One Dead in Bizarre Accident Aboard Yacht Off Gran Canaria

[Sailing Hanse37]

Originally Posted by pbmaise

In the article there is a link to a photo. I have photoshopped the picture to focus on the issue. It is apparent to me from the photo this was a small sailing vessel with a square head main sail. I say small since the sail has no header board.

It appears the mainsail became stuck when they tried to lower it when weather came in.

Rather than sacrificing the main sail, it appears sailor #1 convinced sailor #2 to go aloft to try and bring it down.

Overall lesson, do not sacrifice a crew member to try and save a piece of equipment.

It was a Pogo 44, not so small vessel. We are in the Canaries and saw the boat multiple times. (They suffered an orca attack along the Portuguese coast, but with minor damage) we did not know the people on board however.

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by pbmaise

Seems like 90% of the posts here are discussing how to safely go up a mast in bad conditions. Anecdotal evidence that you knew someone or maybe even you yourself went up the mast in similar conditions are not helpful in my opinion.

I did a quick check on Google trying to find anyone recommending when and how to cut away a stuck sail.

Tricky on a full batten main, which some of us have.
Good to have cars instead of a luff tape though, you can rig a line around you to prevent you from flying to far of the mast.

[quartersplash]

I totally understand how that can happen.
It was In February 2008, On my first voyage on my new to me Mayotte Voyage 47' cat from St Pete beach to Ecuador and it was my wife's very first voyage along with 2 day sailing friends as crew. I was 56 Y.O. We had a norther blow in behind us that you could see for many miles before it got to us. We were between Cuba and the clay banks, and the seas were already a washing machine. When the front came over us, we had 40+ knots of wind over 3 hours that traveled around from all directions and 10-15' seas from all directions. The main sail was 750 sq ft. In the middle of all that, the shackle at the top of the main broke and the main sail dropped to the boom with the main halyard at the mast head. We needed the main up to try and settle the boat down. I had the crew haul me up in my bosuns chair using a spare halyard that was on an external sheave 8' from the mast head. The top of the mast was snapping back and forth 15' or more as the seas were so confused. It took all that I had to hold on, and Once I was up as high as I could get, I was going to have to stand on the bosuns chair to try and reach the shackle and haul it down with me. There was no way to do that. I yelled down to send up a long fish gaff to try and grab hold of the shackle, and the only place to hook onto it was a 1/4" hole in it. I had my legs squeezed into the where the main shrouds connected to the mast to try and keep me from flying around and pounding me. I held on with one hand and with the other I had the end of this 8' long fish gaff flinging around, and (believe it or not) that tip of the gaff went right into that 1/4" hole on my very first try thank God!!! I pulled the main halyard down to the deck. I had blood running down both arms and legs with many cuts and bruises. It took 2 weeks for my body to heal. The truth is, that 20 minutes up that mast as I was flying from side to side was BY FAR the most physical stress that I have ever done in my entire life. At the time, I was only thinking of calming the boat as my entire crew was sea sick, and my 2 year old son was also on board. I was on watch without sleep for 38 hours, and had to steer, cook, change diapers until I was relieved. In the end, I was very lucky to survive, and in the end, it is just another story to tell. The person that died was trying to take care of his crew and boat and was not as lucky sorry to say.

[OneBoatman]

Truly sad, and the how or why may only have been known to the victim and possibly the surviving crew member. Going aloft at sea is always extremely dangerous so in rough weather and seas I'm not really sure what could rise to justify the mission. Doing so with only one other aboard is asking for trouble. Many sailors have lived to tell how one or both of their sails were blown out and others have stories of being dismasted. Just about anything can happen in rough weather and it may only take fouled halyard such as it jumping a sheave and your crewmate will be stuck aloft and in grave danger. Even with professional crew where you have three or more sailors and you've got a plan it's still not an easy thing to pull off. Protective bulky clothing alone can end up increasing rather than decreasing the danger.

[JAFO]

Originally Posted by dannc

On the Morgans Cloud website a few articles on going aloft have been published lately, with more to come. The first article is https://www.morganscloud.com/2022/11...e-mast-part-1/. It is behind a paywall but well worth it.

The information in the articles, and the discussions, have been most educational.

Later,
Dan

I second this.. it's well worth the time (and small cost) to read. In fact, that can be said for the entire website.

[Eidolon65]

Pip Hare goes up and down her mast in rough weather traveling at a IMOCA 60 speeds.

One has to wonder exactly what gear she uses to accomplish this in safety

[Dooglas]

Originally Posted by davil

.
Of course, those webbing steps could not be used if the mainsail track is not available. Any other system based on a bosom chair however the lifting method is used am afraid is unworkable and ill-advised for this crowd.

I have quite a few years experience on sailboats including longer passages in rough weather. I confess that this is a piece of equipment I have never seen aboard a sailboat, and the concept is somewhat worrying (or hilarious, depending on the situation).

[ChrisJHC]

Originally Posted by Dooglas

I have quite a few years experience on sailboats including longer passages in rough weather. I confess that this is a piece of equipment I have never seen aboard a sailboat, and the concept is somewhat worrying (or hilarious, depending on the situation).

At least you’d have a soft landing

And, we all know it was supposed to be bosun’s chair not bosom chair.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by pbmaise

I disagree.

There was another route. You could have run a knife as high as you could reach along the forestay and then released the sheet.

The wind would have ripped the sail to shreds and after the storm passed you could have safely gone up the mast to release the halyard.

Wasn't the same true here? Wouldn't a kitchen knife run along the boom and up as high as one could reach been an option?

Note: If you ever have to away a sail, do not start the engine before confirming where all the lines are. They could be wrapped around the prop.

I'm not sure I would want a gennaker or mainsail flogging around in a gale - make it very difficult to control the boat

[sb1]

Originally Posted by davil

hpeer has a very detailed routine posted.

Cutting control lines and letting the main self destroy seems a reasonable compromise?

Definitely - and far far preferable than abandoning ship to the dinghy!

[wingssail]

Two weeks ago we finished a race under spinnaker. The spinnaker would not come down. It seems that the anti chafing sleeve had torn and was bunching up at the masthead block. We were 100 meters from a lee shore.

It was a racing crew. We quickly turned onto a tight reach and then ran the bowman up on a couple of halyards and he shifted the kite to one of the halyards and we brought down the sail (and the bowman).

But what if it was just Judy and I and instead of 12 knots of wind we had 25?

Of course we'd probably not approach a lee shore with a spinnaker up. But a jib getting stuck could be conceivable. I would really be fearful of going to the masthead in heavy winds (assumably also big waves) regardless of how I went aloft. But the thought of having a sail stuck up there which might constrain my ability to navigate is also a fearful thing.

I think I'd go up, maybe after heaving-to and with the engine on. But I'd do it sooner rather than later. And I'd hang on for my life.

And I'd use my halyard and the bosun's chair.

[myketch42]

I have a swi tec 10 to 1 hoist...never used it yet , anyone with any experience with the swi tec

[pbmaise]

The thought occurred to me to check if there were weather advisories at the time. There was one published the same date at:

https://www.guidetocanaryislands.com...anary-islands/

Winds at the island summits were forecasted to exceed 100 km/h (54 knots).

I cannot say for certain what this translates to open ocean, however, I am pretty sure winds would have qualified as "small craft advisory". There's no exact legal definition of a small craft; however, small craft advisories are generally intended for vessels less than 65 feet in length OR for any vessel likely to be adversely impacted by the weather conditions expected with a Small Craft Advisory.

This vessel was significantly less than 65 ft. One poster informed us it was just 44 ft.

Now, in light of a published forecast for the area. There is a second very good question to ask. What was this small craft doing out there in the first place?

[skipperpete]

Originally Posted by myketch42

I have a swi tec 10 to 1 hoist...never used it yet , anyone with any experience with the swi tec

I’ve got a SWitec and have only used it to lift my engine out but our local rigger used it to go up a mast in the marina...... very slow but it worked very well. It would be difficult if not impossible to use at sea, even in the marina with a stiff breeze it was very tricky hoisting the reduction gear part to the masthead.
I once tried climbing the mast by using the luff slides on a slackened mainsail, not exactly a fiasco but very close.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by pbmaise

The thought occurred to me to check if there were weather advisories at the time. There was one published the same date at:

https://www.guidetocanaryislands.com...anary-islands/

Winds at the island summits were forecasted to exceed 100 km/h (54 knots).

I cannot say for certain what this translates to open ocean, however, I am pretty sure winds would have qualified as "small craft advisory". There's no exact legal definition of a small craft; however, small craft advisories are generally intended for vessels less than 65 feet in length OR for any vessel likely to be adversely impacted by the weather conditions expected with a Small Craft Advisory.

This vessel was significantly less than 65 ft. One poster informed us it was just 44 ft.

Now, in light of a published forecast for the area. There is a second very good question to ask. What was this small craft doing out there in the first place?

Probably sailing down from Gibraltar or Portugal..