Shop Lifesling overboard rescue gear at West Marine.

Ideally, you or a crewmember will never fall off your boat—but it is a possibility. For this reason, it's important to be prepared with the gear you need to keep the overboard crew afloat and get them out of the water and back onboard. While ring and horseshoe buoys do provide flotation, they are of little use when it comes to assisting a waterlogged, exhausted (or otherwise incapacitated) crew member back onboard. The Lifesling overboard rescue system was developed for this reason. Lifesling rescue sings combine the benefits of ring and horseshoe buoys and function as lifting slings to hoist an overboard victim back on board. 

Lifesling System Components

Lifesling COB recovery systems consist of a horseshoe-shaped, buoyant flotation collar/lifting sling attached to a 125' or 150' buoyant polypropylene retrieving line. The design allows you to maneuver in a circle around the victim and tow the device and line directly to the COB. Once contact with the COB is made, they can be manually pulled to the boat. Depending on the configuration of your boat, sea state, and the status of the COB (who may be completely exhausted) manually pulling the COB out of the water and on to your boat can be extremely difficult. For this reason, we highly recommend the use of lifting tackle to give you a mechanical advantage to get this critical, time-sensitive task done.