desired portion of the inflatable rope 108 has been propelled toward the person 102 the inflatable rope 108 is inflated using its proximal end 108 a fig1 shows a deckhand holding and coupling the proximal end 108 a of the inflatable rope 108 to a source of air not shown or other medium gas solid or liquid to inflate the inflatable rope 108 in one embodiment the proximal end 108 a can be coupled to a wench like mechanism to pull the person 102 toward the boat 100 in another embodiment the device 104 can include a wench that retrieves the hurled portions of the inflatable rope 108 and thereby pulls the person 102 to safety fig2 illustrates the inflated inflatable rope allowing the person 102 to grab hold for the deckhands to pull the person 102 to safety in one embodiment the inflatable rope 108 can be inflated so that it expands to about 150 of its original uninflated size the inflatable rope 108 in its natural uncompressed and uninflated form includes at least two layers 108 b 108 c as illustrated in fig3 the layer 108 b is a bladder formed from a suitable material into which a gas such as air can be pumped to cause the layer 108 b to expand into a suitable diameter such as 3 inches any suitable material may be used to form the bladder of the layer 108 b such as plastic as long as it allows the bladder to receive transport and contain an inflatable medium the layer 108 c is a sheath which is woven from man.