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I finally got around to figuring out the best way to get back in the boat from the water without adding a boarding ladder.  Yesterday I tried a couple methods and did find a way that should work for even us weak old men.  I anchored in water that was deep enough that I couldn't touch bottom and windy enough to keep the boat steady on the hook.  I hooked up the two methods that I intended to try and jumped in the water wearing my lifejacket.  Bad plan.  Too late I realized that if my experiments were both failures, I would be in the water without a way to re-board the boat.  Oh well, the water was warm and I wasn't too far from shore so in I went.

I tried two methods.  The first was a single step rope ladder.  I hung it off the taff rail on the starboard side of the transom and set it deep enough that I could get my foot in it while bracing my knee against the transom.  This was a total failure.  No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get my foot out from under the boat and simply ended up laying on my  back in the water unable to pull myself up at all.

The other method was to string a line from the forward deck cleat to the aft cleat with some slack in it such that I could hang it off the side and get my foot in it while in the water.  It turned out that with a little adjusting, I could get back into the boat without that much trouble.  At first I had too much slack in the line so that it didn't allow me to lift myself up and reach deep enough into the cockpit.  I found through experimentation that with my foot in the line it should hang just a little below the chine.  Maybe mid to lower shin.  With my knee braced against the side, I was able to lift myself up to where my waist was over the rail in a good position.  I am just over 200 lbs so it is a pretty good load tipping the boat over.  Nonetheless, I wasn't able to get the toe rail to dip in the water without leaning back.  I should mention that I cleated off the main sheet to keep the boom from swinging over to the side that I was using which might have given the boat enough leverage to go over all the way on me. I would recommend  rigging a preventer to keep the boom on the opposite side of the boat while using this method.

I did find that I couldn't pull myself up any further because I lacked a good handhold on my oversized combings.  I solved this by moving over to the cabin bulkhead and grabbing the hatch opening.  Once I did that it was easy to haul myself back in. 

I can't say that casually using this method is the best way to go swimming, but it does work and it doesn't junk up the transom.  With a way to tighten the line while laying on deck, it could also be used as a jack line.  It won't keep you in the boat which is ideal, but it will keep you with the boat if you end up in the drink.  Anyway, with all the warm weather, I figured it was a good time to get this done.  It was fun and useful.

Al

Good idea for checking this. I usually like to climb up the rudder head and over the transom or onto the aft deck. It's possible to flip down steps or well positioned holes, so a foot has a place to live, as you climb out. Everyone should learn to do this, rather than figure it out after you've been tossed in the drink.

The genesis of this whole thing was the trip I took last week.  I spent three days and two nights on this particular lake in what for northern Minnesota is extreme heat.  (mid eighties)  I wanted to go swimming but because the lake was nothing but glacial granite, I couldn't find a place to beach the boat.  It would have been bad if I had gone over the side and found myself stranded in the water with no help around.  I did take a shower in the cockpit, but it just wasn't the same.  I now have a dedicated line for re-entering stashed in the bridge deck, and have no fear of being stranded in the water.

Al

A boarding line needs to be available from the water, just in case you forgot to deploy it before you no brained yourself over the side. Maybe inside one of the seat back lockers/holes. You can jump up, grab the line, tie it to a forward and aft cleat, adjust it's length and climb back in. Maybe just a dock line that stays cleated on one of the aft cleats.

I'm not going in the water to practice anything.  There's BIG lizards in there that can eat me. I have lines tied to stuff on both sides of the boat and a pistol if I can't get back inside fast enough.  Seriously, I don't plan on pushing my yacht to the point of needing to get back in it.  Ohh wait, i said yacht, well it's a yacht to me   No swimming in anything you can't see the numbers painted on the bottom is my motto

I hear you Paul, 

I have thought of leaving it attached full time to the two cleats and wrapping a twist tie around a loop in it to keep it snug and out of the way.  If I go in the water, I can simply tug on the line and the twist tie will come undone.  Viola!  I have climbed in the boat unassisted a number of times, but it is a hefty lift.  I don't want to depend on being able to hoist my bulk up that far just for fun though.  Right now I am treating it like the jib downhaul.  If it looks like there is a chance that I might need it, it only takes one minute to put on.  When I go on trips, I rig everything.  If I am just going out to bob around, I maybe don't.  I am still trying to figure out the best way to manage it, so all this is subject to change. 

Susan,

I kind of thought I might hear something from you.  Boy, I don't blame you for not wanting to go in the water.  The  worst things we have up here are leeches, muskies, and otters.  It turns out that otters will bite the hell out of you for some unknown reason.  Still, they won't take your hand or leg off.  So, anyway, I wonder if gators taste like chicken.

Al

Gators are a unique thing for us and they will not take your hand or foot off. Well, at least they'll wait until you've ripened up for a few days under one of their favorite logs. I too have a serious respect for these beasts, though they don't swim particularly fast and they can't climb very high.

Yeah, it seems that every place has some critters that need to be respected.  I'm really glad of that.  We have one in particular that people get all het up about.  Wolves seem to get way more attention than they merit.  We have quite the population of them up here and a lot of people hate that.  I have interacted with wild wolves numerous times, and with my knowledge of their close cousins that I raised for years, I appreciate every encounter.  They don't keep me out of the woods though, like gators would with the water.

Al

Gators live where the prospect of food is likely, so though you might see one in the middle of a lake, it's more likely you'll encounter them near shore, particularly if it's covered with tall grass, weeds and an easy slope. Unless they have a lot of interaction with people, they tend to avoid humans. I do occasionally swim, but never near shore or in water less than 6' deep. They work the shallows, where the water is warmest and cover easy to find. They're not the fastest or most agile things, so ambush is their best chance of a lunch ticket.

I'll disagree about gators being slow.  They can run 30mph on land and the general wisdom around here is to run a zig zag pattern to get away from one.  I've seen them come off a bank into the water and 12 feet of gator can move faster than I can move my hand.  I only know of one attack here.  Guy lost his entire arm.  Somewhere I have a photo of the gator swimming around with the arm in it's mouth.  He lived and the gator was killed and his arm was two badly damaged to reattach.  It's against the law to feed them but plenty of dummies do and that's when they lose their fear of humans.  Many dogs are lost each year because humans let them off the leash near bodies of water and all you hear is a splash, yelp and then ripples.  i've seen up to 12 footers in the reservoir and they have prehistoric monsters up in the big lakes.  The state has finally allowed a hunting season but only issues 600ish tags.  DNR estimates 400 gators in the reservoir alone.  I've seen them in the parking lot of the ace hardware store, had a friend shoot one in his pond 2 miles from the river.  Not any different than the ocean.  we have two tagged great whites that are regularly registered in the harbor.  I've seen bull sharks on many occasions and had a friend catch one in a kayak and dragged high speed for some distance before he could cut the line.

In the great scheme of things, cold water immersion, drowning or any of the other accident that happen during water sports is much more likely to happen.  It's just the idea of something coming up from the deep and dragging you down without a chance to scream that gets me