mia

This didn't seem to create a lot of headlines here. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-37784569 Wasn't his boat the old IDEC?

They say the mainsail was in the water but it seems more like the mast might have been down. Non sailors shouldn't report on these things. Lots o questions for sure.

 

It's a very sad situation from reports I've heard that the gennaker was in the water the mainsail and mast still up. Seems that he was thrown overboard, the search has been called off. Yes it was the old IDEC, most reports don't have a lot of detail the emergency services boarded the boat and found no sign of Guo they pulled the mainsail down and collected Guo's belongings for his family.

http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2016/10/27/guo-chuan-lost-sea/

 

Thanks Corley, that is more detail. Makes more sense than the BBC. Time for the float coats to have a steering control remote attached or a return to gps function, maybe then they'd get worn. A tether and harness would have saved the day too.

 

The loss of Guo and earlier Mohammed off Oman Sail has made me all the more certain that if sailing solo I wont go on deck without safety gear on and a tether ready to clip on. I'd rather capsize than have the boat sail away from me has been my final conclusion. The problem is I'm sure that the temptation is to rush on deck in what appears to be an emergency situation and fail to consider your own safety. If you are tired enough to sleep you can sleep with a life jacket on even though it's not the most comfortable thing in the world.

I noticed in the most recent video too that Guo looked really tired, energy management is a difficult trick to manage on a labor intensive maxi multihull. Attempting to wrangle a gennaker that is dragging in the water whilst tired and not clipped on is very risky.

 

I think you have the right of it, a upside down boat isn't going anywhere and being alive lets you try again later. The fatigue spiral affects decisions as well as responses. We don't know what the sequence of events was but if the gennaker went in the water first you'd want to drop the main as there would be little hope of retrieval with way on.

 

The conditions were not particularly strong when he was lost. Most MOB situations I've seen have been in pretty light conditions where people take risks and ignore safety procedures. When there is a rough sea and it's blowing a gale it's easier to stick to them because the potential for personal danger feels more immediate.

I can remember going for a flight with one of my dad's friends in a light aircraft. He noted how ridiculous it seemed saying "stand clear" out of the cockpit window prior to starting the engine but safety procedures only work if everyone does them regardless of the situation.

Unfortunately we are unlikely to ever know what happened with any clarity there was a media system on the boat with multiple cameras but as far as I know they had to be manually started by Guo so are unlikely to have captured any video of the accident.

 

The team have found a broken safety harness on the starboard float which suggests that Guo was wearing a lifejacket when he went overboard.

https://www.facebook.com/guochuansailing/posts/842832599191814

 

Gday Owen and Cav

The harness actually gives some insight into what happens on fast multis. In my slimmer and younger days I used to jump off the back of my tri when sailing holding a rope. Once the darn Twiggy got up to about 10 knots with me holding onto the rope. No one on board could sail - I had told them to steer to a point on shore. I kept on slipping down the rope, I lost my swimmers, kept slipping down and then pointed with one finger into the wind. My friends got the idea and turned the boat into the wind, the boat slowed and I could get my naked body back on board. Learnt after that one.

I had to face backwards or I would have had to let go. I also couldn't get back on without the boat being slowed. young, fit and had only swimmers on (and lost them). If I was to think of the best multi harness design it would have a clip on the front with a fuse that then pulls you backwards through the water with load. Then you also have a trailing line leading to the autopilot so that you can pull the boat to windward - otherwise you are going to get drowned by the harness.

I don't really get how the tether could break - it seems like bad engineering. I hope mine are okay.

Yes, I wear my harness too at night and in bad weather. I would really like one of those AIS and yacht tracker beacons. They are so cheap.

A guy I knew who did lots of racing had a bum bag. He wore an inflatable life jacket with a harness (good idea) and a bum bag with two small flares, (clever) and a small handheld VHF (brilliant). With the addition of the bum bag for whomever is on watch you have a much better chance of getting back to a person overboard. Some DSC radios will squark the mothership if you get the radios to pair. With prices falling it is worthwhile looking into.

 

I wonder, with the harness he might not have felt the need for a life jacket which might have been kinder.

Reading the teams 2 scenario hypothesis I wonder what they found with the gennaker halyard. Was it broken or had it been released? Was it cut? They suggest it either got away while he was taking it down while it was furled for the night or that the halyard broke dumping it into the water and he was lost trying to recover it. I feel the first scenario unlikely as if he was tired he would be inclined to leave it up furled. Scenario 3 would have been some sort of gust and an attempted dump of the sail to keep from going over. Falling down the near vertical slope with the boat on the edge of going over would have put enormous shock loads on the harness. The over all weather doesn't look strong but it could have been a localized event.

Harnesses tend to break at the hardware with d rings etc.. failing or the stitching letting go. Where the line meets the hardware is vulnerable if the load isn't pulling in a strait line but across the fitting edge.

Good info Phil, I really think the fanny bag should have a remote for the auto pilot or auto feature if a gps shows a sailor away from the boat. I'll stock a spare pair of swimmers in case somebody tries your line maneuver.

 

We need to do the practice

Man overboard is a funny thing - I am a pretty good sailor but do find it hard to sail back to pick something up in the water. We dropped a hat the other weekend. "Okay everyone - lets pick it up for real" I sailed back and forth and missed. The problem is (it was blowing about 15 knots) it is really hard to get Kankama to slow down and get something to the stern steps. I stuffed it up twice before we got the hat - lots of people pointing and helping but in flat water we were awful. I was doing about 4 knots when I picked it up the last time - too fast for a person)

The proper procedure on our cat is to drop all sail immediately. (another reason I prefer a reachers instead of a kite) so up into the wind and furl sail. Then look over the side, check for ropes and engine on (single mid mount). Then motor to windward of the mark we want and drift down using the wind. My boat lies on a reach in the wind. Using the engine I reverse or push forward so that I get the leeward stern to get the person in the water. DON'T GO HEAD TO WIND. At least not on my boat. When you get the person to the stern steps you could kill them with the slapping of the stern on the swell. It makes it hard to get out if the stern is rising and falling relative to the swell. So we go sideways. Then the hull and stern stays in tune with the waves. As soon as the person is near the leeward stern the motor is shut off. The running motor never gets closer than about 4 metres to the swimmer.

For your Cav I would suggest the main hull stern is the best spot for recovery. The float sterns may be a problem even when sideways. We have used this technique for recovering lost items and it works very well. My multi doesn't heave to well enough or sail slow well to do this under sail.

On a related point is the design of our harnesses. As I have stated above I feel that they will probably drown me quickly if my boat is going fast (she averages about 8 knots on the GPS offshore). I thought about it and am wondering - Why do we hook onto lines that run on deck?

My son rock climbs and safety for him is vertical height. It's okay to fall as long as your anchor is high enough to let you fall and slow down before you hit the ground. My jacklines are pretty dumb this way. I have to make them long enough so I can run around the boat but with my tether they can let me into the water. If I am on my own then I am in big trouble if I go overboard. If I go over the stern I reckon I can drag myself back onto the stern steps but if I fall over the stanchions and am being dragged alongside then I am in a real pickle. (I can climb the anchor chain and pull myself up the front of my cat - I have been able to do it for years. Had some current - about 1 knot the other day and couldn't do it, my feet kept on getting pulled away from me. I can't climb the chain in 1 knot. How am I going to climb the tether at 8 or 10 knots?)

So I thought "Why not go vertical?" Why are we using jacklines that get in the way, let you fall overboard anyway and will drag you largely horizontally if they are long? Does anyone know of any use of a vertical jackline? I am thinking about something like a light halyard that allows you to reach all corners of the boat. If you fall off it will be pulling you UP not across. If someone was really smart then you could have some sort of light block and tackle arrangement at the end so that you could wind yourself back upwards if required. I have only thought about it for a few hours but I think it makes sense for multis. On a mono you may find yourself hanging out to leeward. Basically it is a slack trapeze line (dinghy trapeze)- they even have small block and tackles to adjust height. I will think on it some more but then I can get rid of the jacklines and run around the boat tethered safely. If I fall off then I just do what skiff and dinghy sailors do and haul myself back up when sailing -perfectly easy to do, we do it all the time.

Any thoughts? Cheers

 

It's a Vagabond MK2. We actually have had excellent luck going back for dropped items then grabbing them from the bow nets. For people I have a lifesling setup that can use the running back blocks to hoist someone up the ama side. This isn't as hard as it sounds as the amas are low enough in freeboard to grab the sheer as you get past the midpoint, not like a cat. The stern does work great though, I use it swimming.

I like the idea of a vertical line, a spare halyard might even do the trick but you always have to think about routing. The tackle is an idea. I've even thought a small come along could be handy but that starts to make a bulky harness. My main conclusion is to not have anything long enough to let you go OB in the first place.

 

I like it Phil, I spent weeks in a rock climbing harness last year and the year before re roofing and was impressed by the utility and comfort of the approach. For climbing you use a dynamic line to take the shock of a fall but for a boat where your feet will be on the deck a static line makes more sense, the stretch of the dynamic could put you in the water.

 

Now, what if the rig drops? If the heel stays on deck you have a better chance of avoiding the sling overboard. Being able to adjust slack quickly means extra line and some sort of ascender for fast adjustments.

 

Vagabond Mk 2 - I had forgotten that - fast tri. So why Cav?

The problem with my jacklines is that I can't really get them to stop me from falling overboard everywhere. I can fall over the side if I make them long enough for me to get to the bows and stern of the boat - there is enough slack to fall off the sides. I can't really use the hook on hook off method when dousing kites and reachers offshore.

I think the trapeze style would suit my boat well as I don't have spreaders. So there would be no snagging on spreader ends as trapeze sailors know well. I reckon I could have a much looser tether and be safer which would be nice. I will grab the kite halyard - snag it around the hounds and have a play.

cheers

Phil

 

Cav happened because I got the boat from it's long time 2nd or 3rd owner who actually wasn't sure what it was. Some excuse, he is the scientist type and a Orca researcher. He thought it might be a Brown! I then started the research project which verified by plan and measure which model I had after identifying it as a Nicol. You could say I was a bit cavalier.

I agree on the spinnaker halyard but will use the rock climbing harness. I've already contemplated swashbuckling swings around the deck and rigging as a time saver but expect to get bruised. And a mast heel tether so it can't go far in a worse case scenario. I'll let you know.