Class 40 Capsize, North Atlantic - Lessons Learned

[barnakiel]

As you may have heard, a Class 40 capsized in December in N Atlantic.

For all those interested in storm management / survival / safety lessons from that accident I can recommend great post on Sailinganarchy.com - listing of what the crew undertook and what they found could have been done better.

Cheers,
Barnie

[GordMay]

Why don't you summarise the story for us?

[barnakiel]

Someone took the effort to give a lot of valuable detail there - preparations they made, how the accident happened, what the crew did. And then they follow with what they think could have been done better.

Summarizing would deprive the readers. And if I just copied and pasted this would be stealing.

I am yet to learn how to link to a particular entry on sailinganarchy. It is a blog roll and linking is beyond me (anybody?). The post's title is ABANDONED.

PS Correction: I cannot link to the blogroll but I can to the discussion thread that gives the same content, READ HERE:

Abandon Ship - Sailing Anarchy Forums

barnie

[s/v Jedi]

What they miss in the discussion there is that such a passage should not be done in December period.

cheers,
Nick.

[delmarrey]

After reading the forum post I would say it would have been safer to get back in the life raft to board the rescue vessel. And yes a water proof VHF would have been smart.

But on the other hand I never heard of a sailboat staying inverted for so long. They must have had a large sail up or one came loose, which I suspect when they say it laid on it's side until the next wave hit.

here's some video......

YouTube - Coast Guard aircraft video of rescue east of Bermuda

[Hud3]

Looking at the beam and fat aft section on those Class 40 boats, I can see why it might be happy staying inverted for quite a while.

[barnakiel]

Well, we do not have more info but what we have is pretty interesting.

A sail coming lose maybe, but likely not - running under jib alone all other sails are nicely tied down. If they are not they get washed away so nobody risks this.

Second wave hitting just after the first one is pretty often just so - two or three of the nasty ones come then it is quiet for a long time. So the second one does not make me wonder. And the wave remaining 10' upside down also not surprise, but a big surprise she got rolled 180 degs sort of "too easily".

It is strange the boat broached (I believe it did) - probably they went to slow and lost it. But not coming back immediately rare on Class 40 - there is a huge righting moment stil at 90 degs - ultra long keel with plenty of lead at its tip. So it is strange. I think this would not happen in normal racing conditions, I believe the boat could be underpowered and simply going too slow, which is a cardinal sin in any ULDB.

Not having an escape hatch in the stern is sort of like beyond my reach, I thought all Class 40, Open 60 etc. have them, but apparently I was wrong.

It was a big storm but nothing a Class 40 cannot take in the run, so just such a big shame they lost her. A lesson to all.

b.