South Bay Yacht Racing Club ASMBYC Rescue Award Nominee

South Bay Yacht Racing Club is proud to nominate Mollie Perlman for the 2011 ASMBYC Rescue Award. Mollie performed an emergency rescue in a difficult open water man overboard incident that would have been a certain fatality without her skill and cool headed action.

Mollie left, Allison right

Her story begins with a visit to her friend Allison in San Francisco when Allison’s boyfriend offered an afternoon sail on his 25 foot sloop. Although Allison had no sailing experience, Mollie had training from UCLA’s Marina Aquatic Center and was most eager to go.

She gradually discovered that the skipper/owner was as lacking in sailing and seamanship skills as his motor-less vessel was lacking in basic safety equipment. With building winds as they beat out of Sausalito, under the Golden Gate, and into the ocean, the hour was getting later and the skipper decided to gibe around heading back to the slip. Passing the helm to Allison as he went forward to tend the sheets, a large wave then heeled the boat and sent the off balance skipper into what would have been lifelines - if the small sloop had had lifelines.

Mollie quickly grasped the seriousness of the situation, for the skipper was in the cold water without a PFD and the boat was sailing away! Instructing the non-sailor Allison to keep her eyes glued to the overboard skipper, and then establishing emergency communications by cell phone, as there was no VHF radio aboard. Mollie conjured up all her pluck and sailing skills to affect this lifesaving open water rescue.

After the point after Allison lost visual contact with the MOB, Mollie’s own words tell the rest of this story best.

“By this point we had enough momentum to tack and head up some more. And finally, we had the boat owner back in sight! I was still beneath him, so I had to pass him just enough so that I'd have to only tack once more to get to him...that was the hardest part...having him in sight and having to sail past him. Once I knew I was high enough, I tacked the boat, pointed the bow almost right at him, and let my main out about 6 boat lengths away from him so I knew I’d be slow enough to pick him up. Once we got close enough, I pointed the boat just windward of him, and my friend helped lift him into the boat. We got him on our first attempt and we all were extremely relieved!

He was talking, which was a good sign, but I knew he was probably hypothermic since he had been in the water for about 15 - 20 minutes, so we made sure to have him change out of his wet clothes into dry clothing. By this point, probably 10 minutes after our call to 911, emergency responders showed up...a Coast Guard helicopter, a Fire Department boat, a Coast Guard boat, and a Fire Department jet ski. After establishing that we got the man overboard out of the water already, the Fire Department boat gave us a tow back to the marina...which ended up being another hour of me taking control of the tiller (yes, we ended up that far out past the bridge!), trying to keep the boat straight as the large swells knocked us around.

After the Fire Department left, I sailed us back to the dock (another 30 minutes) since the boat owner was still understandably shaken up from the ordeal. All in all, I learned many lessons, but I am just very relieved and glad that everyone ended the day safe and sound!”

SBYRC is very proud of our lifesaving nominee, Mollie Perlman.

Mike Guccione

Commodore SBYRC “the yacht racers club”