Boatyard Safety -- DIY accidents that happened to you or that you witnessed

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by hlev00

I was working on decommissioning my boat at a marina dock when a woman in a panic started yelling to help her husband. We were the only ones in the yard at the time. I ran over to his boat and found his feet sticking out of an engine locker. He had gone down head first to get something at the bottom and couldn’t get himself back out. It made me think about working alone.

Risk of something like that is why I make sure any time I crawl in somewhere my cell phone is within reach without needing to crawl out.

[skipperpete]

The Marina where I lived and worked had a lifter crew with a perfect record, zero damage in 23 years. All 3 team members were trained in Australia by the machine builder as part of the contract and adhered doggedly to the lifting routine and maintenance schedule. The nearby alternative yard with 2 machines had no such discipline and had 2 major incidents in one day while I was there. The first was a yard shift of a 55’ steel yacht, long forefoot, dry hull and on the bricks for welding, the front sling slid rapidly up the stem and she hit the deck damaging the hull. The next lift that day was a carbon fiber hulled cruiser racer, the lift went ok, the stands were in place but the keel blocks were wrong and 4 of the stands went through the hull.
At Mooloolabah the forefoot sling on the marina lifter slipped off and dropped the bow of a ferrocement yacht rapidly back into the water while the owner was in the cockpit injuring him permanently.

[sinnerman]

Never happened to me , but one danger is a person climbing into a lazarette locker, the lid falls and the latch swings down, locks thus trapping him inside.

The "fix" is to not have the hasp (hinged part) on the locker lid, but on the base.

My two cents.

Cheers

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by hlev00

I was working on decommissioning my boat at a marina dock when a woman in a panic started yelling to help her husband. We were the only ones in the yard at the time. I ran over to his boat and found his feet sticking out of an engine locker. He had gone down head first to get something at the bottom and couldn’t get himself back out. It made me think about working alone.

I have had that issue before, not on the boat but crawling back into the tailcone of my airplane, which is a tail dragger so it slopes down putting my head below my heart and being a very tight fit. This was on a cold February day with no one around or likely to be around for days.

I don't do that without a phone accessible now.

[caipirinha]

Hi
Was scraping antifouling paint from the hull, lightly dressed (Marseille area in June -July is hot!)
After 2-3 days had quite a rash all over my chest, went to emergency doctor : he directly stuck a needle in my arm to dispense antibiotics...

[skipperpete]

I was at a marina in coal and candle creek, Sydney and the hard stand workers were doing a prop shaft removal on a motor cruiser from the charter fleet..... the 1½” shaft was left vertical but leaning at an angle against the hull and started to roll till it finally reached the point where it fell to the concrete ..........landing on the toes of a sneaker wearing assistant. Oddly, everything seemed ok, no blood, no pain no torn sneaker, but the young worker was very pale and there was no way he escaped this without serious injury so we drove him to ED at Mona vale hospital and the damage to his toes was catastrophic.
Another thing that I find dangerous in shipyard is propeller removal, surprising how often people completely remove the retaining nut and trust that the prop won’t release with a jolt and fall to the ground. Oh, never put your fingers near “Spurs” rope cutters, I’ve never heard of anyone losing digits to these nasty buggers but the potential definitely exists.

[SuW]

Originally Posted by sinnerman

Never happened to me , but one danger is a person climbing into a lazarette locker, the lid falls and the latch swings down, locks thus trapping him inside.
The "fix" is to not have the hasp (hinged part) on the locker lid, but on the base.
My two cents.
Cheers

Yeah good idea. Be careful out there!

We were having a sundowner in our cockpit after a hot day, sometime last year, and my SO said, "Do you hear something?" - I thought it might be picnickers on the shore opposite.
"No", he said, "I can hear something..." so off he went.
He'd heard a boat owner shut in his own lazarette about 200 yards away. The guy had been in there for many hours and could barely stand.

Then there are the home-made and/or wooden ladders...all over many boatyards. We've heard about a lot of accidents with these and even witnessed one. Every rung broke under a heavy guy on his way down. I guess it broke his fall somewhat...he did walk away a bit unsteadily!

As for me, getting my foot impaled on a nail embedded in a wooden baulk cured me of wearing sandals in a working boatyard. And tripping off the dock cured me of wearing them elsewhere...

[colinalleck]

Fell 6ft when contractor working on boat left for the day and did not replace the companion way steps nor signpost the hazard. The contractors argument was I shouldn’t have been there.

I advised there is no specialist training or certification required for falling down non existent stairways and I had a right to be on my own vessel.

[JPA Cate]

^^^^^

Were you injured? Did you seek out a solicitor? How was the conflict resolved?

[capt jgw]

I once saw a yard worker get run over by a Travelift. Ended up with one leg pinned between a wheel and the side of the track it ran in to the lift well. 4 or 5 inch thick lower leg mashed into a 2 inch gap. Being a Medical First Responder at the time I had to treat him till the paramedics arrived. I'm pretty sure he had several compound closed fractures but I never heard the official diagnosis (we rarely did). Ironic thing is he was the yard manager's son.

[dfelsent]

In my own driveway. I thought I heard my wife call my name. I ran into the house. It was dark. I forgot about the chain between the Jack stands. I doubled up over the chain. I hit my eyeglasses on the prop. The deflection let the prop blade hit my eyebrow. I was thrown back and banged my head on the pavement. I put my hand over my eye and ran into the house. My wife was on the toilet. I asked her if she was ok. She said “yes but you’re not” as blood ran down my face from under my hand.
Two hours and a trip to the emergency room later I was ok.
True story!

[HankOnthewater]

I guess the title of this thread is stop 'hear-say' and increase authenticity for reporting only witnessed incidents.

In Sea Rescue I have seen injuries, worst ones were broken limbs, all from a fall on board. Loss of life were all diving related.

I work in a hospital (at times), and when i see a patient on an ED (US 'ER') trolley or on a my screen with a boating accident injury, I am always curious. The worst one was a sailor fell through an open deckhatch, and he was an very experienced sailor. A couple of other ones were angle grinder incidents.

The worst incident I witnessed: I saw it happen 3 metres away. I was in the cockpit of my boat, moored in my pen (US 'slip'), and another boat backing out and nearly hitting my boat and then a large pylon. A lady on the moving boat tried to push off, I called out not to push off, she slipped, caught her arm between pylon and pushpit, and a loud crunching noise, and her arm was very deformed, then taken to hospital, for extensive surgery.

My own incident (and this is true DIY) involved an angle grinder. I was grinding a steel bolt on my previous boat, and the sparks came over the batteries, and ..... kaboom. Explosion, I had acid fluid all over face and my upper body, with 3 steps i was in the cockpit, and jumped overboard. Luckily I was wearing glasses. No injuries whatsoever, except I had to buy a new battery. No, the battery was not on a charger.

We learn all the time, well, I think I do, but mishaps still happen.
More and more, i think, prior to what I plan to do, what could happen, and plan, change plan, mitigate, and what would I do if that still happens.

[osprey877]

Originally Posted by sinnerman

Never happened to me , but one danger is a person climbing into a lazarette locker, the lid falls and the latch swings down, locks thus trapping him inside.

The "fix" is to not have the hasp (hinged part) on the locker lid, but on the base.

My two cents.

Cheers

Happened to me. Cell phone Was of course unreachable in the cockpit. Fortunately I was in a marina and someone eventually heard my yelling. I fixed the hasp auto locking issue by putting a small carabiner on the bottom piece so the hasp no longer locks unless I intentionally padlock it.

[coopec43]

Originally Posted by HankOnthewater

I guess ..............................................

My own incident (and this is true DIY) involved an angle grinder. I was grinding a steel bolt on my previous boat, and the sparks came over the batteries, and ..... kaboom. Explosion, I had acid fluid all over face and my upper body, with 3 steps i was in the cockpit, and jumped overboard. Luckily I was wearing glasses. No injuries whatsoever, except I had to buy a new battery. No, the battery was not on a charger.

Hi Hank

Well I had my own accident with an angle grinder too.

I was happily grinding away when the disc caught on something and the angle grinder (still running) fell on my foot and gashed it. I was wearing my thongs (flip flops) too . Stupidly I raced from my workshop to the house looking for bandages which I eventually found after losing about a liter of blood. I say "stupidly" because why didn't I look for a rag or singlet (or anything) to stop the bleeding? (I wish you were there to help!)

Then I used a tube compression bandage to stem the bleeding and drove to the medical center where they stitched me up.

[HankOnthewater]

Well, Coopec, you live to tell the tale !!!
The only thing i am worried about is that you said "happily grinding". I cannot imagine that anyone is happy using such a tool