The quick turn is the traditional response to a 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:
- 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 broad reach
- Turn upwind until the vessel is pointing at the victim; at this point the vessel should be on a close reach.
- Slacken the mainsail until the vessel comes to a stop with the victim in the lee side of the boat
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Read more about this topic: Man Overboard Rescue Turn
Famous quotes containing the words quick and/or turn:
“Life is all memory except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going.”
—Tennessee Williams (1914–1983)
“Part of the pain in leaving our children to go to work is that we miss them, wish we could be with them. We also hate to turn them over to someone who is not identical to us, who will do things, at best, differently—at worst, in ways we don’t believe are good for children. We are up against this whenever we share the care of our children with others—even grandparents or trusted and loved ones.”
—Joan Sheingold Ditzion (20th century)