Man Over Board and Search Patterns

Manoverboard and Search Patterns

I was asked "What is the purpose of the Mersar/Imasar manual?" I replied that it gave information to get hold of a person in the water in any condition of visibility
I told this person it's not the ship your after or the liferaft but the man inside it, you can always get another ship

A friend of mine was asked this question during an M.C.A. oral exam, what would you do if you saw a man fall overboard?

He answered - you want me to tell you about all the technique of retrieving a man from the water, he then told the captain I would do all in my physical power to retrieve this man from the water as if it was my own brother that was in the water

He then told the captain, until I was in that position of trying to get a man out of the water, I couldn't tell you what techniques I would use, I would need to take the following into consideration - the height of the waves, wind strength, tide and most important the condition of the man in the water

Man overboard

Turn your vessel towards the side the man fell over, so your taking your propeller away from him. Take the man alongside your boat so the man is on the weather side of your boat

If you stop your boat, you will drift away from the man and not run over him

Taking a man on the leeside is not advisable - in saying that and under extreme circumstances you might have too, if you see the man is going under, you then have no choice but to take him on what ever side is nearest him

Remember to have heaving lines ready and if you get a chance throw anything that floats towards the man in the water

Have an old tyre with a long rope attached to it ready to lower into the water - have the other end of the rope into a power-block with a responsible man operating it to take the man out of the water

 

Williamson turn

Depending on which side the man fell overboard, we will use your starboard side for learning purposes just now and assume that your going Due North (000 degrees)

Turn your vessel hard to starboard until you see 060 degrees on your compassThen alter hard to port until you see 200 degrees on your compass (20 degrees short of your reciprocal course)

Then square your helm to amidships

The man should be on your stem

Keep a good look out and slow your vessel down to minimum speed as you could run over him

  

Parallel Search with 1 or more boats

How can do you do a parallel search with 1 boat you may ask? - easy you do the same as you would do with 2 or more boats

Switch on your quad computer or your video plotter, when you arrive at datum, stop your vessel, put in an event mark using your manoverboard button on the screen, now start your tracking on the screen and watch the way your vessel is drifting due to the wind and/or tide (This is where you should start to look for the casualty) he will also drift the same way as the wind/tide

Watch for any E.P.I.R.B. distress beacons in the area as well as S.A.R.T.'s if its a vessel that has went down

As long as you know where datum is (datum is where all the relevant information from where the vessel/manoverboard was)

Start your search upwind of datum and start a parallel search going downwind towards datum

If using 2 or more vessels then you can both open the search and search a wider area

if more than 2 boats, the other vessels will do the same search your doing and carry on the next available track on the outside of the last vessel

Sector Search

This is another search to find a casualty at sea

We will assume that your still going due North (000 degrees)

Work out what distances you will be going according to the weather conditions (We are going to use 1 mile)

Start at Datum and always go to starboard

Go North for 1 mile

Alter 120 degrees to starboard, go down this track for 1 mile

Alter 120 degrees to starboard, do down this track for 2 miles going through datum

Alter 120 degrees to starboard, go down this track for 1 mile

Alter 120 degrees to starboard, do down this track for 2 miles going through datum

Alter 120 degrees to starboard, go down this track for 1 mile

Alter 120 degrees to starboard, go down this track for 1 mile

Alter 060 degrees to starboard and do the same all over again

How do you know what search to do, and what distances would you make it before turning your vessel?

 

 There are 3 things to find out

1.      What are you looking for?

2.      What is the weather and wave height

3.      How long since they where last seen (where is datum)

(1)   If its a man your looking for any search you do must be kept really tight even in a nice dayIf its a liferaft your looking for the search must still be tight especially in a poor day, the height of the wave could easy hide a liferaftIf its a ship and depending on its size then the search can be opened up  

(2)   Strong winds and tide will make the job of finding the causalities a lot harderThe wave height - a mans head will at the most stick out of the water no more that 16 inches and that's with him wearing a life jacket 

(3)   When was the last information you received about the casualty, the longer you take to get to datum the further he will be drifting away from datum   

Authors tips :

Lets assume you picked a distress from an EPIRB and your making for it, you arrived at the EPIRB and the vessel has sunk, if you stop your vessel and switch on your video plotter, now put in an event mark and start your tracking, this will let you know the direction the vessel/liferaft/men are drifting

This should be your first leg of your search

If you start a parallel search going down wind by yourself you should be making your way down towards the casualty (Single boat parallel search)