Clipper Race fatality
After the deaths in the 2015/
Clipper Round The World Race, the
Marine Accident Investigation Branch
recommended that Clipper Ventures
‘man each yacht with a second employee
or contracted seafarer with appropriate
competence and a duty to take
reasonable care for the health and safety
of other persons on board’.
Clipper claim that their two-week
coxswain course fulfils this duty of care. I
don’t believe so.
The skills agreed between Clipper and
the Maritime and Coastguard Agency
(MCA) for this course are: navigation,
meteorology, tidal calculations, use of
VHF and Sat C, anchoring, berthing, and
MOB recovery. These skills are largely
coastal in application and designed
to get the boat to safety if the skipper
is incapacitated.
That scenario excepted, they are
almost meaningless to the day-to-day
safety of crew racing a yacht in the
middle of an ocean. Lack of experience
and lack of proper supervision is the
elephant in the room.
Clipper yachts have got steadily larger,
faster and more powerful since the race’s
inception in the mid 1990s. The forces
involved are immeasurably greater, the
margin for error far smaller – and yet
the crew are still relative novices with just
one professional sailor on board to look
after them. By definition, the risks have
to have increased significantly.
In two-and-a-quarter races on these
70ft yachts, three people have died, one
person was very lucky not to die, there
have been serious injuries, two yachts
have been run aground but recovered
and another run aground and lost.
The Clipper Race has inspired
thousands of people around the world
to do something very special. However,
the recent run of disasters cannot be put
down to bad luck or individual errors. The
model itself has gone badly wrong.
Name withheld
I sailed in the first Whitbread in 1973/74.
We were pioneers, we prepared
thoroughly, no one was lost. The boats
today are bigger, more capable and many
times more powerful, but the record
suggests that leadership, crew selection
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and training have not kept up. No deep-
ocean sailor is thinking their sport is 100
per cent safe, but the Clipper is starting
to feel like a rotten bet.
Roy ClareIn my opinion, something will have to
change for the Clipper Race. There were
no deaths on the 68s and then they move
to the 70s and have three deaths in two
races, and countless MOBs you don’t
hear about.
The MAIB report included numerous
lessons to be learned. They could move
to furling headsails and snuffer kites,
and keep people off the foredeck and
bow in stupid conditions, yet they choose
headsails that need to be hanked on and
kites that need to be wooled because 20
people on board need something to do.
I’m no expert ... I just did the last
edition of the race.
Name withheldUsing a lifeline
I’m concerned that many UK lifelines
have a clip which drags badly on a tape
jackstay; I’ve even see them come
undone despite the extra locking lever.
Also crotch straps which are commonly
fixed just with Fastex buckles.
These would not be countenanced in
the climbing world.
Charles LysterIt’s a wrap
Thank you for Pip Hare’s masterclass on
how to handle spinnaker wraps which are
inconvenient at best and positively scary
in a breeze.
I want to share a tactic that may well
have saved our A4. We were racing from
Hong Kong to Hainan on an Anteros 36, a
light displacement full-carbon sprit-boat,
and were surfing down waves in over 25
knots. It took just a moment’s inattention
for the kite to collapse and start the
dreaded wrap around the forestay.
By the time we gave up on trying to fix
it with trim and rushed to the foredeck, it
was wrapped too tightly to pull down. No
amount of pulling in any direction would
budge it an inch.
Miles offshore and with the benefit
of open water around us, experienced
sailor Philippe Grelon shared this nugget
of wisdom: by gybing the main over we
could reverse the draft that was causing
the kite to twist around the forestay.
Sure enough, one-by-one the wraps
slowly came undone. Within ten minutes
we were back in action, gybed back onto
our proper course, and resumed our
downwind screamer to Hainan.
Oliver BooteAmerica’s Cup foiling
Good grief, so what we have is a vessel
that relies on form stability (like cats), has
a foil mounted to give an effective width
about half a boat length (like a cat), has
a wingmast that has to be removed to
completely depower it overnight and, as
with the designs for the last two Cups,
you need a 90ft long shed.
What a complete waste of effort. This
really is a single hulled version of what
they raced in the last Cup, so will cost the
development money all over again.
Mark RoundI love it! This is another huge
technological achievement for the
America’s Cup. This will be huge and, if
you understand the history of this race, it
fits. If you want to see classic monohulls
racing then go ahead ... there are already
plenty to watch.
Meanwhile, we’ll enjoy the spectacle of
cutting edge technology on competitive
display in four years’ time.
Jeff BergThe latest edition
Clipper Race
fatality, MOBs and
grounding have
attracted criticismonEdition20 February 2018