Crew Overboard

This was posted in our forum, and we felt it important for all to read. -Ed

On Saturday 23 Oct. 2004, Uncensored a 36 foot racing sloop was competing in the first BYC pennant race. A lifeline fitting failed and four crew fell overboard.
In the interest of safety I would like to offer fellow yachtsman an insight of what happened, what we did, what we should have done and what we learnt from the experience.

The fitting that failed was a shackle. Instead of using the type that uses a threaded pin, I had used one with a clevis pin with a circular split ring arrangement. This is attached to the push-pit and forms the 'bitter end' for the lashings that are attached to tension the lifelines. The boat was fine-reaching on port tack and the crew were hiked out on the port side and leaning against the lower lifeline. When the shackle failed the lower lifeline instantly lost tension and the crew literally fell overboard.

The first response for me was to "crash- tack" the boat. This reduced the speed immediately. The need to kill speed was important as some crew still had hold of some ropes or stanchions but were being dragged through the water.
As the speed of the boat was around 8 Knots, it was creating a considerable amount of drag for them. The other advantage of the crash tack was it made the port side, the leeward side, so the boat was heeling towards them and the boat was virtually stationary. This made it a bit easier to drag some of them back on board.

One of our crew had a Stormy Seas vest on. He decided that the remaining crew on board were busy enough recovering people close to the boat, and with the rig back winded and unconventionally loaded and as it looked a bit worrying, he inflated his vest and moved away from the situation. As he was communicating with the boat and confirmed that he was OK we were able to concentrate on getting the remaining three back on board.

Planet X and Quetzacoatl, were just behind us and saw our unexpected manoeuvre, and then noticed our fourth crewman in the water. Both crews should be congratulated on their quick and decisive response in offering assistance. By having these boats clearly showing to us (by stopping and lowering their headsails) that they intended to assist, meant that we could prioritize getting the crew back on board, and sorting out the mess with the sails and rig caused by the crash tack before going after our fourth crew member.

It appeared to us that Planet X deployed a lifesling, but had difficulty getting it to our crewman. The life rings in these units are very light and don't have much weight to overcome their windage when you are attempting to throw them to a target. I thought that it was a good idea however clearly had some difficulties. Quetzacoatl was the next to arrive and they used a different approach. They steered almost head to wind and managed to back up and recover our crewman by dragging him over their transom.

Once we'd recovered three crewmembers and saw that the fourth was safely on board Quetzacoatl we retired from the race and motored home.

So what did we learn???
1) The shackle had an adequate rating for the job providing it was properly orientated. As the fitting was lost in the incident I can only conclude that the complete shackle rotated so that the loads were on the sides, and not between the top and the clevis pin. The body of these types of fittings are pressed stainless steel and if rotation happened the sides would bow. This would then place the clevis pin and split ring in a tension, instead of being in shear. The split ring probably sheared and released the pin and then remaining part probably straightened and released the lashing. A shackle with a screw type pin or a quick link would have handled this loading better.
2) A crash tack in this situation contributed to speedy recovery of most of the crew. It washed off speed and made the port gunwale on the leeside, which helped us drag the crew across the deck. We could have manoeuvred the boat and sailed back but with only half the crew onboard this would have been slow and increased the distance between the crew and us. Without knowing if there were any injuries we were not prepared to separate from the crew.
3) Some time ago we had replaced our lifesling with a throwbag. I thought that would be easier to deploy to a MOB, but when half the crew are in the water there simply wasn't anyone available to do this. If we had our lifesling available I could have deployed it, leaving it floating away from the stern. This would have left me available to assist in recovering the others whilst the crewman in the Stormy Seas vest could have swam to it. He would then have been attached to the boat and we could have recovered him later. I'd hate to think about what could have happened should this have happened on the way to the Pipe Opener.!
4) We have pelican clips on the transom lifelines. The lower one's captive ring was too tight to be unscrewed with wet hands. This made the stern recovery for one of our crew particularly uncomfortable, as he had to be dragged over the middle line. The functionality of these types of clips should be checked regularly.
5) Lifeslings are not the total solution. They have their own unique problems.
The floating line tends top get tangled when it is stored in its bag making them difficult to deploy. I think it would be prudent to check this regularly.

I'm hoping that this article makes you think about what you would do in this situation. My advice is to have a plan in your mind for crew recovery but be prepared to modify it. Think about how would you get people back on board. A closed transom might be more difficult than an open one. A cruiser might have a lot more freeboard.

* What equipment do you need to get people back from the side?
* Do you have adequate equipment handy to deal with a crew overboard situation?
* Does every one know how to activate the MOB on your GPS?
* Do you use a lifesling or ring?
* Have you ever tried to deploy any of this equipment?
* Is it in good condition?
* If you were overboard and injured what would you do?
* If you have an inflatable PFD maybe you should wear it. Its no use to you stored in your sailbag and no-one would want the job of returning it to your next of kin.

Happy Sailing.... Jeff Cordell Owner/Skipper of Uncensored