This week we’ll take learn about safety in the form of some new man overboard products. There’s not a worse situtation than to be on even the smallest body of water with a person accidentally in the water. Even in daylight, waves can make the human body hard to find. A person in the water truly shows how small humans are compared to our watery planet.

Franck Cammas an Open 60 trimaran skipper has been testing a man overboard system he calls wavefinder. In this sytem a beacon is attached to each crews inflatable PFD. When the jacket inflates, the beacon transmits a signal to the boat. On board there is a display which shows the course to be taken to get to the person in the water.

Another product is the Sea Marshall. This method uses a beacon on the 121.5 MHZ frequency. Transmission begins after 17 seconds in the water. Each unit is $ 254.00. This product is used on board Steve Fossett’s Cheyenne.

There is even a man overboard recovery system that is wrist watch size.

I’ve not used any of them, but they should make the person in the water seem bigger which should help in recovery.

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