Seamanship

Terramoto’s Triumph

Kurt Hoehne Racing, Seamanship 1 Comment
Terramoto’s Triumph

Countless stories will be told, retold and no doubt embellished about this year’s Swiftsure race, sailed last month. It was one for the record books, literally. There were dismastings and DNFs, shortened sail heading out the Strait and serious surfing coming back to Victoria.

The biggest story has to be the Terramoto dismasting, which was not enough to stop her from winning the Cape Flattery course and in the process also setting an elapsed time record. The Paul Bieker designed, Bill Weinstein skippered 35-footer has been wreaking havoc in PNW for more than a decade and appears to not be slowing down one bit.

Curious about the race details, I called Alyosha Strum-Palerm who was onboard. He and a crew largely made up of Tasar sailors had Terramoto dialed in, sailing a strong beat to Cape Flattery and then lighting it up after they made the turn for the finish. Coming out of Neah Bay close to Tachyon and Hamachi, Terramoto planed in a building breeze leaving those 40-footers in her wake. They played it conservatively, dropping the chute before Race Passage, then hoisting the A 2.5 masthead asymmetrical in the flat water east of the Rocks anticipating lighter winds.

Instead of the wind dropping, the wind piped up to 33-38 knots and then one last big gust hit while Tim Scanlon was forward pulling the lazy sheet around for a letter-box drop. The backstay crane peeled off the top of the carbon mast and the mast buckled at about the middle point between the spreaders. After pulling the spinnaker aboard, Herb Cole pointed out they were still going six knots toward the finish line. With the main still half up on the broken mast, and a storm trysail rigged forward, Terramoto crossed the finish line amid some humor about an unreadable sail number,

Terramoto ending it downwind
Still racing
Getting creative
The happy crew

The biggest challenge was probably getting the main down after the finish, which required breaking the spreaders.

Were they thinking about the record? “No,” Strum-Palerm said, “I wasn’t even aware of it until my mom texted me about it later in the morning.”

Strum-Palerm pointed out another dismasting story that played out behind them involving some “heroics” from Annapurna. The Terramoto crew had heard about Hamachi‘s dismasting west of Race Passage, so when the Canadian Coast Guard came roaring by and assumed it was Terramoto that needed help, they quickly pointed out that there situation was under control but there was another boat that might need help. It turns out that Hamachi broke her rig in heavy seas west of Race Passage, and Annapurna dropped out of the race, managed to get a tow line over to Hamachi, and then towed her through Race Passage. The Canadian Coast Guard took over from there, and Annapurna went on to the finish where she was given redress and finished third.

These stories aren’t really in much need of embellishment….. The question is, will Van Isle or Round the County top them?

Safety Starts with the Skipper

Kurt Hoehne Seamanship 0 Comment
Safety Starts with the Skipper

There are countless articles, videos, courses and opinions on the subject of safe sailing. And for the most part they all have something to offer. But one thing that I often find myself talking about is something very basic, and very essential: attitude. The Cruising Club of America has just put together a succinct “Guidance,” which is available online to all sailors. It emphasizes the essential need for safety to start with attitude, not equipment. Sailing is traditionally a very self-reliant sport – we don’t call the Coast Guard because we run out of gas. We practice person overboard maneuvers. Anybody who’s prepared a boat for a serious offshore race knows the extent of the medical kit. There’s so much to consider the real place to start is with the culture. If done correctly, it needn’t be onerous or inhibit fun. This guide is a great place to start. -KH

NEW YORK, May 13, 2020—The Cruising Club of America has published guidance entitled “Creating a Culture of Safety: The Skipper’s Responsibility” that spotlights the skipper’s overriding responsibility for the safety of boat and crew. The advisory, which takes the form of a series of recommendations, emphasizes creating a culture of safety aboard the boat as the only logical means of successfully fulfilling the skipper’s responsibility.
 
According to John Robinson, chair of the CCA’s Safety & Seamanship Committee, “We wrote the paper because of our concern about the number of sailing safety incidents over the last few years that resulted in loss of life and near losses—all of which appeared preventable with appropriate preparation, training and decision-making at sea.”
 
“As many sailors look to the CCA for advice regarding safety at sea,” Robinson adds, “we felt that the highest level of advice should start with the skipper, before setting sail, and should draw  attention to the broad scope of issues that their leadership role requires.”
 
Posted on the CCA’s website, the recommendations can serve as a skipper’s checklist covering four areas—leadership, boat and equipment preparation, crew training, and best practices at sea—which together help to build a strong culture of safety.
 
Notably, the CCA paper’s publication also highlights a coalescing of efforts towards more effective safety-at-sea education and collaboration among major U.S. boating organizations that conduct classroom, hands-on, on-water, and online safety training, which include the CCA, Storm Trysail Club, New York Yacht Club, The Sailing Foundation, U.S. Naval Academy, and US Sailing.”
 
Mark Lenci, a former captain of a nuclear attack submarine who leads the joint CCA/New York Yacht Club safety at sea training says, “Change a couple of technical details and ‘The Culture of Safety’ issued by the CCA would be just as relevant for a nuclear submarine as for a sailboat. In fact, Magellan would have endorsed it. The ‘culture of safety’ at sea is timeless. This will serve as the opening message to attendees at our future hands-on safety at sea courses.”
 
Rich du Moulin, chairman and moderator of Storm Trysail Club’s safety at sea programs, says, “Storm Trysail Club echoes the CCA’s emphasis on the skipper’s leadership and will be organizing an event later this year specifically addressing the need for leadership at sea.”
 
David Tunick, chair of the Seamanship Committee of New York Yacht Club, says, “Collaboration with the CCA and other groups at the highest level of leadership in safety at sea, including support for US Sailing, is a cornerstone of our growing safety program. Safety leadership will be a core principle at our advanced Level 200 safety at sea seminars, in part modeled after the course pioneered by the Storm Trysail Club.”


Introducing sailors to firefighting practices is part of hands-on safety-at-sea courses available through the CCA/New York Yacht Club and others including the the Storm Trysail Club, U.S. Naval Academy, and other boating organizations.  

Safety at Sea, the Seminar

Kurt Hoehne Sailing Education, Seamanship, Swiftsure Yachts 0 Comment
Safety at Sea, the Seminar

If you haven’t signed up for The Sailing Foundation’s Safety at Sea seminar on Bainbridge Island this coming weekend, you’re out of luck. It’s all full up. But it’s worth a look at what you’re missing so when the next one comes around you can get in on it.

The big news here is that there’s a three “tracks,” from which to choose, depending on how much coursework participants to do. There’s a renewal track, 2-day track and hybrid track.

Saturday’s sessions will include crew overboard, search and rescue, communication, heavy weather techniques, etc. On Sunday there will be a pool session on liferaft use and a flare session outside.

Presenters include Margaret Pommert, Ken Fabert, MD, Sailish‘s Bruce Hedrick, Swiftsure Yachts‘ Ryan Helling and Bob Schoonmaker, Bruce Brown and Carol Hasse.

Being prepared for an emergencies through is the most important aspect of handling them. And knowing what to do is every bit as important as having the right equipment on board. We’ll have a wrapup of the seminar after the fact. If any Sailish readers want to know anything particular, please send me questions, and I’ll pass them along.

Blakely Rock Benefit Bash

Kurt Hoehne Racing, Seamanship 0 Comment
Blakely Rock Benefit Bash

The Carol Pearl Blakely Rock Benefit Race is usually a great excuse for the casual racer to have a low-key race to Blakely Rock and back to Shilshole. It draws a lot of boats out of the woodwork for racing that isn’t considered too serious. This year it was more than that.

Ed.Note: At the end of this post is a great tack-by-tack description by winner Ben Braden, plus some thoughts on dropping out. Well worth reading!

With morning winds in the 30s and gusting into the 30s, Saturday was not the best day for casual racers. Fortunately, many decided on discretion being the better part of valor and chose to stay at the dock or head home when it seemed too much. As Bruce Hedrick said in his brief Friday, “‘The question was “How do you define heavy weather?’ The answer is that you define what heavy weather is and that is the point where you and your crew are no longer comfortable sailing in the existing conditions and there exists the possibility of hurting someone or doing damage to the vessel.”

104 boats were registered and 39 completed the course.

It was actually very interesting to watch the boats setting up before the start. The racers had their small jibs up, but many soon realized a reef in the main was also called for. That’s not something we see a lot of on Puget Sound. Boats with furling got to find out just what their headsail looked like rolled up partway.

As the classes headed out from under the lee of West Point into the teeth of the southerly, VHF channel 72 seemed an endless stream of “This is the yacht So-And-So, retiring” followed by acknowledgement by the race committee.

Photos by Jan Anderson. The rest here.

It was a hard beat up to Blakely Rock. Most boats held port tack to the west side of the Sound before tacking to starboard. One boat that didn’t was Ben and Jennifer Braden’s Moore 24 More Uff Da. They chose to play the east side of the Sound and it worked out great for them, launching them ultimately to first overall. Of course the conditions were Moore 24 perfect for the run back to Shilshole. Second overall was Alex Simanis and Poke & Destroy with third going to Mark Brink and Tonic.

The wind lightened up at times, but there were still some gusts to deal with as bulk of the fleet was finishing. There were a few roundups and white knuckles, but apparently no major damage. Dan Randolph aboard Nefarious reportedly “found the rock, and was glad it wasn’t a whale.” Last year he was severely injured when his boat hit a whale while motoring.

This year the race benefited MY SAIL, an organization dedicated to promote muiltihull sailing for the “next generation of enthusiasts.

Congratulations are in order for all involved, particularly for the skippers who played it safe. Results here.

Moore Fun on Uff Da

By Ben Braden

We stayed high off the start, went from near the boat end and stayed high. When it looked like I was going to get outside of West Point I tacked up towards a point halfway between the point and green marker then tacked back to port for the slog across. There was great positive current by staying high and near the point’s pressure point on the current,. And I don’t like sailing into Murden Cove. We came across at the south end of Murden cove near the pilings and then the standard westerly shift kicked in.  Tonic tacked back just after Yeomalt Point after a starboard tack header and I held on just a little too long and ended up lifted back up 20 degrees so I didn’t want to tack – Tonic made out on that one and easily pulled ahead of us.  One more tack into the red nun and then it was starboard tack all the way to the Rock.  We were sixth around and the second spinnaker up behind Tonic, Mark Brink’s boat.  Jim Marda was so far off ahead in Eye Candy we could barely see him.
The wind was honking till we got the Rock – seemed to be hitting 30ish at times but we didn’t know exactly as we only have depth and a compass.  Went on the fact we were twisting the sails a little for speed and there was streaking on the water as our guides on windspeed.  When we rounded, the winds dropped to 12ish, just barely capping. Once we got past our disappointment about the light downwind we settled into enjoying the sun and beautiful day it had become.  I stayed as low as I felt comfortable downwind, a little above Tonic’s line and we both plugged along down the Sound until about a mile or so from West Point when the next breeze came through and we moved weight back and were off on a plane through the no flying sails boats.  We were zooming but the wind was super squirrelly – my helm was extremely active to keep the boat on a plane and under the spinnaker.

I can’t tell you how fast we were going in normal sailors terms (previously mentioned depth/compass only) but in Tertiary Moore Dementia Syndrome (ed. note.: well worth reading) terms we were at the two crew wahooing and another giggling speed with four big smiles zooming.  The bow spray was back around the mast with the boat flat but not full on bow down planing. We caught Tonic at the mark, and I want to say that Tonic did a very impressive take down on their spinnaker with just 3 aboard. Tonic rounded just in front of us with the Gay Morris’s Thomas 35 Francy just behind for the short beat to the finish in the strong breeze. Both the bigger boats pulled away from us to weather so I think we ended up finishing 4th across the line and definitely 2nd spinnaker boat behind Tonic.  It was great racing against Brink again, miss him in the old Lady Bug and notably absent was Nate’s Olson 25.
My quick look at the results show me 38% of the boats finished the race and I’ve seen a number of comments online asking why so many boats dropped out as well as conversations after the race. I must say that I was very impressed with the decisions by my fellow skippers to continue the race and just as impressed with those that chose to head in or not leave the dock. I did not hear about too many issues and/or calls for assistance and that tells me the skippers that decided their boats or crew were not up to sailing in gale conditions made the difficult but correct decision and those that stayed out and finished correctly had their boats and crews ability in mind. That to me is proper seamanship in our sailing lifestyle. I commend and defend those decisions to head back to port, I understand how hard that decision can be. My boat and crew have sailed in similar conditions a number of times recently; our Nationals regatta last summer was sailed in 30 to 40 knots, so I knew we were up to the challenge. Had I a different crew with less experience my decision to stay on the course may have been different.
Nate Creitz congratulated us online saying something in the order of congratulations, it isn’t your first and won’t be your last. My wife Jennifer, being the civil engineer she is, wanted the truth and looked at the past results. I thought we had won the overall once before this, she found a third. Interestingly though, two of them were quick races – 2.5 hours on the course – obviously another windy race day like Saturday. The other, the first time we won this race overall was 5.25 hours on course. Interesting.

The spinnaker is drying in the basement and the dehumidifier has filled and been emptied once and I’m sure in need of another dump – everything is back in order.   

Safety at Sea Course – Save a Spot for February

Kurt Hoehne Community, Sailing Education, Seamanship 0 Comment

Margaret Pommert of The Sailing Foundation wants to make sure that those who want to get into the Safety at Sea course this February are able to. Classes fill up, and rightly so. Also, there’s early bird pricing. Here’s a little video on the program, followed by the press release. By the way, if anyone who takes the course wants to do a review for sailish.com, I’d love it! – KH

Press Release for the US Sailing Safety at Sea Course

Headline: U.S. Sailing Safety at Sea Course®; Feb 9&10 2019 in Vancouver, WA

The Sailing Foundation, with local boating clubs, will be offering the U.S. Sailing two-day International Offshore Safety at Sea Course with Hands-on Training® on February 9 and 10, 2019 at the Marshall Leupke Center in Vancouver, Washington.

This complies with World Sailing Offshore Personal Survival Course guidelines. Offshore races such as the Oregon Offshore, Vic-Maui, Van Isle 360, and Pacific Cup have requirements for this training. If you hope to participate in these races, understand the requirements and don’t miss the chance to take this class! This class typically fills up a month or 2 in advance very year, leaving would-be racers and others who are “slow off the line”…. left behind. Don’t let that happen to you!

As an added incentive to sign up now, “Early Bird” pricing is available until Nov 1.

This informative and entertaining course is endorsed by Sailing World and Cruising World magazines. It includes classroom, in the pool, and hands on training, and is designed to enhance your sailing skills as a crewmember. Whether you are a racer or a cruisier it will make you, your boat and crew safer. Moderator Bruce Brown, and local boating safety experts have tailored their presentations to give you as much relevant information as possible in the two-day experience. Days are long, but you’ll come out of each with a better understanding of the many topics covered.

Day one (Saturday) will be in a classroom setting where instructors discuss topics including heavy weather sail selection and use, man overboard and safety gear, offering assistance to other vessels, safety communication devices and EPIRBs, personal safety gear, heavy weather techniques, abandon ship and life raft procedures, medical emergencies, and weather forecasting. There will also be a discussion on what lessons U.S. Sailing has learned from studying recent and relevant emergencies at sea.

Day two (Sunday) will take participants through hands-on scenarios in pyrotechnics and fire-fighting, and then into the pool for life jacket inflation and practice, life raft deployment and entry training. Classroom sessions that day delve into remote-boating medical scenarios and kits, weather routing, sail repair and maintenance, and Lifesling® crew overboard rescue training.

By participating in and completing the seminar, attendees will earn a certificate from U.S. Sailing that can be used when racing offshore and internationally.

For pricing, registration, and more information: https://thesailingfoundation.org/what-we-do/safety-at-sea/

 

 

 

A Glorious Saturday for PSSC, and Tragedy Averted

Kurt Hoehne Racing, Seamanship 0 Comment
A Glorious Saturday for PSSC, and Tragedy Averted

The Saturday of CYC-Seattle’s PSSC regatta this past weekend was one for the ages – 18-22 knot winds, big waves, bright sun, grins galore, and at least one tragedy averted.

When Tantivy‘s skipper Stuart Burnell realized crew member Brian Perry fell overboard, into the spinnaker, there was a moment of panic. “Where in the hell is Brian?” he thought. “If he’s wrapped in the chute, in the water,. . .” It was one of the those sailing moments that gets etched in a skipper’s mind, even skippers just reading this. What had started as an irritating, slow chore of clearing a wrap in a spinnaker after a gybe gone wrong, became a potential tragedy.

Brian, it turned out, was sitting in the spinnaker in the water after the boat apparently rolled. A few seconds later he squirted out from the spinnaker behind the boat, relatively unharmed. But that wasn’t quite the end of it. It turns out that as a member of the cockpit crew on the J/109 Brian wasn’t wearing a PFD. He’d come forward to help clear the wrap. And Tantivy wasn’t exactly set up for a quick takedown and man overboard retrieval, with the spinnaker half down and the crew all out of position.

Enter Scott Malone. Malone, who makes a habit of heading out when it’s blowing hard, was out bombing around in his 13′ RS Aero, enjoying blasting around among the big boats. He was near Tantivy as they rounded the weather mark and thought he’d make a go of keeping up with them. They started to scoot away, but wrapped their chute in a gybe, and he thought he saw his chance to catch up. Instead he saw a head pop out of the water.

“I took a land sight behind him and went over. But I actually lost sight of him. It’s amazing how hard it is to see a guy in the water.” When he located the MOB again, Perry waved him to sail in and help. Brian hung on to the side of the Aero until Tantivy, now under power, and a CYC Whaler, turned after about 5-10 minutes. Perry wasn’t eager to let go of Malone’s Aero, but eventually made it to Tantivy where he was retrieved.

Burnell, who wrote about a previous man overboard recovery a couple years ago here on Sailish, says “We are rethinking Tantivy’s life jacket policy!!!” And Malone, who’s crossed oceans singlehanded, came away struck by how difficult it is to actually see a person in the water. There was at least one other MOB, ironically on the other J/109 out, Shada.

This all seems like a great reminder how important it is to wear a life jacket in gnarly conditions and how vital it is to do regular MOB drills. And it doesn’t hurt to have a skilled dinghy sailor trailing right behind you.

The Racing

Once in a while, not nearly often enough, Seattle comes through with Saturday’s conditions. Puget Sound was carpeted with whitecaps, and you can see from Jan Anderson’s photos the day made for some great sailing. A total of 56 boats actually sailed the event, with three PHRF classes and five one design classes, four of which made up the south course right off Shilshole Bay Marina. Once again, CYC somehow set the courses in the deep water and waves and got in 9-11 races for all the fleets. Kudos.

Results for the north course. Results for the south course.

If Saturday was a day for the boats that could plane, Sunday was sailed in equally perfect, if somewhat more sedate sunny conditions. In PHRF 2 the Melges 32 Wicked Wahine won, and in PHRF 3 the Sierra 26 Uno suffered the slog to windward only to plane past its fleet downwind, usually ending up winning on corrected time. The 9-boat J/105 reveled in the conditions, with Erik Kristen winning. Pat Denney’s Here And Now and John Cahill’s Gaucho were back at it in class 5, with Here And Now coming out on top.

Jan Anderson’s photos from Saturday. For the rest, check them out here.

The four one design fleets on the south course enjoyed solid racing. The Melges 24s lit it up downwind while the J/80s and Moore 24s put on a show of their own.

And what about the definitive non-planing one design, the San Juan 24. Well, they had fun too. Class stalwart Ken Johnson said, ” I’m not sure I’ve been in that much wind and those kinds of waves in a San Juan 24 before.” There were no spinnakers on Saturday. “All four skippers out there are very experienced in San Juan 24s and all knew better than to try!” Like all IOR designs, the little SJ 24 made it’s way upwind just fine, even if the comfort factor wasn’t very high. On Sunday the San Juans enjoyed some great racing in more sedate 10 knot winds, with Mark Bradner finishing up a very successful year with the win.

 

Search Suspended for Man Overboard in Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac

Kurt Hoehne Racing, Seamanship 0 Comment
Search Suspended for Man Overboard in Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac

A man was lost overboard shortly after the start of the Race to Mackinac from the TP52 Imedi. I’m trying to get more details. While almost all of the fleet had started earlier and was ahead of the Turbo Class, about 20 boats helped authorities in the grid search, but to no avail.

Press release from the Chicago Yacht club follows. Here’s a link to a Chicago TV report.

JULY 21, 2018 09:48 PM

After nearly seven hours of active search efforts, the US Coast Guard has suspended the search to locating the missing sailor aboard Imedi, a Transpac 52 competing in the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac. The sailor has been identified as Jon Santarelli, a 52-year-old from Lincoln Park (Chicago).

The search efforts included approximately 20 boats and three helicopters from US Coast Guard, Chicago Fire, Chicago Police and Chicago Yacht Club covering nearly 47 square miles. All competitors in the vicinity immediately suspended their own racing efforts to assist in the search. The man overboard occurred approximately five miles east of Navy Pier, 40 minutes after Imedi began the Race to Mackinac.

Santarelli had more than a decade of offshore racing experience, and was a core member of the Imedi Racing team as well as the greater Chicago sailing community. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and teammates.

As I said, I’ll be working on getting more accurate details on the story. -KH

John Fisher Knocked off Scallywag by Mainsheet during Accidental Gybe

Kurt Hoehne Racing, Seamanship , 0 Comment
John Fisher Knocked off Scallywag by Mainsheet during Accidental Gybe

John Fisher, who was swept overboard during an accidental gybe and subsequently lost at sea during the the Volvo Ocean Race.

Here’s how John Fisher was lost overboard in the Volvo Ocean Race, according to a press release by Team Scallywag. Kudos to the team for putting out the information so quickly.

 

The following story has been issued on behalf of Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag

On Monday 26 March, Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag lost John Fisher overboard in the Southern Ocean, approximately 1,400 nautical miles west of Cape Horn.

Despite conducting an exhaustive search in gale force conditions, he has not been recovered.

“This is the worst situation you can imagine happening to your team,” said SHK/Scallywag Team Manager Tim Newton, who has spoken with skipper David Witt and navigator Libby Greenhalgh about what happened on Monday.

“We are absolutely heart-broken for John’s family and friends. I know for David, he has lost his best friend. It’s devastating.”

Newton says he asked the crew to put together a timeline of events to ensure accurate reporting on the incident and it follows here:

  • On Monday, 26 March, SHK/Scallywag was racing in Leg 7 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Auckland, New Zealand to Itajai, Brazil, approximately 1,400 nautical miles west of Cape Horn
  • Weather conditions were 35-45 knots with 4 to 5 metre seas with showers reducing visibility. It was 15 minutes before sunrise
  • The team was sailing with a single reef in the mainsail and the J2 jib. The Fractional 0 (FR0) sail was hoisted but furled
  • At roughly 1300 UTC SHK/Scallywag surfed down a large wave leading to an accidental crash gybe
  • John Fisher was on deck, in the cockpit. At the time, he was moving forward to tidy up the FR0 sheet and had therefore unclipped his tether
  • As the mainsail swung across the boat in the gybe, the mainsheet system caught John and knocked him off the boat. The crew on board believe John was unconscious from the blow before he hit the water
  • He was wearing a survival suit with a wetsuit hood and gloves and a lifejacket
  • The JON buoy and the horseshoe buoy were thrown off the back of the boat to mark the position
  • It took some time to get the boat under control and motor sail back to a position near where the man overboard occurred
  • At 1342 (UTC), the team informed Race Control, by email, that there was a man overboard and they were returning to the MOB position to start a search pattern
  • With input from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre and Race Control in Alicante, a search and rescue operation was carried out for several hours but there was no sign of John, the horseshoe buoy, or the JON buoy
  • With weather conditions deteriorating, a difficult decision was taken to abandon the search and preserve the safety of the remaining crew

Newton says the team is distraught but has a clear focus on getting the crew and boat back to shore.

“This situation isn’t over yet for our team,” Newton said. “The conditions are extremely challenging, with strong winds and a forecast for a building sea state over the next couple of days. Our sole focus, with the assistance of Race Control in Alicante is to get the team into port safely.

“Once we have achieved that, we have time to de-brief more fully and ensure that any lessons that can be learned from what happened to John are incorporated by the rest of the fleet going forward.

“That would be a tremendous legacy for John, who spent so much of his time passing the learnings from his lifetime of experience at sea onto the younger sailors on our team.”

Man Overboard in Volvo Ocean Race – Updated

Kurt Hoehne Racing, Seamanship 3 Comments

There’s been another incident in the Volvo Ocean Race. Crew member John Fisher went overboard Monday at 1342 UTC in 35 knot winds and tremendously challenging seas. As of this writing (about 0500 UTC Tuesday) he has not been found. While other sites have indicated the search has been called off, I can’t confirm it. The official line is that the search is continuing. The following press releases lay out what’s known, and that Scallywag has been diverted to the nearest landfall.

Latest Release – From Richard Brisius, President of the Volvo Ocean Race

John Fisher

This morning I am extremely sad to inform you that one of our sailors, John Fisher, from Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag, is now presumed to have been lost at sea.

This is heart-breaking for all of us. As sailors and race organisers losing a crew member at sea is a tragedy we don’t ever want to contemplate. We are devastated and our thoughts are with John’s family, friends and teammates.

Yesterday, just after 1300 UTC, Race Control for the Volvo Ocean Race were informed of a man overboard situation by Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag.

We immediately coordinated with the team as well as the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, who have located a ship and diverted it towards the scene. But at current speeds it remains over a day away.

With the rest of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet approximately 200 miles downwind, sending them back upwind to assist, against gale to storm force winds, was not a viable option.

The Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag team conducted an exhaustive search for several hours in extremely challenging weather conditions, but they were unable to recover their teammate.

Given the cold water temperature and the extreme sea state, along with the time that has now passed since he went overboard, we must now presume that John has been lost at sea.

All of us here at the Volvo Ocean Race organisation send our heartfelt condolences out to John’s family, his friends and his teammates and we will do everything in our power to support them in this very difficult time.

Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag has now resumed heading in a north-easterly direction.

In fact, the team is currently in a challenging position – the weather is deteriorating and is forecast to be quite severe over the course of today.

The crew is, of course, emotionally and physically drained after what they have just experienced.

Our sole focus now is to provide all the support and assistance that we can to the team.

We are sure that there will be many questions about how one of our sailors was lost overboard yesterday.

We can address those after the team has been fully debriefed.

Today, our thoughts and prayers go out to John’s family and the entire Scallywag team

UPDATE: Search and Rescue operation continues for Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag sailor

The Scallywag team, assisted by the MRCC, conducted an exhaustive search and rescue operation in an effort to recover Fisher, who was on watch and wearing appropriate survival gear when he went overboard.

The remaining crew are reported safe.

Scallywag

The wind in the area at the time was a strong 35-knot westerly, with accompanying sea state. Water temperature was 9-degrees Celsius. There is still daylight, but weather conditions are forecast to deteriorate in the coming hours, and darkness will come at approximately 01:20 UTC.

The MRCC has already requested a ship, nearly 400 nautical miles away, divert to the scene.

The MRCC continues in attempts to contact other ships that may be able to assist.

The weather in the area is forecast to deteriorate significantly in the coming hours. Given the severity of the forecast and with nightfall just over an hour away, we acknowledge the chances of a successful recovery are diminishing.

SHK/Scallywag has thus made the difficult decision to turn downwind and head towards the South American coast, the nearest safe landfall, approximately 1,200 nautical miles away.

We will have more information as it becomes available.

Original Report

Race Control for the Volvo Ocean Race has been informed by Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag of a man overboard incident on Monday afternoon at approximately 13:42 UTC.

The team, along with the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), has been conducting a search and rescue operation to recover the missing crew member, John Fisher (UK), who was wearing survival equipment when he went overboard. The remaining crew are reported safe.

The incident took place approximately 1,400 miles west of Cape Horn. The wind in the search area is a strong 35-knot westerly, with accompanying sea state. Water temperature is 9-degrees Celsius. There is daylight, but weather conditions are forecast to deteriorate in the coming hours.

Given the gale force conditions it is not an option to divert any of the other six Volvo Ocean Race competitors, who are at least 200 miles further east and downwind of Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag, to assist in the search operation.

The MRCC has identified a ship approximately 400 nautical miles away and it has been diverted to the scene.

Naturally we are deeply concerned, especially given the weather conditions, and Race Control in Alicante is supporting the Scallywag team and MRCC throughout the operation.

Vestas Skipper Q&A, More Details to Follow

Kurt Hoehne Racing, Seamanship 0 Comment
Vestas Skipper Q&A, More Details to Follow

The racing community has been waiting for some real insight to the fatal collision Vestas 11th Hour Racing had with a fishing boat on approach to the finish of leg 4 at Hong Kong. Understandably, those insights had to wait until Hong Kong authorities investigated the incident. That, apparently, has been done. Now, details are going to start trickling out, starting with the following Q&A with skipper for the leg Mark Towill. Note that this is from the 11th Hour website and not done by a sailing journalist intent on finding out detail. (I look forward to that, would love to do it myself!) But this interview at least confirms a lot of what was assumed. An independent panel will conduct an investigation – see the end of the post for details.

Vestas 11th Hour Racing has been repaired and will rejoin the race in Auckland where the fleet just finished.

From the Vestas web site 2nd March – 2018

Q&A WITH MARK TOWILL

By Vestas 11th Hour Racing

Vestas 11th Hour Racing co-founder, Mark Towill, spent time at home with family and friends after departing the Volvo Ocean Race Hong Kong stopover where the team’s VO65 was involved in a tragic accident with a fishing vessel. Towill has now regrouped with the team and their VO65 yacht in Auckland, New Zealand, ahead of the next leg of the race. The team has now been informed that investigations by the Hong Kong and mainland China authorities will be closed shortly with no further action to be taken. As a result, Towill gives us his account on what happened in the early hours of January 20 in the approach to Hong Kong.
What happened as you approached the finish line of Leg 4? 
We were about 30 nautical miles from the finish, and I was at the navigation station monitoring the radar and AIS (Automatic Identification System), and communicating with the crew on-deck through the intercom. I was watching three vessels on AIS: a cable layer, which we had just passed, a vessel farther ahead moving across our bow and away, and a third vessel identified as a fishing vessel. There were a number of additional boats on AIS, many of them fishing vessels, but these three were the only ones identified in our vicinity.
What were the conditions like? What could you see?
It was a dark and cloudy night, with a breeze of around 20 knots and a moderate sea state. As we approached the fishing vessel that we had identified on AIS, the on-deck crew confirmed visual contact – the fishing vessel was well lit – and we headed up to starboard to keep clear. I was watching AIS and communicating the range and bearing to the crew. The crew confirmed we were crossing the fishing vessel when, before the anticipated cross, there was an unexpected collision.
What happened immediately after the collision?
So much happened so fast. The impact from the collision spun us into a tack to port that we weren’t prepared for. Everyone who was off watch came on deck. Everyone on our boat was safe and accounted for. We checked the bow, saw the hole in the port side and went below to assess the damage. Water was flowing into our boat through the hole, and there was concern over the structural integrity of the bow.
How did you control the ingress of water?
We heeled the boat to starboard to keep the port bow out of the water. The sail stack was already to starboard and the starboard water ballast tank was full. We also kept the keel canted to starboard. We placed our emergency pump in the bow to pump water overboard. We were able to minimize the ingress, but the boat was difficult to maneuver because it was heeled over so much.
What actions did you take immediately after getting your boat under control?
It took roughly 20 minutes to get our boat under control, and then we headed back towards the location of the collision. Upon arrival, several people on a fishing vessel nearby were shining lights to a point on the water. Our first thought was that they could be looking for someone, so we immediately started a search and rescue. After some time searching, we eventually spotted a person in the water.
Who were you in communication with? Did anyone offer assistance?
We tried to contact the other vessel involved in the collision, and alerted race control straight away. When we initiated the search and rescue, our navigator immediately issued a Mayday distress call over VHF channel 16 on behalf of the fishing vessel. There were many vessels in the area, including a cruise ship with a hospital bay, but they were all standing by.
Communication was difficult. The sheer volume of traffic on the radio meant it was hard to communicate to the people we needed to. Not many people on the VHF were speaking English, but we found a way to relay messages through a cable laying vessel, and they were able to send their guard boat to aid in the search and rescue.
How was the casualty retrieved?
Difficult conditions and limited maneuverability hampered our initial efforts to retrieve the casualty. The guard boat from the cable layer provided assistance and every effort was made from all parties involved in the search and rescue. We were finally able to successfully recover the casualty after several attempts. When we got him aboard, our medics started CPR. We alerted Hong Kong Marine Rescue Coordination Centre that we had the casualty aboard and they confirmed air support was on its way. He was transferred to a helicopter and taken to a Hong Kong hospital where medical staff where unable to revive him.
Did any of your competitors offer assistance?
Dongfeng Race Team offered assistance. At the time, we were coordinating the search and rescue with multiple vessels, including the cable layer that had a crewman who spoke Chinese and English and was relaying our communication. We advised Dongfeng that they were not needed as there were a number of vessels in the area that were closer.
Team AkzoNobel arrived while the air transfer was in effect. Race control requested that they stand by and they did, and we later released them once the helicopter transfer was complete.
 
What happened after the search and rescue procedure was completed?
Once we knew there was nothing more we could do at the scene of the accident, we ensured our boat was still secure, and informed Volvo Ocean Race that we would retire from the leg and motor to shore. We arrived at the technical area nearby the race village and met with race officials and local authorities to give our account of what happened.
Here’s the statement from Vestas 11th Hour Racing regarding an independent report to be made:

Following the collision between Vestas 11th Hour Racing and a non-racing vessel in the final stages of the racing leg into Hong Kong, the organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race have commissioned an independent report into ocean racing at night in areas of high vessel traffic density, to establish what steps race organisers may take to mitigate risk going forward.

The report will be conducted by an Independent Report Team (IRT), chaired by Rear Admiral Chris Oxenbould AO RAN (Rtd) and assisted by Stan Honey and Chuck Hawley.

Rear Admiral Oxenbould is a former deputy chief of the Australian Navy and an experienced ocean racing yachtsman with a particular expertise in navigation. He is also the former chairman of Australia Sailing’s National Safety Committee.

Renowned current sailor and ocean navigational expert, Stan Honey, who won the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 as navigator onboard ABN AMRO ONE, and Chuck Hawley, who is the former chairman of the U.S. Sailing Safety at Sea Committee, will assist Rear Admiral Oxenbould on the report.

The IRT will examine all the issues associated with racing a Volvo Ocean 65, or similar racing boat, at night in areas of high vessel traffic density, drawing on the experiences in recent editions of the Volvo Ocean Race.

Any findings from the report that could benefit the wider sailing community will be released. It is intended that the IRT will make its report available to Volvo Ocean Race by June 2018.

Phil Lawrence, Race Director, stated: “Understandably, there has been a lot of reaction to this incident in the sailing community, but the fact is, it takes time to make a responsible assessment of what could be done differently to minimise risk and increase safety.

“Our sailors, as qualified professionals, understand their responsibilities under the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, Racing Rules of Sailing and the Rules of the Volvo Ocean Race.

“As race organisers, we will continue to evaluate safety as we race over the coming months and take the appropriate steps to minimise risk.” concluded Lawrence.