Sailboat dinghy racing is a dangerous sport, since, according to the Boating Accident Reporting Database ('BARD') there were about seven hundred fatal accidents in recreational boating in year 2008 in the U.S. alone.
Almost any sailboat can capsize, and at worst, totally invert; that is, 'turn turtle' and remain upside-down with its mast pointing downwards, abruptly leaving the crew to work out their own survival in the water.
Even the most safety-conscious crew (equipped with buoyancy vest, knife and quick-release trapeze hook) may find themselves fighting for survival, even in a class-proven racing dinghy.
A Racing Sailing Dinghy Capsize
"The steering oar wrenched from his grasp, And in one lightning attack the brawling galewinds struck full-force..." (Homer, The Odyssey)
Imagine a fine sunny Spring afternoon in the bay with a gusty breeze setting the salt spray flying at the bow of, say, a GP 14 dinghy with its crew of two beating upwind to outpace a dozen other racing sailboats.
All at once a blast of wind, comes out of nowhere, and the dinghy capsizes to leeward. The crew lands in the water, somewhere near the sailboat's mainsail, and seeing that she seems caught up, the helmsman attempts to go to her help.
Club Safety-boat Arrives
By the time the safety-boat arrives on our scene, the sailing dinghy has become totally inverted, bottom uppermost, the center-board ('dagger-board' to some) has dropped back into its slot and there is no sign of either of the two crew.
The safety-boat crew quickly gets the stricken GP 14 up to a position where its mainsail is parallel to the water surface (achieved by getting on to the upturned hull and levering the stricken dinghy toward the upright).
Both crew members are then seen floating in the water, although unconscious (the life vest commonly warn by racers is not designed to keep the face out of the water) and one of the crew is seen to be entangled by her ankle in the trapeze wire.
Once aboard the safety-boat, CPR is administered and soon the survivors are handed over to ambulance personnel standing by on the sailing club's jetty.
Racing Dinghy Capsize – Lessons From This Scenario
- The cardinal rule in a sailboat capsize is that the helmsman must overcome a natural impulse to go to the aid of the entangled crew, and instead concentrate on preventing a total inversion.
- By responding in this way the crew has time to sort themselves out from any tangle, and to swim clear and help out righting the dinghy (or if they can't free themselves then to wait for the arrival of the safety boat.
- The slippery smooth hull of a totally inverted racing GP 14, or any other kind of racing sailboat, makes bringing the boat up to its beam ends (mast and sails parallel to the water surface) by no means an easy task, even for an agile young crew.
- The onset of cold may come surprisingly fast, and if another boat isn't nearby then crew must be able to reach out for a radio/mobile (thoughtfully stored in the flares bottle, and safely secured by lanyard to a sensible location inside the dinghy).
- Fortunately, the safety-boat in this story was fast on the scene with a well-trained crew to cope promptly with the totally inverted dinghy and also to resuscitate its crew by having a first-aider competent to administer CPR on hand.
Why not check out your own racing club's policy on safety-boat crew training? In a dinghy capsize a life may depend on whether accident and first-aid training is taken seriously. If not, then 'speak up'.
George Backwell - Merely a reporter who endeavors to provide a reliable compass for those who look for one.
