It was the Christmas season, and we were partying on S/Y Ketoro with a group of friends. As happens at boat parties, a glass was knocked overboard. The next morning, when the conditions were perfect for a search, we donned our snorkel gear and undertook the search for the glass. No luck. It was not to be found.
Later that day, I mentioned to Darrel that we should make a simple device consisting of a buoyant object, a weight, and enough line suitable for the anchorage we happen to be in. “We could call it an OOB”, I suggested. All sailors know about MOB (man overboard); the OOB is a slight variation.
So Darrel dug in our lockers, located a small buoy we found on the beach, stole some fishing line from my gear, and retrieved a heavy piece of redundant hardware that he had buried deep in our bilges. He put it all together, and – Voila! – Our first OOB.
We presented OOB 1 to our friends on Ketoro. They have since used it (in stand-by mode when replacing zincs and as a hammer to insert the zincs – how creative) and are pleased with the results.
We have since made OOB 2. It is amazing how many spare buoyancy objects and weights a catamaran can hold in her bilges. So next time we lose a clothes pin or zinc or wine glass, it won’t be OOPS … it’ll be OOB.
