If you fall overboard in warm water and reasonable weather, your first concern might be embarrassment over screwing up the race, and later whether the boat would be back in the next half or hour so. But victims include experienced sailors and strong swimmers who are not at all prone to panic. Flailing, spastic breathing, muddled thinking, and a racing heart fit the pattern. These reactions may appear to an observer as nothing more than panic. Panic is likely, only serving to increase problems with breathing control and heart rate. Instantaneous and massive increases in heart rate and blood pressure can cause heart failure in otherwise healthy individuals. Consequences include the inability to hold your breath or think clearly. The initial gasp is followed by several minutes of hyperventilation, making any physical effort nearly impossible. Drowning will typically occur in less than a minute. If the first blast of inhaled water doesn’t drown you, you’ll arrive on the surface gasping and unable to swim and swallowing more. Even with an automatic vest, your head will plunge 6 feet underwater before popping to the surface. Unlike the controlled plunges of the local polar bear club, where participants walk in via a beach and are attended by rescue swimmers in dry suits, MOB sailors plunge in head first, the result of tripping over the lifeline. This results in a massive in rush of air, which can be fatal if you are underwater. The instantaneous reflex is a violent gasp, totally unlike the one scary movies strive to cause. It is estimated that 20 percent of victims die within 2 minutes. Being cast headfirst into icy water is one of most severe shocks a human can face, with deadly effects. Different from true hypothermia, which results from the body core temperature dropping over a period of 20 minutes to hours, cold water shock is immediate. Originally known as sudden disappearance syndrome, cold water shock has been known since the 1970s. It’s hard to recover from inhaling water, even for a strong swimmer. Most likely, when the icy water slams into a person’s face it causes an involuntary gasp. However, 50 degrees is well below the accepted threshold of shock. Swimming can be difficult after about 20 minutes. With the water temperature in the low 50s, true hypothermia sets in at about 30 minutes. Spring sailing in temperate climates still carries the risk of cold water shock. But when we read of a PFD-equipped sailor falling overboard and dying within minutes, it’s a real eye-opener. When we read of novice boaters drowning in a local lake, we’re sad, but say that will not happen to us because we wear PFDs. When we read about a sailor lost overboard in a storm, we think about PFDs and personal locator beacons, and accept the sea is unforgiving.

Trans am water drift