Racing sailor killed due to splice failure

[alansmith]

Sad news on Scuttlebutt Sailing News

A rigger misunderstood the effectiveness of the Brummel splice that wasn't lock stitched. It was being used as a preventer for the main sail boom. It parted and delivered a lethal blow to the neck of a crewman. This happened back in Sept of 2015 but just surfaced (for me) on this web page...hope I am not rehashing...but it is still pertinent information that bears to be repeated again and again due to the high loads that main booms are under in boisterous conditions.

I have provided the link so that you can get a much better idea than my poor writing.
https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/w...4_10-07-45.jpg

I have synthetic rigging on much of my trimaran. Apart from the horrific accident....and the loss of human life...i think there is information in this article for all of us to ponder...and absorb

[boatman61]

The link just takes me to a photo..

[thinwater]

The actual error was in believing that the brummel lock could hold the load without the long tail bury. It is the long bury with taper that provides the strength, and the brummel is just one way to keep the splice from working loose when not loaded.


This was on one of the Clipper Round the World Race boats. A full report is on line by the MAIB.

[Snore]

Originally Posted by thinwater

The actual error was in believing that the brummel lock could hold the load without the long tail bury. It is the long bury with taper that provides the strength, and the brummel is just one way to keep the splice from working loose when not loaded.


This was on one of the Clipper Round the World Race boats. A full report is on line by the MAIB.

Agreed. I believe the other part of the failure is shock loading. Would like to see Practical Sailor or one of the manufacturers do a study of shock loading on the spices.

That said, when I first read the article I started doing lock stitches on my Dyneema life lines. Especially if you have Dyneema gates it is impossible to get a long enough bury so stitching them become doubly important.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by thinwater

The actual error was in believing that the brummel lock could hold the load without the long tail bury. It is the long bury with taper that provides the strength, and the brummel is just one way to keep the splice from working loose when not loaded.


This was on one of the Clipper Round the World Race boats. A full report is on line by the MAIB.

Yes.


The strop was not spliced at all:





https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2...nked-fatality/


There was just a Brummel lock with no splice. A very stupid way to rig that preventer.


Some people in this thread seem to be confused about the purpose of stitching a Dyneema splice. Stitching has nothing to do with holding under load. Stitching is just one way to prevent a long bury splice from working loose when there is no load -- that's all it does.


A Brummel does the same thing and does it perfectly well, probably better than stitching.


There's no substitute for a long enough bury. Splices in Dyneema single braid work according to the Chinese finger trap principle, and the material is slippery, so the length is critical. Note that Brian Toss and other gurus have increased the recommended length of the bury not long ago -- word to the wise.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

...The strop was not spliced at all:


Attachment 183688


https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2...nked-fatality/


There was just a Brummel lock with no splice. A very stupid way to rig that preventer....

^^ This. Whether you call it a splice or not is semantics. The rigger use a brummel lock in place of a proper splice, weaking the construction by about 50%. That was dumb to the point of unconscionable. I think folks may be struggling to get their arms around what he actually did.



Why the MAIB suggested Marlow and other rope makers do more to caution people about bad splice practices is beyond me. No ONE suggested using a brummel alone. He was off the reservation with that, and every good rigger knows that. Basically he tied a bad knot. How can they caution about every misuse of their product? It's enough that they show how to splice correctly.


The other odd thing is that they had spares spliced up on board. They had broken this before. Did they accept that it was a fuse? In that case maybe the brummel was not a mistake... others can judge whether that makes sense.

[Ahquabi]

What is the $ to death ratio so far Sir Robin?

[rmlarson1098]

Originally Posted by Ahquabi

What is the $ to death ratio so far Sir Robin?

Sir Robin? As in Robin Knox-Johnston? Sir Robin had nothing to do with this tragedy, unless perhaps he was the captain of the vessel. Which he was not. It wasn't Knox-Johnston's race, and even if it were the ultimate responsibility rests with the skipper. Ocean sailing is dangerous, ocean racing ridiculously so. Sir Robin is a legend, as he should be. No one had ever done what he did - which MANY people felt was impossible - and no one else ever will. Leave him alone.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by rmlarson1098

Sir Robin? As in Robin Knox-Johnston? Sir Robin had nothing to do with this tragedy, unless perhaps he was the captain of the vessel. Which he was not. It wasn't Knox-Johnston's race, and even if it were the ultimate responsibility rests with the skipper. Ocean sailing is dangerous, ocean racing ridiculously so. Sir Robin is a legend, as he should be. No one had ever done what he did - which MANY people felt was impossible - and no one else ever will. Leave him alone.

I think the question is whether the passengers fully understand the risks and whether they are truly prepared. They are not prepared at the same level as pro crews or even truly advanced amateurs. The same subject comes up with guided mountian climbing; the guide can make it safer, but he can't make it safe, and not all of the customers are truly prepared. Guided climbers are generally not as well prepared as skilled amateurs that would take on the same climb without a guide. Much depends on the willingness of the guide to say "no, you are not ready for this."



Yes, some related to gear failures that should not have happened. On the other hand, in each case there was also a human factor (two sailors were clipped improperly and the other loitered over the traveller track).



There's no simple answer, since I believe in the right of people to have an adventure.

[dbaublis]

From Dockhead: A Brummel does the same thing and does it perfectly well, probably better than stitching.

This is incorrect in most situations and is easy enough to prove. It the line is under constant tension, even a little bit, a brummel has a good chance of preventing the loosening of the burried tail. However, take an unstitched brummel, with an appropriately burried tail, and put line in compression and tension repeatedly, change the duration, let the line just go slack a bit then back to tension, it is not long before you can see the tail start to creep out of the bury. One it starts, things can go downhill quickly. In an application like a preventer, where a line is loosely loaded and unloaded continually, it is easy to see a bury coming loose. Try it with a 3mm dyneema line, it comes undone very quickly.

Always stitch brummel or straight bury splices. If you don’t, you have not completed the splice.

[David B]

Originally Posted by rmlarson1098

Sir Robin? As in Robin Knox-Johnston? Sir Robin had nothing to do with this tragedy, unless perhaps he was the captain of the vessel. Which he was not. It wasn't Knox-Johnston's race, and even if it were the ultimate responsibility rests with the skipper. Ocean sailing is dangerous, ocean racing ridiculously so. Sir Robin is a legend, as he should be. No one had ever done what he did - which MANY people felt was impossible - and no one else ever will. Leave him alone.

HEAR, HEAR !

[AKA-None]

I stitch every splice as a matter of habit.

[IslandHopper]

Am guessing this is the article in question and referring to the death of Andrew Ashman during the Clipper Round the World Race of 2015/16...

Scuttlebutt article....

https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2...nked-fatality/

MAIB report and Annexes....

https://www.gov.uk/maib-reports/acci...oss-of-2-lives

A recommendation has also been made to Marlow Ropes Ltd (2017/110), the rope manufacturer, aimed at improving the information provided to users on the loss of strength caused by splices, hitches or knots when using high modulus polyethylene rope.

More at PBO in this article dated April 13, 2017 .....

https://www.pbo.co.uk/news/clipper-r...ccidents-52210

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

I stitch every splice as a matter of habit.

If you use a brummel splice with a long bury then stitching should not be needed. I don't use a brummel, just a long taper and always stitch. In this case failure appears to be due to a lack of room for a long bury.
Corrected article link
https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2...nked-fatality/

[Suijin]

I make my brummels with a long bury. I don't think I would trust them with just a lock stitch given the weave of the material. Just doesn't strike me as secure.

As far as the accident goes, I never trust my preventer to be failsafe. I generally consider it to be first line of defense against an accidental gybe, but I don't have ultimate faith in it, particularly if the boom gets dipped. That said booms on racing boats are low and you can't keep your head down 100% of the time.