Fatality Report on Chicago Mackinac Race

[Uricanejack]

I read most of the report but gave up when I got half way into the annexes.
I don’t know why people think it’s a good report. Although the writers of the report did quite a good job of presenting the Yacht club and race organization as good chaps. While the boat doesn’t fair to well.
Why redact the names from the report then leave the names in the written statement.
It’s unfortunate a competent independent report has not been published. From the USCG. Or the TSB, of course it’s not thier mandate. Or at least by someone who specializes in accident investigation rather than competitive sailing.

No wonder the boat owner didn’t take part. Off course the report makes sure we know the owner didn’t take part. Probably his legal advice, keep your mouth shut you might get sued. This was unofficial investigation is not privileged. And can be used.

Leaving all this aside.

It’s a tragic event. It shouldn’t have happened. In the first place.
Why did he fall over?
How could the falling over have been prevented. More importantly what can be changed to make it less likley next time.

No doubt the attempt at recovery was difficult. Reality your friend is in the drink drowning. In strong wind. It turned into a bit of a cluster on deck. Well I think it would on most boats.
It’s one thing to do a drill another to deal with the shock of a real event,
Unless of course it’s a crew who have drilled and drilled and drilled some more. Till they no longer have to think.
Is this realistic to expect of an amateur boat?

Strongish winds. Full sail. Bigish sea. Sailing hard into the wind.
The cockpit may have seamed to be a safe place. Not clipped on in the cockpit. Moving around to deal with difrent gear.
Slipped or tripped on a well heeled boat and fell down and through the guard wires.

What could have prevented this from happening?

My opinion. Relying on a life jacket, after the event to save your life. Is just a little to late. Even if it had inflated.

A real simple recommendation for the organizers of any offshore races particularly those expecting exciting conditions. Requirement for all crew to be clipped on on deck including the cockpit. at all times.

All boats entering to have a fall prevention plan available for inspection prior to the race.

It did what about getting him back. They really didn’t have a plan. They did quite well.

What I notice apart from the several failed attempts.

Without wanting to criticize the crew. I think few would have done much better. What I learn from the recovery attempts.
My question how do you approach a casualty in the water?

Undersail I used to practice heaving to. drifting down. Whats the big hazard here.
Light weight boat. trying to luff up from down wind or let sails fly. The bows going to blow off as soon as your way comes off.
Under power? I was original trained or taught. Approach from down wind. Why? So you don’t drift over the poor bugger and drown him.
Hell this was the procedure under oars.

In the end the boat went over him and he was keel hauled.At a time when it’s Likley he was already close to exhaustion and possibly in the process of drowning.

The other thing I learn from this. Even a strong swimmer is probably not going to be able to help themselves. Hoping the MOB will swim to the boat, grab a rope and climb back on-board.
They got close repeatedly but were blown away the guy couldn’t help himself. From only a few yards away.

My plan for years. MOB return under sail. Mainly because I have practiced it many times. Start the engine but primarily under sail. I have a life sling. Even so. One of the reasons I carry a liferaft. To use for a MOB.

Maybe I should take just a little longer. Furl the fore sail, sheet the main in hard and use the engine to go and get him.

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by Uricanejack

Why did he fall over?
How could the falling over have been prevented. More importantly what can be changed to make it less likley next time.

No doubt the attempt at recovery was difficult. Reality your friend is in the drink drowning. In strong wind. It turned into a bit of a cluster on deck. Well I think it would on most boats.
It’s one thing to do a drill another to deal with the shock of a real event,
Unless of course it’s a crew who have drilled and drilled and drilled some more. Till they no longer have to think.
Is this realistic to expect of an amateur boat?

The cockpit may have seamed to be a safe place. Not clipped on in the cockpit. Moving around to deal with difrent gear.
Slipped or tripped on a well heeled boat and fell down and through the guard wires.

What could have prevented this from happening?

My opinion. Relying on a life jacket, after the event to save your life. Is just a little to late. Even if it had inflated.

A real simple recommendation for the organizers of any offshore races particularly those expecting exciting conditions. Requirement for all crew to be clipped on on deck including the cockpit. at all times.

Undersail I used to practice heaving to. drifting down. Whats the big hazard here.
Light weight boat. trying to luff up from down wind or let sails fly.

It’s not realistic to expect drilling in safety procedures in an amateur boat. Should it be done? Of course. Will it be done? No. Racers already push back against the mounting safety requirements of the OSR, based primarily on cost.

As I said earlier, most amateur boats, particularly those needing a crew of 8 or more, rarely have a set consistent team. People rotate in based on availability. Joe has a wedding this weekend and can’t make it. Mary is sick. Roger is a friend of Mark and is a crack bowman, he can fill in, etc. You’re almost always going to have crew rolling on and off throughout a season.

As far as the cockpit goes, the TP52 is wide open with lots of working space but little to brace yourself against. Crew members need to be able to circulate for various maneuvers and what facilitates that is a drawback when it comes to safety. The boat is also incredibly stiff and twitchy. You feel every bump and the helm response is nothing short of dramatic. One quick move of the tiller and if you’re on the back half of the boat you could be thrown off your feet. Also, it’s not feasible for everyone to remain clipped in particularly on short legs. It would be chaos.

And the boat won’t heave to. You have to be very careful to keep the boat moving. If it goes into irons in 20 knots of wind and pivots you’d be looking at several more people in the water. I don’t think people appreciate how powerful, responsive, and twitchy these boats are. If your average Beneteau is a Chevy a TP52 is a Formula 1 race car.

[Recy]

Originally Posted by Suijin

If it goes into irons .

What does this mean?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Recy

What does this mean?

The boat loses momentum and stalls head to wind with sails flapping wildly.

[Recy]

Originally Posted by boatman61

The boat loses momentum and stalls head to wind with sails flapping wildly.

OK. Thanks.

[donradcliffe]

We were prepping the YC safety boats for the season, and I came across one of these

https://www.landfallnavigation.com/m...cue-stick.html

It looks like it would have been useful in the Imedi incident, in that you can throw a flotation device a long way into the wind. Anyone ever used one of these??

[windpipe]

My thoughts go to the family and crew, first off.

Thinking about this as a learning experience... my next thought is they should've deployed the MOM. If that was done either immediately after he went overboard, or on the first or second pass, he'd almost certainly be alive.

And if the lifesling was used during one of the passes. It sounds like the boat was difficult to control, so I see why if you thought the lifesling would not be controlled, it may add to the predicament.

This tells me there were some oversights in the preparation and execution here. If not want to make anyone feel worse about a horrible situation. I can say I am going to review my boats MOB procedures before we sail this spring.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by windpipe

My thoughts go to the family and crew, first off.

Thinking about this as a learning experience... my next thought is they should've deployed the MOM. If that was done either immediately after he went overboard, or on the first or second pass, he'd almost certainly be alive.

And if the lifesling was used during one of the passes. It sounds like the boat was difficult to control, so I see why if you thought the lifesling would not be controlled, it may add to the predicament.

This tells me there were some oversights in the preparation and execution here. If not want to make anyone feel worse about a horrible situation. I can say I am going to review my boats MOB procedures before we sail this spring.

That's quite a jump to conclusion on the MOM deployment. It would certainly been better to deploy it immediately. But there is no certainty that the victim would have able to swim to it or hold on to it, as the mob did not manually inflate thei lifejacket in this case.

[donradcliffe]

We just had another fatality in Montery:

Subject: MPYC Special Announcement

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Tonight, during the Wednesday evening race, on his Moore 24, Morpheus, Rick Srigley and crew encountered heavy weather. Rick was washed overboard off the transom. His crew attempted to recover him while calling the Coast Guard. They brought him to the boat, but were unable to get him out, at which time the Coast Guard took charge, and took Rick by ambulance to the hospital.

We are so very sorry to tell you that Rick Srigley has passed away. His wife, Sandie, is with him now at the hospital. We are contacting family members. His crew is also at the hospital with us.

We will share information as it becomes available.

Please hold Rick, Sandie, their children, and Rick's crew in your hearts and prayers.

Sharron Frey
Commodore

Details are sketchy, but rumor has it Rick was wearing a life jacket and there were originally four people on the boat. Water temperature was about 55 F and Rick was 77 years old. There is a US coast guard station within a mile of the incident.

Definitely time to review practice your man overboard plan.

[windpipe]

Originally Posted by Paul L

That's quite a jump to conclusion on the MOM deployment. It would certainly been better to deploy it immediately. But there is no certainty that the victim would have able to swim to it or hold on to it, as the mob did not manually inflate thei lifejacket in this case.

I retract my previous statement of "almost certainly be alive" but, I think this could have saved the COB, picturing myself in his position.

Again, I am not trying to be critical of people in a disaster situation, but of the many things we are to learn from this, an important learning point would be that deploying a MOM has many benefits. If everyone understand this and it is done in the COB drills, it will help.

From the captain's report, page 44: "The horse shoe with strobe attached was thrown, but did not reach Jon. Lines were thrown, but in the wind proved ineffective. "

In 6 ft waves, a horseshoe is no longer visible after 1-2 wave periods. I know this from kiteboarding and having to retrieve my board in 6 ft waves on Lake Michigan. The pylon of a MOM is 6ft above water. Thinking about 6-8 ft waves on Lake Michigan, which again I am familiar with being in the water in those conditions, I estimate a COB could still locate it within 5 wave periods or more.

Swimming to it is another issue, but the COB in this case was a triathalon swimmer. He would have had a decent chance. Otherwise, if he sees glimpses of a horseshoe and lines being thrown out of his reach, he's going to just keep treading water until he gets run over by the boat.

I will quote the report page 38, which is a summary of the crew's comments by the CYC: " They considered deployment of the Lifesling but were afraid they would run over it and have it tangle in the prop given how close they were maneuvering... They had their eyes on Jon the whole time so didn’t see a reason to deploy the MOM.

This demonstrates lack of understanding of the benefits of a MOM:

1) If the COB makes it to the MOM, it is 35 lbs of inflation which could have been enough to self inflate his own PFD, ditch his boots, etc. Any of those things are near impossible if you are not able to stop treading water.

2) The 6ft pylon, aside from being helpful for the COB and the crew for visualization, gives the crew something to grab the COB and pull him up with.

This incident was not an issue of locating the COB, it was a matter of having him stay afloat long enough to get him onboard. Obviously the big issue was #1 the PFD malfunction and/or (less likely) the COB's ignorance that he could pull a self inflate handle. (per the report there was CO2 in the cartridge, I don't think said whether or not the handle had malfunctioned .)

[Uricanejack]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

We just had another fatality in Montery:

Subject: MPYC Special Announcement

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Tonight, during the Wednesday evening race, on his Moore 24, Morpheus, Rick Srigley and crew encountered heavy weather. Rick was washed overboard off the transom. His crew attempted to recover him while calling the Coast Guard. They brought him to the boat, but were unable to get him out, at which time the Coast Guard took charge, and took Rick by ambulance to the hospital.

We are so very sorry to tell you that Rick Srigley has passed away. His wife, Sandie, is with him now at the hospital. We are contacting family members. His crew is also at the hospital with us.

We will share information as it becomes available.

Please hold Rick, Sandie, their children, and Rick's crew in your hearts and prayers.

Sharron Frey
Commodore

Details are sketchy, but rumor has it Rick was wearing a life jacket and there were originally four people on the boat. Water temperature was about 55 F and Rick was 77 years old. There is a US coast guard station within a mile of the incident.

Definitely time to review practice your man overboard plan.

Very sad, not much else to say