Yep, I have fallen in at the pier and simply swum around to the swimstep and deployed the under-step ladder. Fine; it wasn't cold water; the boat was not moving in rough water. But what if it was dark and cold and rough, the boat is underway, and worst of all, I was alone. In the very last instance, I guess I am dead, but what actions could be taken by my wife who normally is aboard in cold, dark, and rough underway conditions?
The swimstep area is very dangerous to a person in the water in rough conditions not only because of props and rudders but also because of that structure trying to dash you, now cold and numb and probably not really alert, in the head further complicating the wife's problem. Have you been near a pitching boat's swimstep in rough water? I have, and I know whereof I speak. I prefer trying some other place to reboard.
Amidships is a safer place to be around a boat in these conditions, but how to mount that cliff? Some would have a portable hard ladder with J hooks over the rail, and that may be fine, but cold and weakened people cannot climb such a ladder. In the adverse conditions I mentioned above, I would need assistance to a level my wife may not be able to provide - amongst other things, she may be having to maneuver the boat a bit to lessen the rolling.
For a while, I used to rig the trawler's dinghy boom out for open water transits with a sling ready to toss to the person in the water. A hand operated winch with a four-to-one advantage in the lifting tackle would help get a person aboard who could assist the rescuer by grabbing rails etc as he was hoisted high enough. BUT imagine all this going on as the boat rolls violently possibly swinging the rescuee away and and then violently into the side of the boat. And I am not sure I trusted that boom in those circumstances anyway.
All things afloat being a compromise, in order to have the strength I thought the system needed and to prevent as much damage to the rescued person as possible, I secured a 5/8" braided mooring to line to the port amidships cleat with enough slack to have it lead up and across the flying bridge (NOT over the bimini, but across the FB bulkhead cap rails) and then drop down to end with its spliced eye at head level for a person standing on the stbd side deck. The door to the lower helm (on the stbd side of the salon) was just a couple of steps forward of this point allowing the rescuer to be close to both critical places. To this eye was rigged a lifting tackle with a pair of multi-part sheaves with 1/2 inch line running through them with the hauling part (this is important) leading downward. Our plan was that the throwable PFD would be secured at the stbd amidship cleat with 60 feet of polypropylene line and towed in a circle to within reach of the person in the water at which point he could be pulled or pull himself to the rescue point where the horseshoe collar on the end of the lifting tackle would be handed down, and with BOTH the person on deck and the person in the water (if able) taking hold of the hauling line to get the rescuee back up the four to five feet of rolling boat side without smashing him into it to where he could get a leg over the bulkhead cap rail at which point the rescue was all but complete.
Just about any boat with a side deck can be so rigged, and there are a million way to add power winches and other labor-saving item, but I offer this as a think piece for those considering how to handle such emergencies.
You solo sailors really need to have an engine stop device plus self-rescue apparatus, don't you? You are NOT going to get back aboard by pulling yourself in via a safety line to a boat cruising at even a couple of knots let alone trawler speed.
You may correctly ask what about my current boat (avatar); how is it rigged? Well, it is not a long range cruiser likely to see really seriously rough water, is it? If alone, I don't even leave the protection of the hardtop area to go into the cockpit while the engine is in gear.
