Reboarding devices?

 I'm building a 19ft Southwest Dory and I'm wondering what other builders are using as a reboarding device? Rope ladder, step, etc?

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RE: Reboarding devices?

Noesgaardk,

I'm 76-years old so reboarding my Peeler Skiff has become an issue for me. The days when I could just grab the gunwale and haul myself back up are well past. I use the boat out on Narragansett Bay, so not being able to reboard could be catasrophic.

The Peeler Skiff is ultra-stable and has a good sized and pretty vertical transom, so a solution is probably easier than for the Southwest Dory.

Even when I was young and scuba diving regularly, I found a rope ladder to be a problematic means of boarding for me. The damn things are hellishly difficult to climb as they try to escape under the boat..

Last Spring my thoughtful son-in-law surprised be with a small swim platform with a metal folding ladder with molded plastic steps.. He attached it to the transon to port of the outboard. It works like a charm to let an old man to get in and out of the water.

Hope this provides food for thought.

Cheers,

Dick

RE: Reboarding devices?

I used to have a Sea Pearl 21 cat ketch, a fiberglass leeboarder of similar shape as the Southwester Dory--longer and heaver, but not a whole lot beamier.  I constructed a rope ladder similar to that shown as #3834 in The Ashley Book of Knots (pp. 590/591), described as a "knotted bathing ladder for a small boat":

"3834. A knotted bathing ladder for a small boat. The knot is given by Bocher. It is very comfortable for bare feet and it has the advantage that it may be stowed anywhere and will not mark or bruise other stowed articles. Take a piece of 2 1/4 -inch (circumference) rope -and middle it. Leave a loop at the center and seize in an eye. At a distance of one foot from the eye tie the series of knots that are pictured.  Splice the ends together or else leave them long and put a -MATIHEW WALKER KNOT in each end. A somewhat similar knot, that is perhaps more difficult to tie, is given as '# 800."

We made ours out of some 3/8" three strand nylon.  In this, the steps are fashioned from knotted rope (basically hangman knots worked in back and forth between the two legs of the doubled bight of rope).  Here's a little animation which will give you the idea:

https://youtu.be/pZGDFFJUU6I

...and a video here:

https://youtu.be/VEXttVyT1A4

The point of a rope ladder like this is that it stows easily without having any hard steps (round steps as in a Jacob's Ladder or flat ones as in a Pilot' Ladder.  The big knotted "steps" are easy on the bare feet and easy on the boat's finish.  Very salty looking, it was.  Any sort of rope which sinks (avoid polypropylene) would work.

I think ours had an Alpine Butterfly Loop worked in at the top instead of Ashley's seized loop, and the two ends were similarly conjoined with an Alpine Butterfly Bend.  In fact, I think we used it "upside down" with the two ends left long enough to tie around the mizzen mast with enough length to get all the rungs (I think ours had four) over the side.

As Dick noted above, something like this can be difficult to climb due to the natural tendency of it to swing under the boat.  In practice, most folks have trouble with it, because they try to grip the top of the ladder, put a foot on a rung, and then apply weight to the foot, whereupon the feet would go under the boat and the swimmer would go...nowhere.  What works better is to address the ladder from the side, insert the heel rather than the toe, and alternate feet back and front (of the ladder) as one ascends, keeping the torso close to the rope after the fashion of circus aerialists climbing up their narrow little ladders to perform their death defying feats.  With a bit of practice, one can learn to keep the feet down.  Also remember that you'll need something inboard of where the ladder goes over the gun'll so as to continue to pull yourself into the boat.

A length of thickish rope with a series of loop knots (the Alpine Butterfly has become my personal favorite for such purposes) would work nearly as well and could be gotten up on demand (the rope ladder takes some time to work up) if needed.

"Different ships, different long splices," as goes the old sailors' adage.  <;-)

.....Michael

RE: Reboarding devices?

  First, try reboarding without a ladder. On some boats, your weight is enough to pull down the gunnel close enough to the waterline to get a leg over it.

Second, keep in mind that in an accidental fall overboard, you have to be able to retreive and set up the reboarding device while in the water. This complicates things a lot when the device isn't or can't be attached to the transom.

My strongly preferred solution is to have the rudder designed and built strongly enough to be used for reboarding.  There are lots of ways to do this. A step  on the bottom end of the rudder stock, a hand-hold on the transom, a hook-shape on the back of the rudder stock that provides a hand-hold. 

I've found the easiest way to get back into my Autum Leaves is to grab the rudder, which has a hook-shape above the water, put my knees on the rudder bottom plate, then stand on the bottom plate, at which point I can reach the mizzen and then get my knees on the aft deck.

But yes, it's a very important consideration.

RE: Reboarding devices?

I like this simple method from Roger Barnes at about 20 minutes in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFwZSh_DAvA

 

 

 

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