# Z-drag for rescue



## Kilo Charlie (Jan 30, 2008)

Trying to find some anecdotal evidence about z drags or mechanical advantage in rescue.
I am curious to know if anyone has:


Used a Z Drag to actually pull a raft or kayak out of a wrap or pin?
Any stories about unsuccessful attempts using a z drag?
Any injuries from failed mechanical advantage systems?
Other interesting information from using mechanical advantage in rescue.
Things learned from your experience.

I would love to hear it first hand but if you know of someone who had experiences I would be interested in those as well. Additionally the more detailed the story the better. 


Thanks

KC


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## cooljerk (Jun 18, 2006)

Used a Z Drag to actually pull a raft or kayak out of a wrap or pin? 
Yes, on numerous occasions.

Any stories about unsuccessful attempts using a z drag?
Yes, once was enough.

Any injuries from failed mechanical advantage systems?
Thankfullly, no. 

Other interesting information from using mechanical advantage in rescue.
I try to never exceed 12:1 MA. To me, that means no more than 4 people pulling on a 3:1. If you're pulling too hard you're probably pulling the wrong direction. Keep it simple and safe.

Things learned from your experience.
A good swiftwater rescue course is invaluable. Once you've acquired that basic skillset, practice, practice, practice. Training + Practice + Experience and Good Judgement = Successful Rescues.

Feel free to shoot me an email if you want more details or specifics.


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## Kendi (May 15, 2009)

Haven't needed to use it on a raft yet, but have had the chance to uproot a stump (anchor) using a simple Z-rig and to pull a 1000lb horse that was stuck on it's side out of a trailer with a pig rig and 4 people pulling.

Mechanical advantage is an amazing thing!


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## xkayaker13 (Sep 30, 2006)

I have used basic mechanical advantage systems to unpin a kayak. If your buddy is in it, there are some faster techniques you should use; but if those don't work a z-drag or such may be necessary. 

If your worried about the potential injury from a system failure you should A) increase the strength of your systems components B) insure that the weakest point is NOT something metal like a ****** or pulley C) figure out a different way to retrieve the gear D) suck it up and pull if your buddy is in a life threatening situation


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

*more info on rope breaking*

I have seen two z drag setups where the main section of the pull line broke.

Both times at the point where the prussic knot attached to the main line.

Both times were also where "hey, it's not moving --- add a couple more bodies to the pull"


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## [email protected] (Apr 26, 2006)

I have used them a few times on rafts and kayaks. It took 5 hours for us to get a raft off one time and broke a few ropes there but no one got hurt. Last year on big south we were unpinning a boat and I thin it was just a 2:1 system but maybe a z-drag and the rope broke and came a biner flying by my face and hit Evan it the face behind me but he wasn't hurt to bad. I have learned that you should try different angles if you having a huge amount of difficulty.


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## robbysawyer (Mar 28, 2010)

A rope breaking has not happened to me yet. BUt usually we have a spare jacket oin each boat and I take it and throw it over the line. This may help if the line breaks so everything won't come flying at you.


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## Kilo Charlie (Jan 30, 2008)

These are great! keep them coming please. Cooljerk I would love some more details on the times it has worked as well as the time it didn't. 

Thanks everyone


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## carvedog (May 11, 2005)

I have used z drag rope setups at least five times to unpin rafts and inflatable kayaks and once to pull a lake canoe apart in the middle of a rapid after it had popped a couple of rafts. 

We did have a rope failure ( throw bag ) that in spite of a life jacket tether in the middle still hit me hard in the side of the head. I was the lead guy on the rope and I had a helmet on, but it completely rang my bell. Thank God for that little Protec kayak helmet though.


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## bamackc (Mar 19, 2008)

I'v never had to use a Z-drag until this winter. I was guiding two guys down a class 4 creek called Jhonnies in NE Alabama, and as me and another guy were looking at the class 5 the third person is our group managed to get his boat pinned in a sieve.










That sob was in there good.


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## bamackc (Mar 19, 2008)

xkayaker13 said:


> suck it up and pull if your buddy is in a life threatening situation


Alot of the time this will work, Iv always viewed a Z-drag as the last resort.


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## roosternater (Mar 29, 2010)

I was on a commercial trip (upper gauley) where we saw a nasty pin... I mean the only thing you could see of the boat was one tube. We were opposite river watching the show from an eddy and at the time I thought the company who owned the boat taped a knife on a pole and stuck the raft to let it slither off to one side. I was a tourist then and didn't know much but came to this conclusion because the next time I saw the boat it was deflated and sitting on another raft at the take-out. Knowing what I do now, and seeing the extension poles with a little gizmo for attaching biners in swiftwater rescue class, I'm sure the real story was something more along the lines of: 1. Bad angle, I remember the bank being a sheer 10' wall; 2. Probably ripped some D-rings off. 

The other experience is a short one: On the ride to the put-in during a guide trainging class we saw a 12' Hyside bucket wrapped and abadoned on the rock at (I think) Sarah's hole on the Poudre. By the time we got to it some kayakers had a boyscout pull going with a throw bag. It broke our hearts to see that thing slither off since we had just gone over z-drag set ups the day before.


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## mania (Oct 21, 2003)

I have used z-drags at least half a dozen times in real life but always to unpin a boat and never a person thankfully. One thing that might be counter-intuitive is that often you get best results by pulling downstream even if the obstacle is somewhat in the way. pulling directly at the shore or upstream is almost always useless. if the boat is inflatable you can let some air out of the tube nearest the obstacle to help take some pressure off.


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

*A Salt River AZ Pin*

Welcome to your Personal Web Pages!/resized pinned rafts in Reforma.jpg 



This was in April 2008 Reforma Rapid Salt River AZ



Photo was taken midway into the rescue process



Yellow raft missed his line and was carried onto the big rock on river left. Pin open side out and the oarsman was able to get on the rock safely.


Blue raft followed the same line and slid onto the yellow raft. 


Blue raft did a back flip and locked in between yellow raft and the other rock on the shore.


Oarsman was thrown out of the raft. Went into the water to the bottom and was very lucky to crawl/swim out.


First we tried one z drag on the end of the blue raft.
Could not move it. Attached another z drag on the other end of the blue raft. No luck.



One of the guys went over the side and discovered the blue raft's shore side oar was stuck in a rock crevice. Oar could not be moved. It was wood and after a lot of work he was able to saw it in half.


Got back on the Z drags and the blue raft flipped over and we floated it off the rock. 



Yellow raft was then pushed off the rock.


No injuries, nothing packed in the blue raft got wet or lost except for the oar we sawed.


Took about 2 hours to do the entire job.


Lesson learned: Even at low water, the Salt can spank you!


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

*A Salt River AZ Pin*


















This was in April 2008 Reforma Rapid Salt River AZ



Photo was taken midway into the rescue process



Yellow raft missed his line and was carried onto the big rock on river left. Pin open side out and the oarsman was able to get on the rock safely.


Blue raft followed the same line and slid onto the yellow raft. 


Blue raft did a back flip and locked in between yellow raft and the other rock on the shore.


Oarsman was thrown out of the raft. Went into the water to the bottom and was very lucky to crawl/swim out.


First we tried one z drag on the end of the blue raft.
Could not move it. Attached another z drag on the other end of the blue raft. No luck.



One of the guys went over the side and discovered the blue raft's shore side oar was stuck in a rock crevice. Oar could not be moved. It was wood and after a lot of work he was able to saw it in half.


Got back on the Z drags and the blue raft flipped over and we floated it off the rock. 



Yellow raft was then pushed off the rock.


No injuries, nothing packed in the blue raft got wet or lost except for the oar we sawed.


Took about 2 hours to do the entire job.


Lesson learned: Even at low water, the Salt can spank you!


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## powdahound76 (Jul 20, 2006)

I have not had to use this for anything boating related, but we use a mechanical advantage system regularly to practice high angle rescues with the fire department I volunteer with. We have a preset rope/pulley setup in bag and use a 9:1 system. I have used it 2-3 times in a crucial situation with great success. Larger loads (1200 lbs+) can be hoisted up steep walls/cliffs with a relatively small team of pullers (3-5 ppl). I have never witnessed any equipment failures with this setup, but it is very heavy duty. My personal pin kit uses only locking biners, higher end pulleys, and the gear sits in a bag in my boat and is never used for anything else. As for rope usage, most rope manufactures rate their rope to a certain static level, but I am not sure I would consider whitewater rescue/unpinning a static application (ie; pulsing water, rope slippage, bouncing of inflatables in water, etc). Overload of rope or attatchment point would be my biggest suspect point of failure in theory. One trick we use in the fire service for safety, but helps you out, is a prusik set on your rope so it allows you to gain ground, but not lose it (unless you manually release the prusik). Have not seen this in any rescue setups I have witnessed on the river. Happy and safe boating this season!


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## catwoman (Jun 22, 2009)

Haven't had the displeasure of needing to zdrag, but I like to practice.

An alpine garda on the main line (not the z line) also works well to capture progress. Requires two biners, but no prusik cord, really fast set up.
http://storrick.cnchost.com/VerticalDevicesPage/Ascender/SemiMechPages/CarabKnotD2.html


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## tony (Apr 19, 2004)

I have had to use both a Z drag and a pig rig to unpin a raft both work fine I think the pig rig is not much harder to set up and gives you a true 4:1 advantage. So take a look. I have used the MA systems once each and mostly for teaching/learning purposes. I am a commercial guide on the arkansas and I generally dont want to spend three hours fucking with a pinned raft so there are some other things that I find work great and fast. First if you do not have a bucket boat the inflated floor wants to bail so often a strait pull (in the right direction) with some extra hands can get the job done. The second is to take a moment and analyze the pin. A pin occours when the river is exerting pressure on the raft and holding it on an obstacle. If you can unbalance the pressure often the raft comes off in seconds. Two ways to do this. First letting some air out of one of the chambers will lessen the pressure on one side of the pin and presto (others have mentioned this). Make sure you have a spare pump if you do this. Another way is to cut the floor lacing to relieve the pressure on the floor and once again presto. Cutting the lacing is a little scarier because you have a knife near your raft in a chaotic situation. 
I spent one day in browns canyon watching a company try and z drag a boat from a rock in widowmaker. It created lots of hazards on a busy day with ropes in the water, they were still unpinning it on my second run of the day. The following day one of our rookie guides pined in the exact same spot. I though oh shit here comes a 3 hour operation. While I was setting up another guide suggested that we we deflate one of the tubes and with very little air out, the raft popped right off. The raft came off so easily that the rookie forgot to grab the bowline and had to jump off of the rock and swim headfirst through widowmaker to get it. Pretty hilarious!


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## Awoody (Nov 15, 2006)

I had a buddy swim on Joe Wright last year and had to chase his boat until it pinned. As it ended up I was the only person on the correct side of the river to access the boat, I attempted to pull it loose by hand (I could wade out to it relatively safely), then with a straight line to the grab loop from shore with no avail, I set up a simple 3:1 and pulled it out with almost no straining at all. So that experience was pretty slick and saved a good bit of time being able to do it solo like that.
As mentioned here, in large groups where there will likely be 3 or more people pulling Z drags seem to break ropes more often than not. I was giving the ol' heave ho on the pinned boat (mine) that Tom mentioned earlier on here along 3 or 4 others dudes. In addition to Evan getting the biner to the face, I assholed myself on a rock when the rope broke and had a nice bruised tailbone to go along with my bruised pride. In this case we were pulling directly against the current (my bright idea) but then simply changing direction of pull two people tugged it loose from the other side with no mechanical advantage. So I would sayone of the most important things to do is look, use a little common sense and try different things.


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## Newty (Mar 31, 2009)

I took 4 years of swift water rescue courses from Barry Miller the Selway Ranger and then when my company sent a few of our own to certify as instructors I took another 5 years from them. The number one thing I learned was what Barry always said. KISS (keep it simple, stupid) After all this, I ran into Barry on a dolores trip and we both arrived at a pinned boat midstream, the group already had a rope to it, Barry probably knows as much as is humanly possible to know about swiftwater rescue and the first thing we did was boyscout pull it. Got everyone on the rope and pulled it off, then Barry took off as he was trying to run the length of the Dolores in 3 days. Then one of the guys that taught my other swiftwater classes wrapped an 18ft maravia in the bottom half of Crystal in the grand. Ended up using coolers as sea anchors and oars to pry himself off. I have used a Zdrag once to remove a stuck S-rig on Big drop3 in cat. If I remember right we actually used 2 z drags from different angles attached to the frame and she finally came off. Never broken a rope or a MA system, always put lifejackets on the system and for the love of all things holy stay upstream of the system and out of the system so when that bitch goes your free and clear.


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## Philthy (Apr 30, 2004)

Awoody said:


> I had a buddy swim on Joe Wright last year and had to chase his boat until it pinned. As it ended up I was the only person on the correct side of the river to access the boat, I attempted to pull it loose by hand (I could wade out to it relatively safely), then with a straight line to the grab loop from shore with no avail, I set up a simple 3:1 and pulled it out with almost no straining at all. So that experience was pretty slick and saved a good bit of time being able to do it solo like that.


I never like it when this happens but I think that was me. I had a bruise on my arm the size of a grapefruit after the swim which slowly drained to the tips of my fingers. Thankfully by the time I got to my crew, my boat was on the shore waiting for me. You had the z up and down in 15 mins or so made the situation much more manageable. Thanks again, Phil


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## jgrebe (Jan 16, 2010)

Me an a buddy kinda have an unofficial "business" helping stuck or sunk boaters. Z-rigs are a nice portable way to get mechanical advantage, just remember that the 3:1 4:1 etc are theroretical. Friction reduces the mecahnical advantage severely as you try to go higher. I haven't had much sucess using anything over a 4:1. I personally like using a come-along. You can buy aluminum ones and they let you control the addition or subtraction of force in a more controlled fashion. If you don't have one handy a couple of Gibbs accenders can help do the same thing with a z-rig. Remember to use static lines for your rope or your just putting all your effort into stretching the rope. Once we had to use 4 or 5 come -alongs and 3 z rigs to get a dory off the bottom of the river


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## Kilo Charlie (Jan 30, 2008)

These are great! Sounds like some of these were epics. Thanks again for posting your experiences. I am learning from all of them. 

Keep them coming.

KC


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## Kilo Charlie (Jan 30, 2008)

What about Kayakers? Any good stories?


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## peterB (Nov 21, 2003)

In general kayaks speaking, any MA is used when you have less than four people. Four or more and you are pulling from the wrong angle. I seem to paddle with a minimum of 10 so if the rope holds up we could pull down a building. I learned that lesson on the South Merced. We pulled with 9:1 from two different angles, broke one rope, then me and another guy got out and pulled from a third direction and it popped right off. I have used 3:1 on gear rafts mainly to right them after they flipped.


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## rivermountaingnar42 (May 8, 2007)

*clear creek*

those of you who guided on clear creek last season probably saw at least one z-drag on guide ejector. boat after boat after boat would get wrapped in that rapid at low water last season. . . shit was hilarious


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## Kyle K (Dec 17, 2008)

Probably the most important tool you have when unpinning a raft or kayak is your brain. Instead of trying to outmuscle the river, can you use the rivers force to your advantage? Think aikido philosophy here: "If I lift up on this corner of the raft, will the current pull the other end around/over the rock?" and so forth. Think it through _before_ you do anything!

When unpinning a raft I believe simple is better: A z drag is usually a last resort. First is the old fashioned pull, using the above principal, followed by letting air out of various tubes/floor (same principal - use the rivers force). The sea anchor made of a cooler is a pretty cool idea but I've never tried it. Sometimes muscle (Z-drag) is necessary but try other options first if possible. 

Another thing: If using a Z-drag, it's best to equalize the pull force over multiple anchor points (D-rings or frame) on the raft to keep from breaking one of them. Do this by running a rope or hoopie through various points on the raft in a closed loop and then attaching the pulling line (the rope from shore or the Z drag) to this line with a carabiner that is attached in between_ each_ anchor point. (This is a little hard to explain without a visual.) This can help minimize damage to the raft. Remember to only use anchor points that help pull the raft in the direction you want it to go. 

Hope this was helpful and hope you never have to use any of this stuff!


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## Kilo Charlie (Jan 30, 2008)

Does anyone else have photos of their pins/wraps, with or with out z-drags


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## cooljerk (Jun 18, 2006)

Here's one for you.

YouTube - New River Rescue Center in Action!


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

Whether you're a kayaker or a rubber rider you should know how to build a z-drag in a minute or two. It's scary to suggest, but people do get pinned with their boat. Everyone needs a whitewater rescue course. 

If anyone wants to take our beginner through advanced 2-day course on the Poudre, (swr/wwr level 2) send me a PM for details. It's Sunday/Monday, June 20-21. We'll be camping and boating in the evening too. It's the best time of year up there and the class is only $195!


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## Kendi (May 15, 2009)

Great video! That was the river that I just did a WRT class on. The gal in the pink drysuit Chris Jonason is the best instr ever!!!!


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## Kilo Charlie (Jan 30, 2008)

Thanks to everyone for putting up your experiences! It is very interesting to hear the many bits of advice from everyone, and to see what worked and what didn't


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## whip (Oct 23, 2003)

Flipped in Zoraster(Grand) last Sept heavily rigged boat. Inner gorge long stretch sheer walls. Would have been ugly without 4 pulleys, 2 prussigs, a jumar and some rock climbing protection to clip to. Kudo's to Steve Conlin for helping a hypothermic brother out.


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## Full_Tilt (May 3, 2004)

My two cents of this subject, I have never taken a swift water class but have pulled 20-30 boats that have been wrapped ,floor pinned and flipped with close to 2 tons worth of gear on it. The reason I have done so many is because I work for a guild company on clear creek which sees a lot of wraps over the season. I have come to the conclusion one must look the water first before deciding on which way to pull it off. Think of a wrap as a seesaw, if water is pushing down on each side 50/50 than chances are you can pull from either side.If the seesaw is 60/40 than pulling it off from the 60% side makes no sense. One thing to take into consideration is deflating the boat , deflating the boat is 10 times faster than setting up a big z drag, I use deflating the boat 90% of the time because its faster and doesn't pull d rings off the boat, chances are if the boat is 50/50 around a rock deflating one side will make the boat come right off because you are using the power of the water to do the work for you. Having gear on your boat changes everything, but remember pick the right angle , after looking at the picture of the yellow and blue boat they set up their z drag on the wrong angle thus making it harder to pull if off. The Yellow boat should of bleed its floor making the boat less stiff on the rock and they should have worked on the blue because it's keeping the yellow boat pinned on the rock, just remember pure muscle doesn't always win use your brain out there and be safe and just because you have taken a swift water class doesn't mean you're automatically the leader .


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## Kilo Charlie (Jan 30, 2008)

Both of these are great! I would love to hear more about whips experience and if they tried some other techniques before using mechanical advantage. 

Thanks!


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## Kyle K (Dec 17, 2008)

Key KC,

Full Tilt speaks wisely: Just because we have the gear and the knowledge of how to use it doesn't mean it's best to pull it all out and set up a Z drag. I said it earlier but I'll repeat; In my experience it's best to access the situation and see if you can use the rivers force to help you instead of jumping right into mechanical advantage. 

Remember, when you add all those ropes and metal bits into the scenario, you are increasing the possibility of someone getting hurt via a snapped rope or pulley, entanglement, etc.

That said, in Whips case the mechanical advantage sounds like it worked quite well. I have righted a flipped commercial oar rig in GC before using muscle power, it just took a _lot_ of muscle. I think we had about 10 folks standing on one edge of the raft, pulling on 3 flip lines and over she came. Everyone ended up in the drink but it was in a big, deep eddy on a warm day so all was fine. In fact it was fun and refreshing. On a cold winter day it would have been a different story. 

Again, before hauling out all the gear, see if you can't free the craft via weight shift or deflation first. Remember, the mechanical advantage is putting a lot of force on your expensive boat and can do damage if not done correctly (spreading the force over various points). 

Good luck and keep her sunny side up!


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

one more story on z drags.

some years ago, a bud of mine had a pin in his Prijon long kayak.

It was a solid pin but he was sitting upright and not in immediate danger.

We threw him one rope which he attached to the Prijon and then another and got him to shore. If memory correct he was maybe 50 feet off shore.

We pulled and yanked on the rope with 4 or 5 of us. The rope reached shore but just barely. The boat did not move.

We had about given up and were talking about him walking out and coming back when the water was down to the point we could wade out and free the boat.

Just on a whim as I had not been WW rescue trained, I tied on another throw rope and went up the bank to a hi spot.

I was above the kayak maybe 20 feet up.

Gave one pull on the rope and the kayak popped out.

Proving once again that taking time to discuss options may well give you the easy solution as opposed to jumping directly into mechanical solutions. Each situation is different but in this one the direction of pull was the key to easy extraction.


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## carvedog (May 11, 2005)

okieboater said:


> Each situation is different but in this one the direction of pull was the key to easy extraction.



it always is.

it's one thing to unpin paddle boats and kayaks with simple pulls etc. and it's another on a fully loaded oar rig with an over-the-top-tube-with-water pin.

I have seen two of those and the z drag was the only way I could see. 

With the last one we set up a z on either end of the boat and just started rocking it. There were only two of us there. I don't think we set a brake on either line. We had it there but just kept rocking and then let the water do the work. Every time we would pull the boat would shudder and move maybe an 1/8th of an inch. But it was moving. To even get to the tube that had the most pressure on it ( to deflate ) would have meant getting three to four feet deep in northern rockies October water. 

Know all the tools and when to use them.


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## N. Wigston (Nov 5, 2003)

For Kayakers, 99% of pins should be resolvable without a Z-drag. The important thing is to pull in different directions. For Rafts, you need to pull in different directions, but often will need the force of a Z-drag. If you are pulling more than 6:1 on a kayak, you are likely to break something or just stretch the hell out of your rope. If you do find a good angle to pull, you can add a vector line to the main hauling rope to get some extra force on it. It's best to anchor and tension the main line when you do this. Also, position the vector line downstream of the scene if possible, because it becomes a handy downstream recovery line for when the swamped boat is freed. 

Nick


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## wildnscenic! (Apr 22, 2010)

I've seen a photo of a rope that broke with so much force that the end of the rope went THROUGH someone's leg, no joke. I agree with cooljerk's rule of thumb: no more than 4 people on a 3:1.


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## Kilo Charlie (Jan 30, 2008)

wildnscenic! said:


> I've seen a photo of a rope that broke with so much force that the end of the rope went THROUGH someone's leg, no joke. I agree with cooljerk's rule of thumb: no more than 4 people on a 3:1.


I would really like to see that photo, do you still have access to it?


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## whip (Oct 23, 2003)

*oo oo oo I gotta great story!*

First Grand trip. Big 18' cargo barge loaded to the hilt by Canyon Reo flips in House Rock. We get it over into the eddy and the boyz go to work. They take a pull off of the canyon wall and set a sling on a VW size boulder. I'm a lookin at their rig and mention sometin don't look right here. I'm told shut the ef up we're Aspen ski patrollers and rope people off the hill all the time. I get out my Z-drag card and show em. Same response. Well there's 16 oz Guinness stouts a floatin in the eddy pool so I head up to shade to have a frosty and watch. Finally we're ready 16 people a pullin on a rope. Damned if that VW sized rock didn't start climbin up the bank toward the canyon wall!
Haysooz I luv that that story!


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