Casualty management

I do know the techniques available - I'm SI at a sailability centre where recovery of disabled persons is something we have to train ourselves for.  Fortunately it's not something we often have to put into practice.  The truth of the matter is that it's actually an incredibly difficult thing to do unless you can call in a helicopter, and thus risk the person drowning or dying from hypothermia while you wait for it, or you risk serious harm to the safety boat crew.

I think the point of my post was to demonstrate to zippy that while what he was expounding was all good in theory, would be almost impossible to put into practice.  I think he sees that now.