BoatBanter.com - More on sailing accident

A bit more info:

An accidental jibe probably rendered the skipper unconscious before he hit
the water. He was wearing a "self inflating" PFD that did not inflate when
he hit the water. He was still unconscious when they finally reached him and
they could not get him back into the boat. One eye witness said that one
crew mate had a hold of him and LET GO in order to grab another crew member.
His PDF did not have a crotch strap and he slipped around in the PFD when
they tried to hoist him up. (This is one of those nasty secretes about
overboard crew. Unconscious crew are almost always un-retrievable.) By the
time they got back to the skipper again, it had been nearly an hour and he
was certainly dead at that point.

His crew never hailed the fleet on VHF. They never called the Knee Deep
Navy. But they did call 911 on a cell phone. (????) The Windseekers race in
just about all weather in the south sound but that day was definitely "heavy
weather." The tactics and sail plan is very different in those conditions
and should send some sailors to port, ego be damned. I turn tail out there
when it get's to 40+.

There was an oblique memorial story in this months 48 Degrees North. "twas a
sad and an avoidable loss.

"Gordon" wrote in message
...
On the sailor who died in Tacoma on Jan 28th.
The boat was a Santana 525 and they were running downwind when a strong
gust caused the boat to broach to leeward throwing him in the water. The
crew had a hard time getting back to him. Other boats abandoned a race to
help. The CG chopper and fire department rescue boat eventually recovered
him but it was too late.
G

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