ORC Safety Concerns/Issues

I am the one Goldendog (Dave) helped get back in his boat.  Thank you Dave!  This was my first year fishing from a new boat, which is much different from the old kayak.  Self rescue with the new boat was just not the same, and I was glad to have some help.  I was wearing a PFD with whistle, and had a VHF on my vest.  Unfortunately, my dry suit leaked and I was getting cold and wet inside.

Over the years swimming has been something I use to help stay in shape so being in the water was no big deal, but it was surprising how quickly I got tired.  Everyone around me was very helpful and that was greatly appreciated.  I don't recall ever really being scared, concerned yes, tired yes, but with everyone else around I never got too spooked.

Obviously self rescue practice with the new boat is needed, along with more experience with the new boat in general.  More time and practice should help alot.  My dry suit needs some work too.  It leaked way too much for me.  All in all it was a really good learning experience with very little damage done.  My friends even left my pride intact.

Most important - I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who helped.  When you've rolled your boat and are in the sh!t - that's when you find out who your friends are.  Thanks everybody.   

AMB, thank you very much for sharing. Would you mind telling us how you flipped? How were you dressed under your drysuit? How much water got in? How cold were you in the water? What was the difficult part of the reentry? Were you able to get the boat flipped back over? Thanks again for sharing.

Was this an old drysuit, or bad quality?  If it's old, that's fine, but if it's newer, I think sharing the manufacturer's identity would be beneficial so others don't buy a "dry" suit that gets them wet and puts them in danger.

I am the one Goldendog (Dave) helped get back in his boat.  Thank you Dave!  This was my first year fishing from a new boat, which is much different from the old kayak.  Self rescue with the new boat was just not the same, and I was glad to have some help.  I was wearing a PFD with whistle, and had a VHF on my vest.  Unfortunately, my dry suit leaked and I was getting cold and wet inside.

Over the years swimming has been something I use to help stay in shape so being in the water was no big deal, but it was surprising how quickly I got tired.  Everyone around me was very helpful and that was greatly appreciated.  I don't recall ever really being scared, concerned yes, tired yes, but with everyone else around I never got too spooked.

Obviously self rescue practice with the new boat is needed, along with more experience with the new boat in general.  More time and practice should help a lot.  My dry suit needs some work too.  It leaked way too much for me.  All in all it was a really good learning experience with very little damage done.  My friends even left my pride intact.

Most important - I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who helped.  When you've rolled your boat and are in the sh!t - that's when you find out who your friends are.  Thanks everybody.   

AMB, thank you very much for sharing. Would you mind telling us how you flipped? How were you dressed under your drysuit? How much water got in? How cold were you in the water? What was the difficult part of the reentry? Were you able to get the boat flipped back over? Thanks again for sharing.

Thank you Noah for posting these questions and AMB for sharing. For us noobies this info is absolutely imperative to our success and safety on the salt! The more we know the less likely we are to "panic" because once that button is pushed all commone sense (and whatever knowledge you may have obtained) goes out the window! Just the shock of unexpectedly hitting that cold water is going to render you senseless for a time. The faster you can get a hold of yourself the better your chances. Ok I will get off the soapbox 

I wanted to bring up a reentry technique I found on YouTube that I have not seen discussed here yet.

This video demonstrates the use of a strip. Obviously the video is promoting the sale of the gadget and quite honestly I find it totally useless in cold rough water conditions! However being a horse person I immediately zoomed in on the idea and had an actual Duh moment! Just about any strap, bungee, or rope can be used as a strip! Even the game keeper will work if it is leashed to the boat! It would take some practice but it would give a person the added leverage to get back into the boat! I don't know if this idea will help but I intend to practice and become adept in this technique! 

HOW PDX filmed some reentry drills we did a while back. I'll see if I can dig them up and figure out how to edit them. Is there a free editing software out there anyone can recommend?

HOW PDX filmed some reentry drills we did a while back. I'll see if I can dig them up and figure out how to edit them. Is there a free editing software out there anyone can recommend?

I can help edit them if you want, I have software and some experience. PM me if you want help.

This is SO HELPFUL for those of us newbies.  Thanks for sharing your experience and helping others!

You know what would be awesome... If someone in a powerboat could be on station and we could all have a practice day where we could get dumped in the water in similar condition to Orc and see what happens. The PB offers a measure of additional help and it could be done in relative safety.

Noah - my boat rolled over as I was reaching out to grab my floating plyers from the ocean.  Just went past the balance point and that was that.

I wore jeans, socks, and a tee shirt under my dry suit.  The jeans and socks were soaked, as was the bottom half of my shirt.  No water poured out of the suit because my clothes had soaked it all up.

The cold never really hit me until I was back in my boat.  That's when I realised just how wet I was inside the dry suit.  That's also when the cold set in.  Pedaling back in kept me warm enough until I got back to the launch, then some dry clothes really helped me feel better.

The difficulty with reentry to the kayak came from my inexperience with this particular boat.  My old boat was very stable and easy to get into.  The new Hobie has a different center of gravity and balance points.  My new boat and I needs some self rescue practice together.

The boat turned right over for me.  That was the easiest part.  I didn't have much on it though to get in the way.  My plan for that day was to keep it simple and just have fun so I really didn't loose much gear.

I hope that answers your questions.  I learned alot from this experience, and count it as a positive.  Maybe something here can help someone else out in the future too.

Alan

I spoke at some length with Doug, the first guy to flip. I rather let him tell the story and I hope he does- there are several lessons to learn from it.

I was in a great position to help the two that went over, but I did not have my radio on 69 yet and had no idea it was happening. I didn't learn about it until several minutes later, about the time the zodiac showed up.

So my lesson learned - know how to set up my radio to scan selected channels. I'm typically pretty quiet on the radio and that day I just listened to 80, when I should have been monitoring 80, 69 and 16.

I wasn't there but thanks everyone for sharing what happened and such.

amb, do you have any idea how water got inside your drysuit? Holes, bad gasket/zipper, slightly open zippers? A drysuit should not take on water like you described.

What Hobie were you using out of curiosity?

No idea yet how the water got in my dry suit.  It needs to get checked out though.  I was using my Hobie Revolution, and this little episode has not changed my plans to keep using it.  I just need to get better with it.

Noah - my boat rolled over as I was reaching out to grab my floating plyers from the ocean.  Just went past the balance point and that was that.

I wore jeans, socks, and a tee shirt under my dry suit.  The jeans and socks were soaked, as was the bottom half of my shirt.  No water poured out of the suit because my clothes had soaked it all up.

The cold never really hit me until I was back in my boat.  That's when I realised just how wet I was inside the dry suit.  That's also when the cold set in.  Pedaling back in kept me warm enough until I got back to the launch, then some dry clothes really helped me feel better.

The difficulty with reentry to the kayak came from my inexperience with this particular boat.  My old boat was very stable and easy to get into.  The new Hobie has a different center of gravity and balance points.  My new boat and I needs some self rescue practice together.

The boat turned right over for me.  That was the easiest part.  I didn't have much on it though to get in the way.  My plan for that day was to keep it simple and just have fun so I really didn't loose much gear.

I hope that answers your questions.  I learned alot from this experience, and count it as a positive.  Maybe something here can help someone else out in the future too.

Alan

Alan-
Thanks for the additional details. If you don't mind a suggestion, even on the hottest days I always wear thick poly sweat pants and at least a medium weight fleece. You may sweat a bit more than just a tee-shirt but you need that extra insulation if you're in the water for an extended amount of time. It sounds like you did a great job remaining calm and working with the guys around you to get back into your. When we did our safety training it became clear there are certainly big differences between reentry in different boats. Thanks again for sharing!

It sounds like it wouldn't hurt to have an on the water self-rescue and rescue practice day.   Anyone else interested?  I'm willing to help put something together for the Portland area crew. 

Hey Alan, did you check your relief zipper?  It sounds silly, but I know several people who have forgotten to zip it and found themselves with a bunch of water suddenly pouring in.

Hey Alan, did you check your relief zipper?  It sounds silly, but I know several people who have forgotten to zip it and found themselves with a bunch of water suddenly pouring in.

That was my 1st thought also.  Getting your relief zipper fully closed can be a chore.  It's easy to leave it gapped if you're not careful.

-Spot-

Hey Alan, did you check your relief zipper?  It sounds silly, but I know several people who have forgotten to zip it and found themselves with a bunch of water suddenly pouring in.

That was my 1st thought also.  Getting your relief zipper fully closed can be a chore.  It's easy to leave it gapped if you're not careful.

-Spot-

BTDT!

-Allen