It’s happened again—another sailing accident that should serve as a reminder to us all to be more careful out there on the water. New England’s been deluged by an early-summer nor’easter that’s brought many days of rain, fog, gloom, and gusty winds. The weather makes many of us antsy, waiting for good days to sail, and sometimes when we decide to break out the foul weather gear and do it anyway, we’re still feeling a little frantic. Maybe that’s what was happening on the J24 racing a couple days ago off Salem, Mass. Not one but two men on the same boat were struck in the head by the boom, one after the other. Both were experienced sailors. Both suffered head injuries and had to be treated at the hospital.
Keeping an eye on the boom when tacking and gybing—and whenever shifting or gusting winds raise the risk of an accidental gybe—is one of the first things sailors learn. Still, it happens. You get caught up in the race or preoccupied with other thoughts, and the unthinkable happens and your head is struck by a flying heavy piece of metal whose force can be considerable—and often lethal. Fortunately both these men recovered from their injuries.
But we’re not all so lucky all the time. Keep an eye out, folks!
Comments
My cautious father and my own short period teaching sailing had me always reminding students to say “ready about,hard alee.” This was to warn everyone to duck low.
Remember sailing can be dangerous and one should always teach a rookie or passenger how to master the simplest sailing directions in case of just this kind of accident.
Recently had a very frightening experience with an involuntary gybe. Single handed and running with a twitchy wind dead aft punching the tide in river and with jib goose winged. Sudden gybe brought mainsail to port side – not a problem and was the side I wanted it to be as I was about to round up to starboard to sail downriver. Prepared for the turn and saw that starboard jib sheet had come out of self jam cleat with the tail end lying on side deck just out of reach. Stepped up out of cockpit, bent over and picked up sheet and had another gybe which could me full force on my left side in kidney area. Found myself in water being towed at some speed as I kept hold of the sheet. Boat slowly turned to port and ended up in an inefficient hove to mode as the jib was now aback. Now sailing VERY slowly across the wind towards the opposite bank some 400 yards away with no other boats around. Managed to pull myself along to the chain plates and hung on. Eventually we took the ground on a very steep to bank, the bottom being deep ooze – impossible to stand in. Then found that we were being slowly pushed up river by the wind, grazing the bottom. Somehow managed to pull myself along the toe rail and (still cannot figure out how!) reached up to get plough anchor over the bow and pulled up chain from the locker. Eventually it bit. Then had the problem of getting back on board – the ooze made wading ashore impossible. The jib sheet was still withing reach and after some trial and error had it tied to the pulpit base with a bowline for my foot. Still not the easiest job to get on board with heavy saturated clothing. Spent three hours in (literally) agony down below waiting for tide to make and some 8 hours after the accident was waiting for enough water to get into the harbour after getting boat upriver. Net result was two broken ribs, horrific bruising and severe pain (especially when I laughed…) for a month or so. Big lesson learnt – rig a preventor and NEVER go on deck on a dead run .