered waters, those conditions may be very different
from place to place. One-design classes may work well in some areas &
badly in others, so while it is OK for a club or a locality to determine
its own best design it may be a very bad idea for an external body to
pressure that corner of the sport to ditch its traditions in order to
conform. Naturally such opinions, even when based on wide contacts with
manufacturers & competitors within the different versions of the sport,
tend to go down like lead balloons with self-appointing rule makers.
I think those of us who care should ponder awhile on what might be the
simplest solutions to the problems Jake encountered, It is no bad thing
that Jake is professionally involved in another sport in the UK
(yachting) which nowadays has a far more professional safety admin &
culture than rowing. I'd very much welcome his thoughts, since he has
been at the cutting edge, on what might have improved his chances of
staying in the boat, regaining his seat in it or getting safely home on
the upturned boat. (If his experience was pretty recent, his thoughts
may take time to gel).
So what does the crash test dummy think, Jake?
Cheers -
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf
Jake
> URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk(boats) &www.aerowing.co.uk(riggers)
Thanks for your responses,
The HDARA/ CARA single I race (and capsized) has indeed evolved over
many years for specific coastal conditions. However, they are raced in
the context of rescue cover at regattas, where people frequently
capsize them but are then towed back to the beach by a RIB and only
rarely do you see anyone try or manage to get back in. The high splash
boards are great for keeping dry whilst rowing but not so good when it
comes to getting back into a capsized boat.
The problem comes when people naturally want to train in the boat they
are going to race. And we all know that nowadays even club level
rowers need to be out pretty much every day training if they wish to
be competitive and realistically for most single scullers this means
plenty of training unsupervised. Coastal racing singles were optimised
back in the 1960s and 70s when it was much more of a social sport...-
outings twice a week and a great many pints sunk after a regatta and
you could still win a senior championship. When people were only
training in the summer and twice a week (training on Sunday morning
plus one other organised 'club training evening'), it was much easier
to provide safety boat cover all the time they were on the water.
Though I have been vocal in my criticism of FISA's choice of coastal
rowing boat type, as they are dull and truck-like to row, one thing
that can be said for them is that they are so stable they can be
reentered from the low stern, then you can get in the seat and only
then worry about taking hold of the sculls. This means you can safely
train alone in the boat you will race. (If you're strong enough to
lift it off your roofrack in the first place!) Even if you knew
nothing about boats you could probably manage to just climb back onto
the side like you would a big windsurfer, regardless of blades. And
that's if you somehow managed to capsize it in the first place as they
have good initial stability. Though I echo Carl's point about
different coastal conditions requiring different designs, FISA have
now decided to 'harmonise coastal rowing' and the very nature of a one
design philosophy means you need a design which can cope with the
worst conditions likely to be encountered. The FISA (French) designs
and rules have been built on the basis of a design that is capable of
being safely rowable most of the time on most of the French coast,
much of which is more exposed than our coastline. Our regattas are
cancelled often which is a pain for all concerned in the sport. They
are cancelled because there is a danger of our boats being overwhelmed
by sea conditions in anything over a force 3-4. As competitors get
more and more litiginous, and especially as more junior events are
introduced, the slightest dash of white horses at a coastal regatta
and people now talk about cancellation. The days of rowing fine
coastal boats at coastal regattas are numbered in my view. It frankly
amazes me that in what's supposed to be the world's biggest suing
culture in the USA they are still racing fine (Mass24, Pienert
Dolphin) type boats in open water races over long distances with
limited safety boat cover and a self appointing ability scale for
competitors (rec 1, 2, 3). Long may our independent brands of coastal
racing continue, but I do wonder about their future due to inherent
safety, particularly in a climate of increasing training hours, and
particularly with reference to single sculls.
The Maas 24 is a very nice boat. Faster than our 22'6" coastal sculls
and a little easier to balance in too. The fact that most I've seen
seem to be fitted with a dinghy self bailer leads me to question the
extent to which they do self bail. My club has a GRP coastal scull
built by a guy from Christchurch which owes a lot of its design to the
Maas 24 (wash through cockpit) and no self bailer and once it gets
swamped with me in it (96kgs) it likes to stay swamped. It's rowable
swamped though, just low and slow in the water so you're stuffed if it
happens in a race. Whether sculling boats can be emptied by rowing the
water out from my experience seems to depend mainly on the width (or
presence) of the footplate and the amount of space around it to let
the accellerated mass of water past and out in a single thrusting
stroke, because on the next recovery what water is still in there all
comes sluicing back to you again. All sculling boats tend to have a
properly ramped stern bulkhead, only some have a footplate which
allows the water to be accellerated out properly past it. The best for
this are the tubular aluminium type footplates, but I'm a fan of
heelcups and straps which need a board of a certain size to work well.
Carl, I took redundancy from the RYA in March, and my job managing
their websites had not a great deal to do with water safety. I do now
however have plenty of time to do other things like coach my crew and
train myself for a possible Atlantic row this winter.
My thoughts in general are:
In terms of water safety FISA is moving coastal rowing boats in
vaguely the right direction (though it is a shame they have
compromised, in my view, a little too much rowability and pleasure in
the boats). Something somewhere between the Maas 24 and the FISA spec
coastal single would have been both safe enough and rewarding enough
to master.
If the FISA boats become the defacto standard, as they are so much
less likely to tip over and easier to get in if they do, is coastal
rowing moving in the right direction now anyway equipment wise?
It might just be my technique. Maybe lots of other people can reenter
a coastal single with splashboards?
Re-entering fine boats seems to me largely about bouyancy of the
blades and looms, once you know the technique. I once had cause to do
it with a set of old wooden Sutton sculls and it was so easy, I think
because once the near side scull was flat on the water (with the boat
leaned towards me and hands holding the sculls low in the boat) it was
difficult for the oar to sink as I climbed aboard. It seems almost
pathetic to suggest it, but I reckon in the aforementioned incident in
Southampton water if I'd had a pair of child's swimming armbands over
the looms to push down to the blade ends, getting back in would have
been a doddle. As Carl suggest though you wouldn't want to scull
around with them on your blades for years on the off chance and nor
would you want to faff arround in the water blowing them up and
shoving them on the blades!
A large concern in all of this is the black plastic sculling gates
used by the vast majority of sculling boats will burst open under
sufficient abuse.
In terms of holding the scull handles together with something to keep
both hands free for re boarding, I once tried a vecro tie (the sort
used for holding snow skis together at their tips and tails). This
worked fine but there didn't seem to be significant benefit as the
other hand was comfortable about where the handles are anyway, so may
as well have been holding them together. However that was in a river
scull which was much easier to reboard anyway so might have been more
help in the coastal boat.
That's all I can think of at the moment. If I get time I'll go for a
deliberate swim and reboarding with various flotation devices for
blades and looms, as I think this is the area of reboarding stability
to tackle first.
J
mruscoe
> A large concern in all of this is the black plastic sculling gates
> used by the vast majority of sculling boats will burst open under
> sufficient abuse.
It surprises me that they will do that without damage, when I've seen
rowing gates, probably from the same manufacturer, take sufficient load
to bend the metal bar or burst the hinge without opening the fastening.
zeke_hoskin
Jake, I didn't intend to imply that the Maas 24 self-bails without a
self-bailer.
Possibly it could be made to, by a gorilla rower on flat water. But a
quite
ordinary rower can empty it from swamped in a dozen strokes except in
conditions where water keeps coming in, using the self-bailer that
almost
everyone orders with it.//Zeke
ATP*
"zeke_hoskin" <ze...@zekehoskin.com> wrote in message
news:393ac44a-1a8e-4bd5...@33g2000vbe.googlegroups.com...
The self-bailer works well but as you stated, when the water keeps coming in
it doesn't keep up, at least at the pace I'm maintaining :-) When I first
read this I wondered how anyone could get that cold in summer. I was out
yesterday learning to kiteboard, mostly body dragging, and despite the fact
that the water was quite warm and I had a rashguard and .5 mm neoprene long
sleeve top on, I started getting pretty darn cold at the end of the session
as it started to rain and the air temp dropped.