Safe Swimming from your boat

[MagicalArmchair]

My general aim, throughout 30 years of sailing, has been to stay firmly planted on the boat, and not to 'get off', least of all, into the wet stuff.

My kids are getting older, they all love swimming, and the new boat has a bathing platform. The question will come that they all want to leap off and swim around a bit.

How do you make this as safe as possible?

• Swimming only where\when the tide is slack around the boat and in sheltered waters.
• Float a loop of Poly rope to create a captive swimming zone? Although I guess that will just float off downwind/tide?
• Have everyone tied on with a piece of rope? Is this likely to cause more issues than it solves?
• They all have decent-ish wetsuits, so they will be able to keep warm for a little while.
• Have floating 'grab' lines down stream/down tide you can pull yourself back up with horse shoes on them?

What do other swimming folk do here?

[Yngmar]

We jump in and swim. When we're done we climb back out. One safety thing I insist on is having a swim ladder that can be deployed from the water, as sometimes you either forget (like when jumping off the bow instead) or might have fallen in (never happened yet). Helps with the climbing out part.

When the crew was having some unreasonable fears similar to yours, I cured her by having a fender tied to a bit of rope floating behind the boat, so she had something to grab onto in case of panic. She got over that pretty quick and now swims far from the boat and doesn't mind how much water is below her feet.

If current is faster than you can swim, don't swim (or wear fins so you can swim faster). You'll surely notice all that water rushing past the boat before getting in.

Definitely do not tie ropes around people, that's bound to go all kinds of wrong. But do let the kids show you a bit more about swimming so you can get over your worries and maybe start to enjoy it. It's fun! Also very helpful in case of problems under the boat.

Only other safety kit I can recommend is a rocket launcher with plenty of ammunition to stop nearby jetskis, powerboats, waterskiers, etc. Those are the real hazards to swimmers, not the water. Otherwise it's swimming only near the boat :-(

[Trundletruc]

We do lots of swimming from our boat in Greece. Obviously we have warm water and no tide! but if its windy we have a long floating rope with a fender on the end fastened to the back of the boat.
Veering of the boat from side to side whilst at anchor is a problem when they first start. You have to convince them that the boat will eventually come back to them if they don't panic. Swimming from the back (where the ladder is) to the anchor chain is a good first step, particularly if someone follows them on board the boat with a rope dangling to water level. We never have anyone swimming without someone watching from the boat.
As Yngmar says the biggest problem for beginners is those pesky Super (Yachts) Motorboats, jet skis, ribs etc. and their waves.
Have fun!
Serendipity

[Symphony]

Floating line and fender a good idea. Also dinghy on painter as the grab ropes on the tubes are useful for children to hang off, as is transom. I used to find swimming against the current when anchored at the edge of channels in the harbour very good exercise. Good thing is the boat does not swing so you can slip off the back and just stem the current. Fender on line for extra security.

[Rampage]

Slack or virtually slack water in UK is the key so that it’s easy to stay close(ish) to the boat.  I’m not a massive fan of trailing lines but if it makes you or the swimmers feel safer, then a floating line with a fender on the end is workable.
I have a 15m throw line on the pushpit which I make sure is ready when I’ve got apprentice swimmers in the water.  I’ve used it as a floating line once or twice with a fender but think it’s better kept in place so it can be thrown to someone rather than them trying to swim to it.

[Markus]

Before last summer my son had just enough of swimming abilities so that I allowed him to start practicing from the swimming platform in calm waters. Initially I was always with him in the water. Once I remember in the very beginning it was a bit too windy in the anchorage and the boat swung quite far from us which was a bit concerning for me but at the end he kept swimming and eventually we made it to the boat without me having to drag him to it. Depending on the child, that could have been rather scary but my son is rather overly confident in his abilities than scared - I suppose that's the norm in young male behavior... 

Agree with the comments above that I would not tie anybody to the boat with a rope. What I would very much suggest is to be sure the conditions are far easier than what is the limit of the child's' abilities. Even in slack water, any small amount of chop in an anchorage makes it so much more difficult for a child to swim as opposed to a pool. I would also rule out swimming in anything of a tidal flow if in any doubt, and still probably at least during the first "swimming summer".

I always also moved also dinghy to the side of the boat as it tends to sail over a small swimmer if it's near the bathing platform.