Re: [Paddlewise] Rescue Options

with respect to getting the boat to the victim: You could have emptied the 
boat where you caught it and then towed to the victim. You need to empty the 
water anyway.


> Hello all,
> 
> I had a nice day of paddling out on the IJselmeer yesterday. This 
> is a large inland sea that was cut off from the North sea in the 
> 30's. Anyway, it was nice and sunny but we had force 5 winds. Didn't 
> make the paddling too difficult (just slow) but did give us a chance 
> to practice rough water rescues. There were three of us, and as we 
> entered a particularly shallow and choppy area we had a capsize. 
> 
> 
> The paddler lost hold of his boat and it drifted downwind, luckily 
> towards me. I intercepted the boat about 20 feet (6 meters) from 
> the swimmer. The third paddler is a relative beginner and had a hard 
> time getting his boat turned around to aid the paddler in the water 
> and bring him over to me for the rescue.  He did manage it with some 
> shouted direction. He got the paddler on his bow, paddled over and 
> we performed a T-rescue without problems. 
> 
> Here are some observations and questions.
> 
> The paddler in the water had never swam with his paddle before. This 
> would have helped quite a bit. Even though he simply had to swim 
> down wind to me and his boat, holding on to his paddle and the large 
> amount of chop prevented him from doing so. The wind was of course 
> also slowly blowing me away. 
> 
> Lesson learned - go out and practice that paddle swimming. It isn't 
> too difficult but you do need to practice a bit to get the hang of 
> it. 
> 
> What are the best methods for swimming with a paddle without doing 
> a paddle swim? Wrapping your legs around it perhaps?
> 
> As I sat there holding his boat I felt pretty useless. I looked in 
> John Lull's rescue book last night and see I could have paddled over 
> to the capsized paddler by leaning over the empty boat and using 
> a draw stroke. I am not sure how far I could have gotten, it would 
> have at least minimized the amount of drift due to the wind.
> 
> Any other methods? I thought about attaching my tow line, but it 
> seemed like it would take too long to hook up and I was worried about 
> towing a boat full of water. And spend time detaching it to get the 
> boats set up for the rescue. Though if there had only been the two 
> of us this is probably what I would have done.
> 
> -Patrick
> 


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