Chinese circumnavigator lost off Hawaii

[thinwater]

Update on this story. When his shore team boarded the boat recently, they found the broken off end of his tether still clipped to the boat.
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That is the first instance of a tether on a jackline breaking that I have heard of. Very rare.

That said,it appears be a non-stretch jackline. Someone skipped the engineering on that.

The energy absorbing characteristic of the tether were also inferior it seems.

 

[Triassic]

That said,it appears be a non-stretch jackline. Someone skipped the engineering on that.

The energy absorbing characteristic of the tether were also inferior it seems.

Mine are non-stretch. They are at a length that very specifically allows me to get to a certain point and then stop. If they were stretchy I would either have to strain very hard to be able to work at that point, or in the event of a fall they would stretch and allow me beyond it... which would be overboard.

 

[Foolish Muse]

Announced by Conrad Colman just this morning:

When Conrad Colman arrived in Les Sables D’Olonne on Friday afternoon (Feb 24), battered and bruised flying a jury rig, the crowds turned out in their thousands to greet the Vendée Globe skipper.
Touched by his engaging descriptions of a journey that had started with a fight simply to get to the start line, he was stopped and congratulated by passing strangers everywhere in the seaside town..
Yet there was one tale no one was expecting, not even his wife.
“I haven’t told anyone this yet,” he said at his press conference. “I fell overboard.”
There was silence in the room. He stared out at the audience and swallowed as his gaze shifted momentarily to his feet; this was no PR stunt.
To a silent and dumbstruck audience he then described how at night, in a breezy Southern Ocean he had been on top of the boom, cradled by the mainsail lazy bag as he rearranged the sail when the lazy jacks broke.
“In a split second, the boom dropped into the water, I had no time to grab onto anything and was dumped into the sea. Fortunately, I was hooked on leaving me trailing behind the boom.
“I was too far away from the boat to get back on board, but eventually one of the waves swept me in sufficiently that I could grab hold of a stanchion. The trouble was that my harness was still clipped to the boom, preventing me from getting back aboard the boat.
“The only way to get back on board was to undo my harness, hang on to the stanchion with one arm and try to scramble back onto the boat. Fortunately I did it.”
The following day during a one to one interview with Conrad he expanded on his dark secret. ‘Had the incident spooked him,’ I asked.
“I don’t think so although I did tell one person, I had to, I had nearly died and I needed to tell someone about it. But the fact is that it had happened, what was I to do? I was still many miles from anywhere in the Southern Ocean. Even if I had decided enough was enough I still had to get back home.”
Was there any point at which he didn’t think he would make it?
“Yes, plenty,” he replied.


My comment:
I've said it many times. You will not fall overboard when the seas are rough and you are being extra careful. You will fall overboard on a normal day when nothing special is happening.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

..... You will not fall overboard when the seas are rough and you are being extra careful. ... .

I think this sort of black and white statement is wrong when it is presented as a truism. Quite a few reports in magazines and some videos of people falling over the side in rough weather. Of course people fall overboard in benign conditions.

 

[Foolish Muse]

I'm speaking as a singlehander. We really really are extra careful when the seas are up. But yes, you can fall over any time, so you should always wear a tether.

 

[westernman]

On my single handed hobby cat I always tied the end of the mainsheet to my trapeze harness. In anything other than very calm conditions it would go sideways when capsized faster than I could swim. And if I fell off in calm conditions, it would carry on sailing without capsizing far faster than I could swim as well. It was physically difficult to right in calm conditions, and tricky to right without it flipping over a second time in really windy conditions.

When sailing, it was by far the wettest boat I ever owned - including the windsurfer. Spray from going through a wave would hit you full on in the face and completely soak you.
On the windsurfer, if you did not fall off, you only got wet up to your waist. The hobby cat was a full body pressure wash!

 

[alant]

Man Overboard, singlehanding...

This is of course the subject of a million threads and bar chats, as it should be.

Another tip I came across, as well as harness points by the mast; when singlehanding on autopilot I am extremely aware that if I go over, the last thing I'll ever see is my beloved boat merrily trundling away.

If crossing Poole Bay or anywhere outside the Solent I trail a 2mm line about 100 metres long with a foam key float on the end -the other end is led over the pushpit to the ram of the autohelm; a pull on it dislodges the autopilot, so the boat will round up, giving me a chance to get back.

This is no way ideal as it doesn't adjust the throttle if motoring, and getting back aboard even my low freeboard 22 footer is another major task ( I have a folding step on the transom and on long trips a flexible ladder within reach from the water ) but it's a start.

Just thoughts in case they help somebody sometime.

Bearing in mind, the 11knts (standard warp speed for an A22, as previously reported), is your safety line long enough?