Man overboard

When I first agreed to write this article it was going to be about the impact of 21st century technology on man overboard (MOB) prevention and recovery. However, when I sat down and mapped out the MOB process, it became clear that what has changed is not so much the technology as our knowledge of what happens. There has been a trend in safety advice towards the promotion of lifejacket wearing and the use of an automatic identification system (AIS) and personal locator beacon (PLB) to improve outcomes for MOB. I include myself in the group whose thinking had been changing. However, while few would dispute the benefits of new-generation lifejackets and beacon alerts, perhaps we need to be looking at tether management and haul-aboard techniques as well.

The risk diagram

Have a close look at