by MAIB/Sail-World Cruising

2:58 AM Sun 9 Aug 2009 GMT 'Yacht washed up on French coast' . Judgment is for God, but the best mistakes to learn by are other people's. In this anecdote, the sixth of a series, we present a real sailing situation which was investigated by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), and five lessons deduced. Can you identify the lessons? (Find the answers at the end of the story) A 24 year old skipper died following an abortive attempt to carry out a transatlantic delivery voyage from a popular sailing port on the west coast of France in December. He and his two crew had spent several days preparing the new 15m yacht for the voyage which was expected to take up to a month and would take them via the Canaries and the trade winds route to the Caribbean. There, the yacht was to be chartered by a holiday company. The only safety equipment provided was a liferaft, with the skipper and crew being responsible for providing their own lifejackets, harnesses and foul weather gear. The skipper was being paid for the trip via a UK-based agency and, as is common in the delivery industry, was being paid a lump sum from which all expenses had to be met. This extended to other safety items such as flares, and only a minimal set of hand-held flares was purchased. The skipper brought along his own EPIRB, registered in his name, and other safety measures such as jack-lines on the deck were improvised. On the day of departure, the early morning weather forecast from the French weather service M?t?o-France, posted up by the marina office, gave SW becoming NW 6-7. It was felt this was going to be a little unpleasant, but would not worry them unduly given the size of the yacht and the experience of the crew - they were all qualified RYA Yachtmasters. They sailed at 1200 without seeing the updated forecast at the marina office which showed that the weather situation was deteriorating, with the forecast wind strength having increased to force 8-9. The UK Met Office had mentioned the possibility of wind strengths up to force 9 in its early morning forecast, and by lunchtime it was forecasting SW veering NW 7-9, occasionally force 10. However, the crew of the yacht had no long wave radio receiver on board and were thus unable to pick up the UK forecasts. Their French was not good enough for them to understand the local radio forecasts so, once they sailed, they had no means of receiving updates. By 1800 they were 30 miles offshore and the wind had risen to SW force 9-10. Because the wind had increased quickly, the short steep sea was kicking up and they were having difficulty keeping the yacht under control. With no storm sails on board, they were sailing with a doublereefed mainsail (there was no third reef) and a small amount of headsail unfurled. It was now dark and a large wave knocked the yacht down, throwing the two crew who were on deck, flat in the cockpit. Shortly after this the headsail sheet broke, presumably under the strain of the conditions. It was deemed too dangerous to try to reeve another sheet, so the sail was furled away completely. At this point they decided to turn back to seek shelter in the port from where they had sailed. Broad reaching under reefed main the return leg was uneventful until they began to pick up the lights that they hoped would lead them to safety. Close to the harbour entrance, and motoring, a large wave caught them and capsized the yacht. One crew felt himself pinned under the water until his combined lifejacket/harness broke, allowing him to swim to the surface. The other crew had had to cut his harness line to free himself - however, he managed to stay on board the yacht when she righted herself. The skipper was in the water with his lifejacket inflated. The two in the water were about 100m from the yacht but could see she had been dismasted in the capsize in relatively shallow water. Swimming closer, they shouted to the crew in the cockpit to set off the EPIRB. Hand flares were also set off. The VHF radio was now useless as the aerial had been at the top of the mast - they had no back-up. However, they were unable to get close enough to the yacht to have a chance of being recovered, and eventually lost contact. The crew whose lifejacket had been ripped off him was being helped to stay afloat by the skipper, and they decided to try to swim to the shore. By the time they reached shallow water, with surf breaking around them, the skipper had lost consciousness and appeared to have stopped breathing. The crew attempted to resuscitate him, but was forced to leave him clear of the water, on a rock, while he sought help. No-one was to be found in a nearby caravan site that was closed for the winter, and the crew collapsed in a service building that had been left open. He remained unconscious for several hours until recovering to flag down a car to take him to raise the alarm. By that time, the French search and rescue authorities, having been alerted by the EPIRB signal relayed to them by HM Coastguard at Falmouth, had rescued the other crew from the now grounded yacht, and had found the skipper's body on the beach. Both crew recovered in hospital. Click here for the answers. Sail-World Cruising is grateful to MAIB for its permission to use these incidents

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