Onshore Assisted Rescue/3

Above: The set-up for the rafted-bulldog tow. Top left, the main tower. Bottom center, the secondary rescuer and victim form a raft due to injury, seasickness, etc. (Note that the towline is anchored to the victim's deckline after being run beneath the secondary rescuer's deckline. Top right, the bulldog whose first job is to give the go-ahead to the tower to begin tower once the raft is formed. The wind and waves are onshore. Without the bulldog to push the raft's stern so that the raft is head-to wind, the tower will not be able to pull the raft offshore.

Note: this is part 3 of a five-part series detailing a kayaking accident that led members of nspn.org to develop the raft-and-bulldog tow shown above. Parts 1-4 describe the accident that led to its development. Part 5 describes how to execute the rescue.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Of the many errors to examine— my not wearing a helmet while paddling a heavy windward shore, our pod’s paddling too close to shore in an onshore blow, my unwillingness to voice my doubts about what we were doing — the brass tack that shines most brightly with the light of warning is how I handled the rescue.

Rather than use a stern- and then bow-tow, myself and two other paddlers probably should have helped Bethany with a four-paddler rescue now known locally as the raft-and-bulldog tow.

The bulldog-and-raft-tow, developed by North Shore Paddlers Network members Liz Neumeier, Dee Hall and Bob Budd, Steve Feldman and others in response to that day off Lanes Cove, is a good rescue to use in windward coast if you have a paddler in distress who cannot remain upright without help. The key is that you should use the rescue only if you are at least twenty yards offshore.

Below: another key to the bulldog rafted tow is a contact tow, or a short towline about 2'-long with a carabiner at each end. The contact tow is used to keep one kayak in close contact with another. To prevent losing contact tows overboard, many paddlers place in the center a block of closed-cell foam, as shown here, so that the tow will float if dropped.

Copyright 2008 Sea Kayaking Dot Net; illustration courtesy Pete Smith/connyak.org