Man overboard in 11 °C water off Estavayer, with one person left aboard
Late April, 09:20, Lake Neuchâtel off Estavayer. Air 9 °C, water 11 °C, wind 15 kn south-west with a 0.4 m chop, visibility good. You are the skipper of a 7 m motorboat with a 150 hp inboard sterndrive, cruising at 12 kn with one passenger, who is leaning over the starboard rail to adjust a fender. He is wearing jeans and a fleece and no life jacket. He overbalances and goes over the side; you see him surface about 25 m astern and to starboard, shouting, and the boat is still making way. You are alone at the helm. The shore is 600 m away, downwind. You have a throw bag, a horseshoe lifebuoy, a boarding ladder at the stern, VHF on 16 and a mobile phone. Freeboard at the stern is 0.8 m. The propeller is at the stern, behind the ladder.
1. What do you do in the first 60 seconds, and what turn do you use to get back to him?
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First, buy him time. Shout 'man overboard' so he hears you and knows you have seen him, and throw the horseshoe lifebuoy and the throw bag at once - not to pull him in, but because a floating object marks the spot in 0.4 m of chop where a head is 20 cm above the water. Press MOB on the GPS if it has one.
Then kill the propeller risk. Throttle to neutral immediately. A sterndrive with the prop behind the stern ladder is the single most dangerous object in this rescue; never engage astern near a person in the water, and plan the approach so the stern never sweeps toward him.
Keep him in sight. You are alone, so point at him with your arm and do not look away to fiddle with instruments. Ten seconds of looking down and he is lost in the chop.
The turn. With him in sight 25 m astern, use the quick stop: hard over to the side he fell (starboard), which swings the stern away from him rather than toward him, then back to bring the boat alongside. A Williamson turn - hard over one way, then hard over the other to run back down the reciprocal track - is the right choice when you have lost sight or in poor visibility, but it takes longer and you do not need it here.
Approach. Come in from downwind and up-current so the wind and chop drift him onto the boat, engine in neutral, and stop before you reach him. He goes on the leeward side, away from the prop.
2. He is alongside but has stopped shouting and cannot grip the rail. How do you get him aboard over 0.8 m of freeboard, and what do you do once he is in?
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Assume cold incapacitation. At 11 °C the first 60 seconds are cold shock - gasping, hyperventilation, panic - and useful grip and swimming ability go within 5 to 15 minutes. If he has gone quiet, he is losing function now, not recovering.
Do not let him climb. Cold hands will not hold the rail, and if he lets go you may lose him under the boat.
Rig a lift. Pass a line under his arms and make it fast - a bowline round the chest works; a line he grips does not. Get him to the stern ladder if he can still move, and use the ladder as a step so he climbs with his legs, not his arms.
The lift is the hard part. An 80 kg adult in soaked clothing is over 90 kg, and 0.8 m of freeboard is above the height you can deadlift over the gunwale from a kneeling position on a moving boat in a chop. Options, in order: a 2:1 purchase using a halyard, a block or a sheet winch if you have one; a boarding strap or sling; or time the lift with the boat's roll. Get his torso out of the water first and roll him in - going over the side head-down is a good way to drown a hypothermic casualty at the last step.
Once aboard. Airway first, then breathing. Wet clothing off, dry, out of the wind, insulated, and horizontal. Do not rub his limbs and do not give alcohol.
Call early - you are single-handed with a casualty aboard, which is exactly the situation where you want help coming to you rather than arriving after you have managed.
3. Which radio call do you make, what does it contain, and what follows after you are both safely ashore?
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Choose the right level. A conscious, breathing casualty, a seaworthy boat and a short run to shore is an urgency situation, not a distress: PAN PAN, PAN PAN, PAN PAN, all stations, this is [boat name and call sign], with position, one person in the water recovered, hypothermia suspected, request medical assistance on arrival at Estavayer, and listening. The moment he is unconscious, not breathing, or the boat is in trouble, it becomes MAYDAY with a DSC distress alert on the dedicated button.
Content that matters. Position in latitude and longitude or a clear bearing and distance from a named point, the number of persons, the nature of the problem, what you need, and the boat's description and colours. Speak slowly and confirm that the coast station has copied you.
Alternatives. On a Swiss lake the cantonal police (117) and the lake rescue stations are reachable on the mobile phone and often quicker to task than a general VHF broadcast; the ambulance is 144. Use both if you can - you have one pair of hands and one radio.
Afterwards. Report the accident to the police: an injury to a person on the water is reportable, and the report protects you as much as anyone. Notify your insurer within the deadline in the policy. Write down the facts while they are fresh: time, position, water and air temperature, what he was wearing, the sea state, what you did and when. If alcohol was involved, expect a breath test - and note that the rescue itself is never a reason to delay a call to the authorities.
The lesson worth carrying. A life jacket would have kept his airway clear during cold shock, which is what actually kills people in the first minute, not hypothermia.