Permanently installed preventer - The case for (and a cautionary tale)

10:15 PM Tue 27 Jul 2010 GMT

'After an accidental jibe, by Francisco Ferri' .

The incidence of injury from accidental or premature jibes is unknown but the problem is not insignificant. I became aware of the immediacy and seriousness of such accidents during the 1989 Marion Bermuda Race when a pediatrician at the helm of a fellow neurosurgeon's boat had a fatal head injury during an accidental jibe at night. He was struck by the mainsheet as it whipped across the cockpit. The binnacle was also badly damaged by the mainsheet. Subsequently I assembled an incomplete list of 18 fatal head and/or neck injuries that occurred on 'offshore' yachts during accidental jibes. A surprising ...

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by Edwin G. Fischer, MD/ Bob Hickson