Boat Diving Safety skills, do you know what to do?? Does your instructor or DM know?

[JT2]

I realize that most people who dive from a boat are usually on chartered dive boats with many other people, so the problem of getting a diver in need of help back on board is not as difficult as it would be with only one or two other people to help, so my question is more geared toward those of us who dive from our own boats with a limited number of people on board. I know that we all practice safety drills (or we should be anyway) before a dive and that we also plan each dive as we should, but my question to all of you boat divers out there is, do you ever discuss how you are going to get an injured diver back aboard the boat, and if you have, have you actually practiced it to see how efficient it is or if it will work at all? I have asked several instructors in my area about this and most of them agree that this is an area of great importance, however almost none of them take any time to even bring this up to their students, and that includes rescue classes, the ones that do bring it up say that they spend very little time on the topic and that there are other things far more important. I would like to know what could be more important? I agree you need to get the diver to the surface and make sure the airway is clear, but from there on out that patient needs to be in the boat receiving first aid and being transported to the nearest location on land where help is available, or in the case of an accident off shore several miles the injured diver still needs to be in the boat and receiving first aid in preperation for air-vac removel if neccesary. I just think that this is one of those things that is often overlooked and can lead to tragedy. If you are one of those people that include this type of safety drill in your boat diving be sure that if you happen to be diving from a different design boat than you usually do that you practice your method on that boat as well, as your plan may need to be modified for that boat. I for example usually dive with the same dive buddy and we almost always dive from his 26 foot potoon boat when lake diving and we usually have at least one person left behind on the boat while we are diving, however we do sometimes dive some of the small protected coves in the lake by ourselves without taking along someone else to stay behind on the boat. At the first part of last years diving season we decided to actually try out our plan for getting an injured diver back on the boat if we were diving alone, and we were a little surprised to find that it was far more difficult and wasted a lot more valueable time than we expected. After that little ordeal we decided to build a small swing boom with a 12volt 400# ATV winch with manual overide and install it on the back of the boat, and it really did not cost that much to do. I know that this probably sounds like overkill to some of you, but we both have the piece of mind of knowing that we can easily get one another aboard if need be in an emergency, oh yeah, it also works good for recovering heavy stuff from the bottom and is safer than a big lift bag. I would be interested in hearing some of the ways you guys have planed for this type of situation and if it is something you practice very often. Also, has anyone ever asked a dive boat operator how they go about doing it, or do most people just assume they know what to do? And to any of you instructors out there, what do you teach, and why do you think this is not covered more thoroughly?

 

[wetman]

Havent planned for it. But its a very good thought - my avon has the extra big tubes on it as well. I'll definitely have to practice this this year.

steve

 

[XtremeSea1]

I've done an extensive amount of diving from my 23ft trophy in both Puget Sound and Off-shore Florida and done these types of drills. What I have learned is...

These are pretty generalized as all boats are different....As soon as you know there is a diver on the surface in need of medical attention...ensure flotation then make a MAYDAY call. I was surprised that it can take upwards of 5 minutes to get a person back on board depending on their size. Delaying the MAYDAY call can mean the difference between life or death. Always attempt to remove unnecessary gear in the water especially with a limited amount of manpower to get the victim back on board. Don't waste valuable time trying to salvage their gear, it's really not important. It's helpful to ditch the tank, reg, and fins as the BC provides a few handy "handles" for lifting the victim back on board as well as flotation.

Above all other things, preparation is paramount. Make sure everyone on board is completely familiar with the vessels operation including radios, nav-aids, and signalling equipment because the person floating face down, may be you.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Actually egresses typical for the area are required skills in the rescue classe I teach. We can't practice every possible egress there is but from the work we do it should become apparant that the egress is a critical part of the rescue and divers need to be prepared for the conditions at hand.

What rescue classes don't include practice removing a victem from the water?

 

[ghosty_old]

XtremeSea1 once bubbled...

Above all other things, preparation is paramount. Make sure everyone on board is completely familiar with the vessels operation including radios, nav-aids, and signalling equipment because the person floating face down, may be you. [/B]

Great point. Kinda useless to have radio and other equipment if the only one who knows how to use it you, and you are the one in trouble.

 

[JT2]

because the person floating face down, may be you.

This is very true, one should always make sure everyone else is familiar with the boat and its controls in case the captain is the one needing rescue.

 

[Genesis]

My big boat has a platform, so that makes it significantly easier, because its only a few inches off the water.

However, in a real emergency if the boat has to be immediately moved, and its anchored, you have a whole host of bigger problems. You can cut the rode, but that takes time! Hauling it up actually might be quickly (I have a windlass)

I do show the folks who I dive with how and where anything that's "odd" works. For example, my throttles are on the left, which is backwards from many boats - has to do where the walkway on the bridge is (knocking a transmission out of gear while walking past is a GREAT way to buy a $10,000 gearbox!) They have START buttons as opposed to "twist key", but you must twist the key to "on" for the starter to crank. Where the O2 bottle is. Etc....

I typically arrange groups in the water so that someone is always on the boat who is competent to drive. There would be nothing worse than surviving an incident underwater and then being run over by the boat afterwards! Those twin 26" screws would chop you up into shark chum and not even slow down.

 

[Drew Sailbum]

Some years ago I taught sailing, and one of the required skills was a man overboard drill. I was known for adding a sharp dose of reality by jumping off the boat.

No matter how many times the student had practiced retrieving a cushion, they always found a real person in the water to be a completely different issue.

Lessons learned from these experiences include that fact that the freeboard (height of boat above water surface) greatly affected effective technique. Anything more than about 1 foot of freeboard required a sling to bring aboard an "unconcious" victim in a reasonable amount of time. Slings could be fashioned from a length of rope with a suitably placed couple of knots.

Boats with lower freeboard could accomplish a rapid retrieval with two people on board lifting the victim by his armpits. Such a lift would work from a low entry platform that many dive boats have.

 

[Uncle Pug]

this is a very good topic. And it isn't just divers that need to think about this... in fact the general boating population is more at risk here since those who fall overboard in these waters don't have long to live.

Lifesling is a commercially available product that combines a throwable floatation device with a lifting harness and pulley system. It does however need a pick point for the pulley... something like a sailboat halyard.

Most dive boats that I have seen are not optimized for unconcious diver/overboard passenger retrieval. All of the boats that I have had in the past would have been very difficult to yard somebody onboard easily... brute strength and adrenalin would have sufficed if supplied in sufficient quantity but it wasn't the best.

Uncle Pug (the boat) has a hydraulic winch as well as a S.S. boom that could be used to hoist a couple of unconcious divers out at the same time.... this is a fortuitous circumstance that had nothing to do with my safety planning. It was on the boat when I got it.

 

[Genesis]

I have a tuna door (opens completely - not just a "hole") that goes to the platform, and is only a few inches up from it. The platform itself is very close to water level.

If I had to lift something REALLY heavy I also have a crane on the bow. Its not designed to lift human loads, but it definitely would - it has an 800lb rating (its designed for a dink!) and in an emergency I'd fashion a sling out of one of the spare docklines that I keep aboard and lift the "load" that way.

Unfortunately that leaves the diver in distress stranded on the bow, which is not a good first choice if there are other alternatives, as the only way back is to walk down the side decks. You're NOT going to be able to carry a disabled person back down those.