Page 25 - Yachter Autumn 2024

our lifejackets automatically inflated under the deluge. Nigel was tethered to windward and held on to the lifeline. As he was the only one whose lifejacket was manual, it hadn’t inflated. As we surfaced a rapid head count revealed three of the crew inboard, one outboard, James, with just his lower legs hooked over the top guard wire but still clipped on, and one overboard 15 metres away on the port quarter.
Tom and Nigel soon had James back aboard. Tom kept Keith in sight, now to leeward with lifejacket inflated, signalling he was OK with two thumbs up. We quickly
had the jib furled and engine running after a loose rope overboard check – as being within 300m of a lee shore, time was of the essence. Having failed an initial recovery attempt, Nigel, a retired Master Mariner, put out a rapid Pan Pan on the handheld VHF in the cockpit advising the Coastguard that we had
a potential situation if we couldn’t affect a rescue. After two attempts with the main
up we concluded that the falls of the loose mainsheet were a liability, hooking up over the sheet winches, which was limiting our ability to manoeuvre. Also wishing to avoid crash gybes, we took the Mainsail down.
In the first instance, Nigel had looked at the bespoke rescue throwing device but decided
the line was too light to get to our MOB. He selected a 12m x 12mm mooring warp which, in the strength of wind was much heavier for throwing and easier to grasp. On the third attempt we approached Keith about 3m off the port bow, heading directly into the wind. The warp was thrown and Keith successfully grabbed it. Nigel walked the line aft from
the foredeck to Tom and James stationed at the transom with the permanent boarding ladder lowered into the water. Having brought Keith toward the stern of the boat, he was
able to grab the ladder. Tom and James then
positioned themselves onto the bathing platform whilst remaining hooked on. From here they grasped Keith and managed to turn him, so he sat on the bathing platform then hooked his tether to the boat.
He had been disconnected in the first place because he was moving in the cockpit. From a manoeuvring point of view, I was very aware of not running Keith over and the vicinity
of the propeller to him but at the same time having enough way on to keep the boat head to wind and seas plus not wrenching the throwing line from his hands. Nigel had tied
ROUND THE ISLAND RACE 25