Quick turn
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The Quick turn is the traditional response to the Man overboard emergency on a sailboat. Despite many new approaches, it is still a robust strategy and often the best method. Certainly when the crew is short handed, or when the vessel is in heavy weather, the Quick turn method has a lot of merit because it avoids a jibe.
As is shown in the drawing, the Quick turn is essentially a figure eight. On a sailboat it consists of the following steps:
- Call loudly “Crew Overboard”
- Assign a person to keep the victim in sight and clearly point towards him or her.
- Hit the MOB button on the GPS
- Start the engine and leave it in idle
- Change course to a beam reach and hold for 15 seconds
- Head into the wind and tack, leave the jib fluttering
- Veer off until the boat is at a beam reach
- Turn up wind until the vessel is pointing at the victim, at this point the vessel should be on a close reach.
- Slacken the main sail until the vessel comes to a stop with the victim in the lee side of the boat
- Hoist the victim on board with a sling, the spinnaker halyard can be very helpful if it is available.
See also
External links
- [NZ Coast Guard Man Overboard Procedures for Pleasure Craft]
- [Sailing USA]
- [US Navy - Naval War college in Newport]
- [Article in Sailing World]
- [Article in Yachting Magazine]
- [Quick Stop Method]
- [Sail Net, an online sailing community]
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