By Lou Roberts - Skipper of Dismasted Boat

All,

I want to report an incident which occurred yesterday that should serve as a reminder to remain vigilant about safety at sea at all times, especially when least expected. While sailing the second day at the Star North American Championships with forty other boats, we rounded the first windward mark and were setting up the whisker pole for the 1.7 mile downwind leg. About a minute later, I noticed the pole was set too low and asked my crew and co-owner, Kevin, to raise the pole. Moments later, we were hit with a gust and the pole buried into the water causing a dismasting at a point just below the spreaders. Neither of us were injured so we began the process of clearing the rigging in order to remove ourselves from the racecourse. We noticed another boat about one half mile away with a large rip in the mainsail, but no other boats around. We then heard a voice through the wind and were shocked to spot a person in the water – obviously in distress. We attempted an approach but with half the rig still in the water and with 4-6 foot seas we were unable to sail to him. He appeared to be panicking and managed to yell that he had no life preserver and was unable to keep afloat. It then became clear to us that he had fallen off the boat with the torn mainsail. That boat was attempting a recovery, but unfortunately it kept sailing from the windward side and on every attempt, passed too quickly to grab a hold of the now nearly exhausted and drowning victim. At that moment, my crew and I decided the only chance was to have one of us in the water to attempt to swim to the man. Kevin put on a life jacket, grabbed the second life jacket and entered the water while I continued to jury rig the boat to make it sailable in the hopes that one of us would reach the man. I attempted to keep sight of Kevin and victim while working on the rig but after a few minutes I lost sight of both in the heavy seas. I also noticed the boat with the torn mainsail had given up searching and was just floating in the water. With only a small Leatherman my efforts to cut the rig clean became futile; I could not find a way to jury rig what remained of the sail and mast stump to produce any forward momentum. I continued to drift downwind. Astonishingly, the fleet was now about 2 miles away from us and not a single one of the many judge, mark, or crash boats on the race course noticed the two disabled boats. I remembered I had my cell phone so I called 911 and reported the approximate position of the two COBs. It is now over 15 minutes since I lost sight of them. While on the phone with 911 dispatch, I finally saw an inflatable boat approaching. With large arm motions I attempted to point towards the COB position but the inflatable mistook my motions and thought I was pointing to the other boat. The inflatable then went towards the other boat and finally off toward the direction of the men in the water. I kept phone contact with the marine police while a growing number of small motor boats appeared in the area – now over a mile from where I had drifted. What seemed like an eternity later, maybe 40 minutes since we first spotted the victim, a boat headed towards my direction. Prepared for the worst, he told me that both people had been found – alive. As it turned out the person in the water, an acquaintance from another Star fleet, had rounded up minutes before we dismasted and had simply slowly slipped down the edge of the cockpit and over the transom. He had an inflatable lifejacket that did not deploy. Kevin was able to reach him moments before he had succumbed to the elements – a truly heroic effort. Incredibly, they spent over 40 minutes in the water – a huge feat given the conditions and the fact that our friend is a 70 year old gentleman. It was nothing less than a miracle that our dismasting in the immediate vicinity, with no other boats near us, allowed us to hear him and execute a recovery.


Lessons Learned: After a heavy seas Bermuda race, I admit to lowering my safety concerns in my local sailing program, the kind of apathy that results in all too common tragedy. As a result, I will now be wearing a life vest in all future races with wind over 10 knots, I will remind anyone and everyone of the need to inspect inflatable life jackets on an annual basis, and will make sure my crew is familiar with how it works (in the turmoil, the COB did not remember the inflatable lifejacket had a manual inflation tube). I will also remember that current (tide and wind induced) play a big role in these scenarios. We should have been more aware of the fact that our window of opportunity was closing as we drifted by the COB. We may have had an option of throwing a life preserver to the COB when we were still upwind and perhaps it would have floated close enough to him. Once we were downwind of him, our window was closed shut as our drift rate was rather fast. I will also make a pitch to Race Committees that a brief safety statement at the Skippers Meetings, especially during heavy weather days, would be advisable. Mostly, I will remind all alike that our sport can be equally dangerous 1 or 100 miles from land.