A man-overboard situation is rare on a well-run boat, but it’s the one emergency where the first 30 seconds (before any manoeuvre even starts) matters as much as everything that follows.
The first actions, done at the same time
The moment someone goes over:
- Shout “Man overboard!” so the whole crew knows immediately.
- Assign a spotter: one person whose only job is to point continuously at the person in the water and never look away, not even to help elsewhere.
- Press the MOB button on the GPS or chartplotter if fitted, marking the position as a fallback.
- Throw flotation (a horseshoe buoy, lifesling, or cushion) toward them immediately, both to give them something to reach and to mark the spot on the water.
All four happen in parallel, in the first few seconds, before anyone commits to a specific recovery manoeuvre.
Three recovery patterns
Which pattern you use depends on conditions and how you’re sailing at the time:
- Quick-stop: turn hard toward the person immediately and heave-to on the same tack, then power or sail back down to them. Fastest, because the boat never gets far away: the default choice when you’re close aboard.
- Figure-eight: sail away on a reach, then loop back through a figure-eight to a reciprocal reach that brings you back through their position. Reliable entirely under sail, no engine required, but takes longer.
- Williamson turn: turn 60° off your original course, then put the helm hard over the other way onto the reciprocal heading. Built for poor visibility or night, when you might lose sight of the person entirely: it retraces your outbound track without needing visual contact the whole way.
Getting them back aboard
Once you’re alongside, connect them to the boat (a line, a lifesling loop, or a harness clip) before you try to lift them. A cold, shocked or injured person can lose the ability to hold on within minutes, so securing the connection comes first.
Actually lifting someone aboard is often harder than the manoeuvring that got you there: dead weight, a wet and slippery grip, and freeboard height all work against you. This is exactly why boats carry a boarding ladder, a lifesling hoist, or a rigged block and tackle: decide how you’d do this before you ever need to.
Practice it before you need it
Run an MOB drill with a fender standing in for the person, on a calm day, with the full crew. Debrief immediately afterward: a fumbled line, a hesitant spotter, or an engine that took longer to start than expected are all things you want to discover during a drill, not during the real thing.
Work through the eight questions below to check the sequence and the pattern choices.