We had an incapacitated paddler to deal with recently and I learned three things:

1. Sails are a great safety asset (we used a V tow with both tow boats using sails and also the person assisting the incapacitated paddler also had a sail; with the three sails we maintained good speed; obviously we were travelling downwind luckily)

2. Tow ropes must all be standard 15m (having them the same length meant the two V-towers could easily communicate and egg each other on) and they should have a shock cord component to absorb stress on the system

3. Landing an incapacitated paddler (ie one who can't paddle or brace) through a surf break is no laughing matter - we were very lucky that it was tiny surf so two of us, after landing, were able to swim to the victim and help him and his boat into shore. The surfbreak was only about neck depth but If it was much bigger I suspect we would have needed to put the victim in the water and then swum him in....in bigger surf this would not be good for a severely injured person plus someone would then need to swim back out to retrieve his boat....has anyone practiced that with a pfd on?

Hi Schroeds,

Sounds like you did a good job of sorting out the situation. A paddle float can come in handy in those situations where your patient is in the water, jammed down the front of the patients PFD for extra boyancy and to keep them face up. A severe injury (life threatening or neck/back) would normally mean a call to VMR or similar to get a rescue from the water - depending on the location etc... rafting up and calling for help may be the best option to prevent further injury to the patient. I like your suggestion for swiming in the patient in the right conditions - assuming the patient can cope with that its probably the best bet and a good time to use the paddle float. Rather than going back for the boat you could just push it into the surf zone - without a passenger they do pretty well, just leave the patients spray deck on the boat.

When using the V tow I find it better to have a continuous length running between the 3 boats with a small pulley on the towed boat - this means that the line always stays tight between the towing boats and prevents the situation where one of the boats pulls slightly harder and the slower boat starts just pulling slack towline through the water. You can get the small pulleys from sailing chandlers pretty cheaply and I just leave it on my tow line all the time, tucked up into the bag. It means you need a longer tow line (30m) but if you use VB cord the extra weight and bulk is bugger all - I daisy chain my line for nomal one-on-one tows. You also need to make sure the line can be released easily from each boat - simple to set up if you do some practice with the system first.

Cheers,

Kels

The V tow with a pully is an interesting idea, might try that. So you leave the pully threaded on to the towline? When you say you daisy chain to adjust down to single length, Does that mean that you ties a loop half way down the line? I gues my only isue with that is that it's one more thing to do in an emergency, but its not a big thing.

Hi Shroeds,

I've taken a couple of photos of my set up. Pic 1 shows the line as it sits on my deck, the quick release clip on the right is atached to my boat, the blue karabiner attaches to the towed boat - all standard stuff. Pic 2 is the line pulled out, you can see the daisy chain (the tow line is 11m if used like this) and the pulley with its quick release - if I was going to use a V tow I would clip the pulley to the front of the towed boat and the blue karabiner to the other towing boat. To extend the line out full length I just take one of the loops of line off the blue karabiner before clipping it to the other towing boat, then as we paddle away the daisy chain comes undone.

The downside is that this is a bit of a palaver to pack away after the tow, but given that you only really use a V tow for long distance towing and you only pack it away when the situation is over I have never found it to be a problem. Packing it up after a single tow is the same as a normal tow line, just take handfulls and stuff them into the bag.

Hope this helps.

Adam

Hey Adam, where's the float on the "towee" end of your set-up? I'ts a bugger when this sinks to the bottom and you have to retrieve it all, before you can go on and resue your patient. I use a simple keyring float, obtainable from any Chandlery for about $2 which fully supports my 15M towrope and snaphook.

even just a lump of closed sell foam is good. with mine I have 15m of VB cord with 2 hooks and the bag is made with flotation in it . I yousualy clip the bag onto the towed boat and the free end onto my boat and just paddel of .
I dont bother chaining it , iv had problems with the chain sistem when working on resque equipment on big boats and im a bit nervos about it.
I also cary a short tow as well , its only long enuf to clear the back of my boat by about500mm and I also yous it as a life line to me when im sailing by my self for thos just incase moments, the slack line gets stuferd into my PFD poket and feeds out like a throw bag if I fall out, this needs a quick releas on it so you can jet free quick. A note about spinica clips , ther the ronstan quick releas clips as in Kells photo, thay do need mantanance, a good cleaning and lubrication with eather silicon spray or graphite powder, not oil or WD40 as oil will atract sand and sumtimes goes glugie in solt water.

I used to have a float on it, a small square of blue foam as Mick describes but it wore through and fell off and I never bothered replacing it. Probably should but you know how these things go... The only thing I dont like about this system is the weight of the clips - they worry me if something lets go and they become airborne. I'd rather some plastic style ones that are less likely to cause injury, but these are what I had when I put it together. Its a work in progress.

For a while I was using an old thong to wrap the towline around, it doubled as a float, but I liked the bag system better.

I just rinse off the bag with fresh water and the clips seem to be holding up OK - I guess it wouldn't hurt to put some lubricant on them though.

Cheers,

Adam

with the prospect of the clips becuming airborn, I wold think that the VB cord wold brake, leaving the clip atached to the boat , I wold think the atachment point stronger than the cord. to get plastic/nilon clips strong enugh thay wold posibly need to be quite large and balky. my tow only has 45mm stainles snap hooks, no quick relise hook , ther small and east to un clip .

my tow only has 45mm stainles snap hooks, no quick relise hook , ther small and east to un clip

But are they easy to release upside down Mick?

Geoff

hadent realy thort of that, mabe i need to look at a quick releas on my end

Hi Mick,

I reckon a quick release at your end is a must - I have it so I can "cut away" from a boat if it starts to pull me backwards into danger, such as when you're rescuing someone from around rock gardens with breaking waves or in the surf. Personally I would prefer to tie a quick release knot onto a towing fitting on the kayak, but I dont have a fitting on my Ellesmere, hence why I've used the spinnaker clips. You may notice I've tied a little loop onto the release as well, to make it easier to grap.

How's the F1 going? My Tyak is now virtually yellow above the waterline - that UV must be quite low where Brian lives!

Cheers,

Adam

Hay Kels,
my F1 is a brilant tofie colour already, we must have realy bugerd the ozone layer down hear !
Iv been looking at alternatives, I like the quick relise knot tied onto a clip, If I cut away it leaves the clip on the boat. but not all paddlers are afishant at tiying knots without thinking about them ( ocupational haxard ) and the sinica clip is definatly a good option so is a cam cleat on the deck as well I cant get to like chaning the line, when I worked with big stuf the ods wher against it deploying every time, sumtimes the rate of deployment wold jam the chain , even a twist can disrupet the flow. I dont think thers an easy anser, stufing the line into a bag is good, but hard in a confused sea state, wraping a line around sumthing is easy but eventualy will cors the line to twist into a tangel a fishing hand real is easy, but bolky to stow I stil youse a small stuf bag with the clips on the out side when giding with skool groops on the lakes the powers that be suply white water throw bags for tow lines , big and balky , no shock absorber, and no fuse, totaly against what I feal is important in a system.

Mick, make a good throw bag, you've got the skills and know how and there's a market out there...I searched high and low for some shock corded webbing, no sign of it. It's a logical product for Flat earth. I'll be customer #1