Kirk,

Thank you. and others may be able to use Sea Step as well. It looks tough, light weight, easy to stow and easy to handle. Excellent.

Great Idea, not only for dinks, but boats as well that do not have a swim ladder. Even with one, in a seaway, that stern can be rising and falling and slapping hard down into the seas.

I have tried to retrieve people from the water.....one time was in the ocean waters between Catalina and Hermosa Beach, CA. . We were an escort boat for a friend who was
paddle boarding the 20 plus miles across open ocean waters. . Big time paddle board race. All padlders had to have an escort boat and be in contact with race control .
We had a 33 plus foot sailing vessel, no swim step or swim ladder.

The wind and seas came up, very strong, and large swells. A few miles out of Two Harbors, Isthumus Cove, Catalina Island, our paddler was veering greatly off course, he became exhausted , disoriented,
and totally fatigued,

Other vessels were calling race control that they were pulling their paddlers out of the water and to list them as DNF. " did not finish "

We needed to get him out of the water and on board. With the freeboard of our sailing vessel, I could not haul him up. He weighed about 180 pounds. He was very weak, so I took two docklines and made loops
with bowlines to a bite,

Very much like the photos of Sea Step. We hung them down into the water from the jib sheet winch and sheet cleat. . He was able to put his feet into those loops, but he was very week.
Erica and Hauled him up and into the cockpit. He was also suffering from a mild sea sickness due the the swells..

I called race control on the VHF, and reported our paddler was on board and out of the race ( DNF)...He had family meeting him at hermosa, beach so we motored him to just off the beach in a few hours,
and he was able to paddle in from our boat after resting up a bit and had totally recovered. Dried off, liquids, food and rest..

After dropping him off outside the surf line at Hermosa Beach, , ..... .

We hauled out and up with our jib and main, and sailed the rather long distance along the coast, south to our home port of Newport Beach.

Same situation goes for docks, and trying to climb out of the water on to high docks. Or M.O.B , or people just leaping off a boat and going for a swim.

Thank you. Excellent safety gear to have on board..

Denny and Erica