typing it wrong!
“Do I have to type everything out for you”
Yes! Because time you type some more, you just expose some other uninformed assumptions.
"If unassisted recovery is doable then it should have a priority over group rescue. "
No! No! No!
It’s THE FASTEST RESCUE is the priority!
I wonder if you ever practice assisted rescue in condition at all! Raft up, both the swimer’s boat AND the rescuer’s boat is extremely stable. So the rescuer is not put into any risk by executing the rescue.
If you could do a cowboy rescue and resume paddling before other member of the group got to you, you should do so. But your idea of a group sitting by watching the swimmer fumble about to get back in while battered by the wave being a “priority” is laughable.
Misinterpretations
I believe you misinterpret my messages on purpose.
I have practiced group rescue in conditions and I do not suggest a group should “force” an individual to do unassisted recovery but I do say you as an individual should be prepared to do an unassisted recovery in case the group is unable to help you. Unassisted recovery is most of the time the fastest recovery (if you start the clock when you fall in). The rescuer is put into risk while getting into a position where he/she can help you.
Bow lift question
It seems like whenever I try a bow lift, I go down but the bow does not come up. Are most boat too heavy for this?
If the boat has any load in it or is full of water it is just to heavy for me to lift. Is there a trick to it?
Difficult for me, but
The best suggestion I’ve seen for the bow lift is to put anything that might help float like the paddle between your legs, drop down under the water a bit then do a big scissor kick up at the same time that you break the bow away from the water and lift it. This way the buoyancy of the PFD that wants to break the surface is helping. I’ve seen guys do this and neatly dump a boat full of water out as the boat rotated to an upright position.
Suffice to say it doesn’t work quite so well for me at my size and strength. I do kick up, but the boat goes up about as much as I go down. I have found that having a boat with a lower profile and smaller cockpit, so it doesn’t trap a ton of water in the first capsize to start with, works as well or better than the bow lift. Kind of like when I was doing road biking - I always had trouble with the last 8 inches in replacing an inner tube so I went to kevlar lined tires. It avoided the whole mess.
no mis-intepretation
"The rescuer is put into risk while getting into a position where he/she can help you."
If you paddle in such a condition where your buddy can't assist you without risking themselves, they're not your buddy. They're at best spectators.
Worse, they're merely liabilities!
If that's how you look at getting training to be comfortable in rough condition, you'll need more than just the cowboy as a backup rescue. For you'll be rescueing your "liabilities" more than you need to rescue yourself!
I bet size matters a lot too
A guy 6’ tall with long arms don’t need nearly as much kick to get the bow up. But a 5’ short gal with short arm would need to fly out of the water to raise the bow the same height.
I suppose one can time it so the lift happens at the top of the wave, if that’s possible.
Watching the video, the hold on the boat is a bit precarious during that one handed lift. I would worry a bit about losing the boat on a windy dat…