"Man Overboard!" was the cry the Sunday morning before last on the East Branch of the Westport River. But it's OK — it wasn't a man at all, just a dummy.

A group of six young rowers participating in Westport's Advanced Community Youth Rowing (CYR) program learned how to save BOB, a Coast Guard-compliant water rescue dummy. Kevin Lee from Whaling City Rowing in New Bedford was in charge of the training.

"Falling overboard can happen to anyone in an instant," Lee said. "It happened to me."

His accident occurred when he was steering a whaleboat full of experienced oarsmen in New Bedford harbor one early winter morning — "My steering oar hit an underwater piling and I was flung into the wintery waters. I survived because my crew knew what to do. It could have easily ended very differently; I'm aware of this every time I get into a boat."

According to the United States Coast Guard, "effective recovery procedures in person in the water situations can mean the difference between recovering a survivor or a body." During the recent training, Lee instructed rowers on what to do when a person falls overboard, leading them through drills on how to quickly and safely respond to an incident. Their training will continue in the coming weeks with Glenn Nunes of the Westport Fire Department, who will lead First Aid and CPR instruction.

The community youth rowing program is a collaboration between the Westport Recreation Department and Dharma Voyage, a 501c03 non-profit that has been offering summer rowing instruction on the East Branch since 2021.

"These six rowers in particular have shown impressive commitment and skill," said Dharma Voyage's Beth McCurdy. "We're very proud of them all."