This is about a sailboat which was lost and a crew member’s death. There are a number of lessons here for power boaters, including a defect in a very popular type of Personal Floatation Device (PFD).
Material is gleaned from the sailing blog “Scuttlebutt” http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ The story is about semi custom built ultra light weight Columbia Carbon 32 foot sloop named “Uncontrollable Urge” (U U) during the Around Islands Race from Los Angeles, CA. to San Diego Taking Catalina Island and San Clemente Island each to port and finishing off San Diego Sea Buoy a race distance of 134 miles for Handicap basis. The race started about 2 PM off Los Angeles Harbor on March 8 2013 Most of the information is from the excellent accident investigation and report by US sailing:
http://media.ussailing.org/AssetFactory.aspx?vid=21870.
Uncontrollable Urge’s rudder shaft broke at about 2130 on the night of 8 March 2013 about 2 miles to windward of San Clemente Island. The wind direction was WNW/NW with a wind speed of 25-28 knots with higher gusts. There was a mixed swell with the WNW swell being 6 to 8 feet and potentially up to 10 feet. There was a crew of 6, and they were all wearing inflatable shoulder yoke inflatable PFD—all but one were “ Spinlock Deckvest Lifejacket Harness, which had an attachment point for a tether. There were port and starboard jack lines on the boat. The crew was very experienced. The boat was using this race as a shakedown for the 2013 Transpac.
The crew immediately contacted the Coast Guard by VHF when the rudder was lost and stayed in contact with the CG until the boat’s mast went over just before she washed ashore. In addition 5 of the racing boats who were monitering channel 16 responded by offering aid ; two stood by for a period of time only a mile or so away. The skipper of U U felt that he could get a Sea Tow vessel out of Avalon, and told the two nearest boats to go on. He felt that they might be in danger and that the seas were too large for a safe transfer of lines and did not know if the vessels had enough engine power to pull both vessels out of danger. The crew attempted to use buckets, anchors and rodes and improvised rudders using the boat’s boom and hatch covers. to steer the boat. All of these attempts failed. Sea Tow claimed a response time of 20 hours. The U C’s skipper felt that he had at least 5 hours before they hit the Island and did not request Coast Guard to launch a SAR chopper immediately. The boat drifted ashore faster than he had calculated (in 2 ½ hours), and by the time they realized that they were in immediate danger, all of the other race boats were so far away that they could not reach the scene in time. The coast Guard did launch a rescue chopper, but it took almost an hour before it reached the scene, and the boat beached in 20 minutes after that decision. One of the crew died as they went ashore apparently the fatality was drowning related to the PDF . The life raft was of little use. The tethers were a danger; once the boat hit, and all had to be cut loose or unclipped from the jack lines. The life jackets were a major problem. Four of five Spinlock deck vests allowed the flotation chamber to pull over the wearer’s head to one side of the body, despite crotch straps. The deceased was found floating face down with the flotation chamber pulled over his head. Given that the crew had to swim through large surf to reach the shore this was a life threatening failure. The Chopper took 50 minutes from time of request to reach the location of the wreck. The remaining crew was hypothermic and had difficulty using flares to allow the chopper to find them. Flashlights did not work well. Hoisting the crew members into the chopper took 15 to 20 minutes each!
Here are a few of the comments from the skipper of UC: (added by myself)
1. Flares are dangerous. The printed directions on the flare are small and unreadable in the dark. They are hard to open when fingers are cold. A Very pistol is better.
2. Have heating patches in the ditch bag.
3. The life raft light was useless. The raft light should be a strobe and brighter. ( It blew away from the boat immediately upon inflation, and the thin line attatching it to the boat broke in short order.)
4. The Spinlock harness light is not bright enough. (strobe lights are much better.)
5. Harnesses/Lifejackets need to be functional in large waves and surf. (you need more flotation than the inflatable PFD)
6. If you are going to be grounded, stay on the high-side of the boat but do not be tethered. Wrap your arms around strong points and stay low in the boat.
7. For offshore boats should have a strong second rudder that can be immediately deployed. (for our C Dory this would mean an auxiliary motor)
8. He had no sea anchor aboard. (This is a case where a sea anchor might have slowed the drift enough to get help before grounding)
9. When the boat was drifting towards the beach the crew talked about getting in the raft and decided that it would be worse. (May not have been prossible)
10. Glow sticks are highly visible and should be in the ditch bag. (or a strobe on the PDF)
11. Clearing the deck of lines and the boom saved lives as the boat entered the surf.
12. People need to rest even if no sleep possible.
13. There should be training on how to work with other boats, e.g. towing, talking on the radio. (in this case the urgency of help was under estimated by the skipper and the Coast Guard. Other boats were not monitering their radios.)
14. How to talk to the USCG to accurately tell them what is happening- they may not be aware of a sailboats capabilities or limitations. (or the capability of any boat).
15. Crewmembers that need glasses should have a spare on their person.
What lessons to bring to the C Dory:
1. When in rough seas set your way points far enough from a lee shore or rocks to allow safe rounding even if you have a temporary power failure.
2. Always monitor VHF channel 16 and either the local traffic channel or 22A. Post by the radio instructions how to operate and what to say to the Coast Guard.
3. If you hear of a dangerous situation near you, respond, offer to help and stand by until Coast Guard or commercial help arrives.
4. Don’t underestimate the danger—ask for help, even if you think you may not need it. In this case the Coast Guard could have had better communication with assets on San Clemente Island (Navy) or Avalon—Baywatch or Sea Tow, but had contacted mainland facilities.
5. Think out and have a plan for every emergency. In many of our boats we had a laminated paper mounted by the companionway with the plan for fire, flooding, capsize, or loss of the rig, man over board, abandon ship, etc. Each new crew member was given a review of the plans
6. Be sure you know how to operate flares, and have enough proper flares on board and in your ditch bag/PFD.
7. Have alternate power—be it a kicker or twin engines. Know how to set up an emergency steering if your primary steering fails. (we have had a failure of our Sea Star on the Tom Cat—I have had push pull cable steering fail. Often lashing a boat hook to a large motor will allow you to steer—think it out and have a plan.
8. Have the VHF radio, Flares, Strobe/flashlight on the PFD.
9. If you have a tether on, be sure it has a rapid release at the vest: like a spinnaker shackle.
10. Have a sharp knife on the PFD or your pocker/belt
11. If you are using the inflatable PFD, review—can it fail as these did, over your head? The crew with a SOS inflatable did not have the failure the others did. His stayed in the confines of the fabric and not over the head asyemtrically.
12. If in a dangerous situation have more than the horse shoe type of inflatable PFD. For example I often wear a custom form fitting flotation vest as well as the PFD.
13. For cold water, be sure you have warm clothing- or even a float coat, which has some insulating property.(or a vest like I noted above).
14. Try out emergency proceedures—like man overboard or steering if the main steering breaks. (In U U case they had been able to steer the boat by balancing the sails in 10 knots of wind, so they assumed this would work in 30 knots—not true)
15. Have a plan if you need to be towed, or if you need to tow another boat. Have adequate points for attachment (bow and stern), Adequate lines and consider how you would get a line to another boat: heaving line or float on a fender.
This story was particularly interesting to me because I have raced a number of similar races, where we cut the corners very close. I was on a Newport, CA. to San Diego Race, around San Clemente Island. The race started at 5 PM and at 9 PM I went below to take a nap in the quarter berth on my Newport 30 (6 man crew). At midtnight we were nearing San Clemente Island, and I got up to take the helm and change watch. The off watch crew went into their bunks. About an hour later I went down to the chart table, and when I stepped off the ladder there was 6 inches of water over the cabin sole! We started the bilge pumps, including a 50 gallon a minute manual Whale Gusher. I could not find the leak. We continued to sail, and I realized the water was comming in only on the Starboard tack (starboard side was up wind and as we beat into the seas, water was rolling down the Starboard side deck). There was a scupper which drained over board from the side deck, thru a 1 1/2" tubing at the foot of the quarter berth, and then out a thru hull. I found that when I got in the quarter birth, I had pushed the valise life raft down toward the transom with my feet and had pushed the hose off the deck fitting. Each time a wave broke on the starboard deck, most of it came in thru this drain—and into the bilge. We pulled out the life raft, and double clamped the hose to the scupper drain. We didn't loose much time in the race and finished the next morning in San Diego.
The Scuttlebutt blog is a good read--and United States Sailing Association gave an excellent report which is well worth taking the time to read.
I would appreciate any other comments of safety and avoiding dangerous problems.
Material is gleaned from the sailing blog “Scuttlebutt” http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ The story is about semi custom built ultra light weight Columbia Carbon 32 foot sloop named “Uncontrollable Urge” (U U) during the Around Islands Race from Los Angeles, CA. to San Diego Taking Catalina Island and San Clemente Island each to port and finishing off San Diego Sea Buoy a race distance of 134 miles for Handicap basis. The race started about 2 PM off Los Angeles Harbor on March 8 2013 Most of the information is from the excellent accident investigation and report by US sailing:
http://media.ussailing.org/AssetFactory.aspx?vid=21870.
Uncontrollable Urge’s rudder shaft broke at about 2130 on the night of 8 March 2013 about 2 miles to windward of San Clemente Island. The wind direction was WNW/NW with a wind speed of 25-28 knots with higher gusts. There was a mixed swell with the WNW swell being 6 to 8 feet and potentially up to 10 feet. There was a crew of 6, and they were all wearing inflatable shoulder yoke inflatable PFD—all but one were “ Spinlock Deckvest Lifejacket Harness, which had an attachment point for a tether. There were port and starboard jack lines on the boat. The crew was very experienced. The boat was using this race as a shakedown for the 2013 Transpac.
The crew immediately contacted the Coast Guard by VHF when the rudder was lost and stayed in contact with the CG until the boat’s mast went over just before she washed ashore. In addition 5 of the racing boats who were monitering channel 16 responded by offering aid ; two stood by for a period of time only a mile or so away. The skipper of U U felt that he could get a Sea Tow vessel out of Avalon, and told the two nearest boats to go on. He felt that they might be in danger and that the seas were too large for a safe transfer of lines and did not know if the vessels had enough engine power to pull both vessels out of danger. The crew attempted to use buckets, anchors and rodes and improvised rudders using the boat’s boom and hatch covers. to steer the boat. All of these attempts failed. Sea Tow claimed a response time of 20 hours. The U C’s skipper felt that he had at least 5 hours before they hit the Island and did not request Coast Guard to launch a SAR chopper immediately. The boat drifted ashore faster than he had calculated (in 2 ½ hours), and by the time they realized that they were in immediate danger, all of the other race boats were so far away that they could not reach the scene in time. The coast Guard did launch a rescue chopper, but it took almost an hour before it reached the scene, and the boat beached in 20 minutes after that decision. One of the crew died as they went ashore apparently the fatality was drowning related to the PDF . The life raft was of little use. The tethers were a danger; once the boat hit, and all had to be cut loose or unclipped from the jack lines. The life jackets were a major problem. Four of five Spinlock deck vests allowed the flotation chamber to pull over the wearer’s head to one side of the body, despite crotch straps. The deceased was found floating face down with the flotation chamber pulled over his head. Given that the crew had to swim through large surf to reach the shore this was a life threatening failure. The Chopper took 50 minutes from time of request to reach the location of the wreck. The remaining crew was hypothermic and had difficulty using flares to allow the chopper to find them. Flashlights did not work well. Hoisting the crew members into the chopper took 15 to 20 minutes each!
Here are a few of the comments from the skipper of UC: (added by myself)
1. Flares are dangerous. The printed directions on the flare are small and unreadable in the dark. They are hard to open when fingers are cold. A Very pistol is better.
2. Have heating patches in the ditch bag.
3. The life raft light was useless. The raft light should be a strobe and brighter. ( It blew away from the boat immediately upon inflation, and the thin line attatching it to the boat broke in short order.)
4. The Spinlock harness light is not bright enough. (strobe lights are much better.)
5. Harnesses/Lifejackets need to be functional in large waves and surf. (you need more flotation than the inflatable PFD)
6. If you are going to be grounded, stay on the high-side of the boat but do not be tethered. Wrap your arms around strong points and stay low in the boat.
7. For offshore boats should have a strong second rudder that can be immediately deployed. (for our C Dory this would mean an auxiliary motor)
8. He had no sea anchor aboard. (This is a case where a sea anchor might have slowed the drift enough to get help before grounding)
9. When the boat was drifting towards the beach the crew talked about getting in the raft and decided that it would be worse. (May not have been prossible)
10. Glow sticks are highly visible and should be in the ditch bag. (or a strobe on the PDF)
11. Clearing the deck of lines and the boom saved lives as the boat entered the surf.
12. People need to rest even if no sleep possible.
13. There should be training on how to work with other boats, e.g. towing, talking on the radio. (in this case the urgency of help was under estimated by the skipper and the Coast Guard. Other boats were not monitering their radios.)
14. How to talk to the USCG to accurately tell them what is happening- they may not be aware of a sailboats capabilities or limitations. (or the capability of any boat).
15. Crewmembers that need glasses should have a spare on their person.
What lessons to bring to the C Dory:
1. When in rough seas set your way points far enough from a lee shore or rocks to allow safe rounding even if you have a temporary power failure.
2. Always monitor VHF channel 16 and either the local traffic channel or 22A. Post by the radio instructions how to operate and what to say to the Coast Guard.
3. If you hear of a dangerous situation near you, respond, offer to help and stand by until Coast Guard or commercial help arrives.
4. Don’t underestimate the danger—ask for help, even if you think you may not need it. In this case the Coast Guard could have had better communication with assets on San Clemente Island (Navy) or Avalon—Baywatch or Sea Tow, but had contacted mainland facilities.
5. Think out and have a plan for every emergency. In many of our boats we had a laminated paper mounted by the companionway with the plan for fire, flooding, capsize, or loss of the rig, man over board, abandon ship, etc. Each new crew member was given a review of the plans
6. Be sure you know how to operate flares, and have enough proper flares on board and in your ditch bag/PFD.
7. Have alternate power—be it a kicker or twin engines. Know how to set up an emergency steering if your primary steering fails. (we have had a failure of our Sea Star on the Tom Cat—I have had push pull cable steering fail. Often lashing a boat hook to a large motor will allow you to steer—think it out and have a plan.
8. Have the VHF radio, Flares, Strobe/flashlight on the PFD.
9. If you have a tether on, be sure it has a rapid release at the vest: like a spinnaker shackle.
10. Have a sharp knife on the PFD or your pocker/belt
11. If you are using the inflatable PFD, review—can it fail as these did, over your head? The crew with a SOS inflatable did not have the failure the others did. His stayed in the confines of the fabric and not over the head asyemtrically.
12. If in a dangerous situation have more than the horse shoe type of inflatable PFD. For example I often wear a custom form fitting flotation vest as well as the PFD.
13. For cold water, be sure you have warm clothing- or even a float coat, which has some insulating property.(or a vest like I noted above).
14. Try out emergency proceedures—like man overboard or steering if the main steering breaks. (In U U case they had been able to steer the boat by balancing the sails in 10 knots of wind, so they assumed this would work in 30 knots—not true)
15. Have a plan if you need to be towed, or if you need to tow another boat. Have adequate points for attachment (bow and stern), Adequate lines and consider how you would get a line to another boat: heaving line or float on a fender.
This story was particularly interesting to me because I have raced a number of similar races, where we cut the corners very close. I was on a Newport, CA. to San Diego Race, around San Clemente Island. The race started at 5 PM and at 9 PM I went below to take a nap in the quarter berth on my Newport 30 (6 man crew). At midtnight we were nearing San Clemente Island, and I got up to take the helm and change watch. The off watch crew went into their bunks. About an hour later I went down to the chart table, and when I stepped off the ladder there was 6 inches of water over the cabin sole! We started the bilge pumps, including a 50 gallon a minute manual Whale Gusher. I could not find the leak. We continued to sail, and I realized the water was comming in only on the Starboard tack (starboard side was up wind and as we beat into the seas, water was rolling down the Starboard side deck). There was a scupper which drained over board from the side deck, thru a 1 1/2" tubing at the foot of the quarter berth, and then out a thru hull. I found that when I got in the quarter birth, I had pushed the valise life raft down toward the transom with my feet and had pushed the hose off the deck fitting. Each time a wave broke on the starboard deck, most of it came in thru this drain—and into the bilge. We pulled out the life raft, and double clamped the hose to the scupper drain. We didn't loose much time in the race and finished the next morning in San Diego.
The Scuttlebutt blog is a good read--and United States Sailing Association gave an excellent report which is well worth taking the time to read.
I would appreciate any other comments of safety and avoiding dangerous problems.
I'm not thrilled about helping to pay for that one, for sure. But on the other hand, I don't necessarily want my freedom to do something that others consider "dangerous" curtailed, so it's a double-edged sword, and that's one reason I lean toward not drawing those lines - even if sometimes I'm shaking my head when I read about a particular situation.