Lessons Learned

Low Speed Chase, the boat that broached, was sailing in some shallow water when a rogue wave, estimated at 30’, hit them, turned the boat sideways, and washed several crew members overboard.  Here’s US Sailings’ complete report:  http://media.ussailing.org/AssetFactory.aspx?vid=18654 I hope you get a chance to read the entire article. 

There are lessons for SEAS when it comes to crew safety.  Here are the issues that led to this disaster: 

1.      LSC was close to some shoaling which caused the wave height to increase and given the winds and tides at the time, should have been further out.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_shoaling

2.      None of the crew were snapped onto a jack line or lifeline and the wave hit them pretty quick and unexpectedly.  Two of the crew had tethers that were only connected to their PFD’s, not so a jack line.    

3.      LSC’s EPIRB was not GPS enabled.  It did work when submerged but couldn’t relay the boat’s lat/longitude because, while it was GPS capable, the GPS was not enabled, perhaps to save power.   

4.      When the mast snapped, the VHF no longer worked and I didn’t see anything in the report to indicate that a handheld VHF was available.

5.      While all of the crew were wearing PFD’s, they only met the minimum requirements (section 1.8.1).  Two of the crew who entered the water and survived were wearing self-inflating PFD’s but they reported that the bladders became tight around their necks and also hindered them from effectively using their arms to swim.  The rest of the crew who were washed overboard were wearing PFD’s but they weren’t Category 2 nor USCG approved yoke-type inflatable PFD’s. 

6.      Because of the water temperature (51 degrees), each COB experienced ‘cold water shock’ with one survivor stating that he wouldn’t have been able to pull the cord on a manually inflating PFD because he was totally occupied by trying to breathe.    

7.      The vessel survived the grounding and if crew had been able to stay onboard, via tethering, they probably would have survived. 

8.      Poor radio communications between boats and Coast Guard after the accident. (section 1.10.4)  There were conflicting reports, incomplete descriptions of the boat and its location, and one ‘open mike’ problem.   

These were just some of the factors that led to this mishap and this report is very telling and provides SEAS some ideas for discussion, given that we host several races each year with the AIR and Around Admiralty being our longest and most dangerous races.  This report is well worth reading and discussing and here are a few of my thoughts:

·        Make sure each crew member has and is always wearing a self-inflating PFD with the D rings for a tether.  The category 2 requirement is for 32 psi for adequate flotation. 

·        Non inflating PFD’s might not provide adequate buoyancy and probably don’t have D rings for tethers or for hooking onto a hypothermic or unconscious crew member to lift them back onboard.  I recently had a crew member use his/her PFD that they use for kayaking which would help a conscious person stay afloat but provides no head support should he/she become unconscious.  Plus, it didn’t have D rings for a tether or for hooking into for getting that person back onboard.

·        Hand held VHF’s are a must.  Mine is waterproof and I’ll sometimes snap it onto my PFD.

·        EPIRB’s should be GPS enabled.  Batteries are cheap…

·        Stay with the boat.  I had a skipper once tell me ‘we don’t get into the life raft until we have to step up into it’.  Sometimes a boat will sink to just below the waterline but still float, thanks to trapped air pockets. 

·        For us, an alternate means of communicating distress calls.  As you’re aware, not all areas in Southeast Alaska have VHF coverage to the Coast Guard and there are times when other boats aren’t w/in the range of a VHF.  For those situations, either a satellite phone or SSB radio is a good alternative.  I’m considering purchasing a Globalstar 1600.  You can pick one up in good condition for $150 and $40 a month gets you unlimited voice time each month as well as free ‘express data internet compression’. 

·        Although it’s not as much a concern for inside waters as it is for coastal sailing, staying away from shoaling is important.  Where there’s a lot of ‘fetch’ and the chance for wind and tide to build up wave height, it’s best to avoid shallow water or narrow channels during these conditions.   

·        While an EPIRB is a great tool, having one that self deploys without being able to put yourself and crew into a life raft is pretty useless.  As you know, the wind and tides can cause a person to drift a significant distance from their boat if they’re in the water with just a PFD. 

·        I used to (and will soon) carry personal flares.  Pocket Rocket pen type flares.  They fire up to 300’ up and last for about 6 seconds which, if you fall overboard in the dark, could help locate someone in a COB situation. 

·        Safety drills.  One of the survivors stated there were no safety drills conducted on the boat.  While most of us are good about pointing out the location of fire extinguishers and shut off valves, I’m willing to bet few of us have actually practiced COB drills.  Perhaps discuss w/ your crew what to do if your boat gets broached or completely turtled.  If the weather is already that rough, hatch boards should already be in place, stuff stowed below, cockpit lockers locked, crew tethered, sails reefed, etc.  Granted this was an unusual incident but it illustrates just how quickly things can go very wrong.

·        Never assume the skipper or captain knows everything.  Many of the guys on Low Speed Chase had multiple offshore races under their belts (which probably added to being over confident), and the captain was a professional who’d done some TransPacs, Farr 40’s, sailboat deliveries, etc., but ‘no one knows everything’ comes to mind.  If your crew disagree with your decision, you owe it to them to listen, put your pride aside, and make an informed decision.  You’re not only playing with your safety but theirs as well and it could be your crew knows a thing or two! 

·        Never take anything for granted.  Never assume (makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’).  If you have new crew, work with them regarding fire suppression, how to close thru hulls, where to locate the thru hull fittings and backup bilge pumps, where to locate bungs to plug water leaks, where to locate the ditch bag, how to deploy the life raft (RIB or self-inflating model on the deck), how to use the radio(s), where to locate and how to use flares, how to start the engine should you, as skipper, become COB, etc. 

·        Float plan.  Planes are required to file a flight plan and we should file a float plan with the Coast Guard and with someone else.  http://www.floatplancentral.org/download/USCGFloatPlan.pdf

·        In rough weather, everyone who is topside should be tethered.  I’ve crewed in conditions where, when coming topside, I handed the end of my tether to someone who was already topside and had them snap me in.  Also, it’s a good tip to not have your jack lines run too far aft of the cockpit since that puts the COB person well astern of the boat.  You want them to end close to the cockpit but with enough tether length to reach the aft end of the cockpit.  I run my jack lines inside the shrouds so that if I’m forward of the shrouds and go overboard, I’ll only go as far back as the shrouds.  This article also mentions that if you’re going to be pretty stationary on the boat for a length of time, say at the helm or on the rail, clip on to a jack line anyway.  I know it’s tempting, in fair weather, to think, ‘what’s the use’ but it only takes a moments inattention to lose your footing or to not notice something in the water that poses a threat.   

·        ‘A hand for you and a hand for the boat’.  That’s something I teach new crew.  If you’re going forward, always have a hand holding onto something that’s secure so that if the boat changes direction or unexpectedly pitches, you’re less likely to go overboard.   

I’m sure there’s more that can be learned from this tragedy but those are a few of my thoughts.  I think it’s important to fully train my crew to run the boat as well as I can run it in case something happens to me or so they can more fully assist if/when things go awry.  So why, with all the danger and drama the sea and a sailboat can generate, are we so drawn to the briny blue?  Perhaps President Kennedy said it best:  "I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it's because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it's because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting
biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, our sweat, and in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came."