Stabilizing a Victim

For tows with a stabilizer always clip onto the person needing the tow and not the person stabilizing. It is hard work stabilizing and they will want to switch off once in a while. If you are hooked up to them they must stay with the tow until it is finished. The key to being the stabilizer is to edge your kayak and keep the bows as close together as possible. Stabilizing a victim is harder then it looks.

Tow Landings

Landing a person in rough conditions is difficult at best and could be dangerous to both the person being rescued and the rescuers. Landing a person in over three foot surf is impractical. It is almost always possible to find a location with smaller surf.

If you must land in very large conditions, it might be safer to have the person leave their boat and swim in. If this is impossible, set up a drogue. A drogue is a type of sea anchor which slows the movement of a boat. Since very few paddlers carry a real drogue, the next best solution is to hook up a tow line to the stern of the boat being towed. The person in this rear boat would help to slow down the towed boat and also help keep it straight. When the towed boat starts to surf, the rear boat would paddle backwards trying to slow the movement of the towed boat. The rear person needs to be a very skilled paddler. You would not want to capsize while the towed boat is surfing in. The tow line needs to be as long as possible so the anchor boat does not surf a wave at the same time as the boat being towed. A great amount of force is being put on the people and all the equipment. It is sometime better to drop the tow just before entering the surf zone and have the person being towed handle the wave as best possible.

Before landing you would make a plan assigning jobs to different paddlers. One person would go ahead of the group and scout the landing zone for a safe location. This person will land and signal the rest of the group to slow down or paddle hard. As the group lands this person would grab the boat being towed and pull it up onto the beach. If this was a long tow and the group was large enough you might send a few paddlers ahead to land. Once they land, they could go for outside assistance or set up a first aid or bivouac station. If you have VHF radios the person on land can communicate with the people towing.