Page 26 - Yachter Autumn 2024

26 ROUND THE ISLAND RACE
the warp off to the boat but kept slack in his hands, so the load didn’t snatch the warp out of Keith’s hands. Once Keith was safely in the cockpit, we could assess his condition, which was good, then get him below and dry.
We then radioed the Coastguard to inform them of a successful rescue and thanked them. The Bembridge Lifeboat was now also standing by us and in radio contact. We were able to reassure them that Keith’s general condition was good, and he did not need transferring to the Lifeboat. He was coherent, no physical injuries and in good spirits, little or no water ingress, we were able to get him into dry clothes and keep him warm with additional blankets.
Obviously, this ended with a big thank you for standing by and wishing them well for the rest of the day on station at St Catherine’s. Then a text sent to ISC to inform MOB recovered and phone my wife Tina, our shore side point of contact, so hopefully all contact loops were closed.
We continued on toward Bembridge Ledge under reefed jib, then up into the lee
and relative calm of Bembridge for a sort out especially stowing away the remaining part of the mainsail with broken sail slides before motoring back to Beaulieu.
On reflection a couple of days afterwards and with a broken leg sustained during the wipe out that I hadn’t realised at the time, it really comes down to crew performance and Walkabout’s were excellent, calm decisive and focused. Keith didn’t panic, he still dinghy sails still at 76 years old and is used to the odd sea water bath in pursuit of his sport. The rest of us played our parts as a team. James, in spite of suffering with seasickness was still able to make a decisive contribution.
TALKING POINTS
• We believe that Keith was in the water somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes.
• A drone was being flown over the sea photographing the RTI. Tom saw the drone and noticed that it was keeping station above Keith. This was really helpful and good thinking on the part of the drone pilot to give us another reference point.
• Whilst self-inflating life jackets are great when you fall in, they are a bit of a liability inflated in the cockpit with hood and light paraphernalia flapping in your face, working with a neck brace on comes to mind, but I would most definitely still wear one.
• In hindsight should we have gone down the back of the Island and not turned back at The Needles? It wasn’t really discussed that we shouldn’t, after all we had done the difficult bit getting to The Needles!
• There is no regularity in waves, they are what they are.
• Think hard on what constitutes a good throwing line.
• Man overboard drill with a bucket and fender in a sunny force three doesn’t really prepare you and thinking so is delusional.
• As soon as possible secure (clip on) the recovered crew – even passing a rope
through their harness so they aren’t lost for a second time which would be really unfortunate.
• Do think about the MOB perspective, Keith told me afterwards it was really de-nerving seeing a relatively large yacht 3m away and 3m above you on a wave praying it isn’t going to be washed sideways onto you.
• Windward versus Leeward pickup. Our successful pickup was directly to windward maybe with slight leeward bias. This reduced loads between MOB and boat. Windward bias would have increased
those loads with the boat being blown and washed away from the MOB increasing those loads.
• Examine and improve the cockpit hook on points so there isn’t an over reliance on the Jack Stays. This is an obvious primary safety feature that many major yacht manufacturers overlook.
• The broken mainsail slides/plastic shackles were a weakness that prevented the main from being properly stowed, a luff partially adrift in wind becomes a matter of tear along dotted line until it is completely out of control.