Seabreeze regular "Sinker" had a high speed crash going for a personal best top speed and shares the details with us...

 "I would just like to remind everyone that the reason our sport is such an adrenaline rush is partly because it is dangerous.

I recently had a stack whilst trying to top my PB, it wasn't that unusual an event really I was just trying to push a couple of extra knots out of my gear and lost control.

At first i thought I had broken my arm, I managed to struggle back to shore ok, but after a few days the pain seemed to be coming from my neck and shoulder and I had some numbness down my right arm. I continued working but eventually had some x-rays.

I had just walked through the door returning from the radiologist when the he phoned telling me to get to a hospital asap as I had a broken neck!

The impact of the catapult at nearly 60kph had thrown my head forwards violently causing a dislocation between C5 and C6 and breaking part of the bone off in the process.

The Doctor said I could have very easily have become paraplegic (although I probably would have drowned at the time of the accident if I had severed my spinal cord)

I'm not sure what will happen now, I have my neck in one of those stupid braces and will find out this week if I need surgery.

I'm sure this story won't put anyone off sailing, It's certainly not going to stop me from sailing again as soon as I can (in fact i am devastated that i missed crazies last weekend..)

It's jut a reminder that when you start to hit higher speeds everything happens quicker and impacts are much harder and to be honest if you're over 40 you're not bulletproof any more....

Take care everyone"

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