Hurricane
Well-Known Member
We all read about these dangerous events but this time it is it getting "closer to home".
A group of my yachting friends from Sant Carles are out in Mallorca at the moment.
Some of them have been there for several months and will be for several months yet.
Others have joined them recently - indeed we will also be joining them at the end of the month.
One of them has just posted this on the Sant Carles Marina Forum and asked me to circulate it on here - I'll also put a link to here from Scuttlebutt
KILL CORDS CAN KILL
or lack of them, a tragedy can be avoided. Yesterday the 15th July 2014 we were anchored in the beautiful but busy 'es trench' on the south of Mallorca, we are in company of three other
Sant Carles boats, Jane had been snorkelling and came back to the boat complaining of a couple of lads with a jet rib and wakeboard close by the boats, Jane alway drags an orange float behind her so as to make her more visible to the many dinghys, jet ribs, ribs and ski boats that are constantly weaving their way between the anchored boats. It's great fun for them to see the whites of our eyes when they see how I close they can get to us with the biggest wash. But hey it's part of the boating bit and we have to accept it.
So one lad falls off his wakeboard and his mate in the powerful jet rib decides it's gonna be great fun to do multiple donoughts around him, this is 30 metres from our boat, the centrifugal force throws him out of the rib and guess what he has no KILL CORD attached. The rib now being much lighter accelerates out of control in a huge arc around and between anchored power and sailing boats as well as swimmers, then like an Exocet it makes a return curve and we watched helplessly as it crashed at some 25 knots into the back of Geoffs dinghy which is tied to the back of his catamaran "Mee Too". Geoff was sitting in the back of his dinghy tinkering with the engine with the cover off, the rib smashed away his outboard, rode over the top of Geoff injuring his arm, head, face, back and leg, the rib then carried on and smashed into the upper transom of the catamaran taking away all of the guard rails, barbecue and fenders, had the fenders and guardrail not been there then the rib would have carried on through the seating area of the cat where Lynn and dog Meg were sitting, this in itself could have been tragic.
The damaged rib then slid back into the water, fortunately it had now knocked itself out of gear but was still revving madly. Jane and I along with a German man and son were first on the scene, thankfully the German guy managed to turn the rib engine off while we attended to Geoff who was more worried that the driver of the rib might be under or in the water, he was in a bit of a daze, but still both him and Lynn were concerned more for the driver than themselves. With the aid of Alistair ' Viking' and Peter ' White Cat' we were able to help out. I am not going to go now into aftermath in dealing with the charter boats captain, the police and the coastguard, suffice to say that it is now a case of Geoff and Lynn having to sort out their insurance and us going by cab to Palma to make a formal police report. Geoff now has to source a new outboard, but stoic people that they are they are not going to let it spoil there Balearics cruise.
Please let it be a warning to all of us, these toys that we all love are fun but also dangerous, it is up to us as skippers and owners to make sure we show the initiative to alway wear a Kill Cord, to make sure our love ones and friends always do, especially the younger more exuberant members. This thankfully ended up with no one seriously hurt it could have ended up as a tragedy with someone facing a manslaughter charge. We all remember that family tragedy a while ago in Cornwall, it can be prevented. BTW, neither off the Spanish lads involved in the wake boarding had bouancy aids on or a spotter in the rear of the rib.
Please,nI don't want this post to be a tirade of replies or anecdotes, just a warning. I am going to also post this on the Cruising Association forum and ask that Mike JW posts it YBM forum
This could have been a very nasty incident.
A group of my yachting friends from Sant Carles are out in Mallorca at the moment.
Some of them have been there for several months and will be for several months yet.
Others have joined them recently - indeed we will also be joining them at the end of the month.
One of them has just posted this on the Sant Carles Marina Forum and asked me to circulate it on here - I'll also put a link to here from Scuttlebutt
KILL CORDS CAN KILL
or lack of them, a tragedy can be avoided. Yesterday the 15th July 2014 we were anchored in the beautiful but busy 'es trench' on the south of Mallorca, we are in company of three other
Sant Carles boats, Jane had been snorkelling and came back to the boat complaining of a couple of lads with a jet rib and wakeboard close by the boats, Jane alway drags an orange float behind her so as to make her more visible to the many dinghys, jet ribs, ribs and ski boats that are constantly weaving their way between the anchored boats. It's great fun for them to see the whites of our eyes when they see how I close they can get to us with the biggest wash. But hey it's part of the boating bit and we have to accept it.
So one lad falls off his wakeboard and his mate in the powerful jet rib decides it's gonna be great fun to do multiple donoughts around him, this is 30 metres from our boat, the centrifugal force throws him out of the rib and guess what he has no KILL CORD attached. The rib now being much lighter accelerates out of control in a huge arc around and between anchored power and sailing boats as well as swimmers, then like an Exocet it makes a return curve and we watched helplessly as it crashed at some 25 knots into the back of Geoffs dinghy which is tied to the back of his catamaran "Mee Too". Geoff was sitting in the back of his dinghy tinkering with the engine with the cover off, the rib smashed away his outboard, rode over the top of Geoff injuring his arm, head, face, back and leg, the rib then carried on and smashed into the upper transom of the catamaran taking away all of the guard rails, barbecue and fenders, had the fenders and guardrail not been there then the rib would have carried on through the seating area of the cat where Lynn and dog Meg were sitting, this in itself could have been tragic.
The damaged rib then slid back into the water, fortunately it had now knocked itself out of gear but was still revving madly. Jane and I along with a German man and son were first on the scene, thankfully the German guy managed to turn the rib engine off while we attended to Geoff who was more worried that the driver of the rib might be under or in the water, he was in a bit of a daze, but still both him and Lynn were concerned more for the driver than themselves. With the aid of Alistair ' Viking' and Peter ' White Cat' we were able to help out. I am not going to go now into aftermath in dealing with the charter boats captain, the police and the coastguard, suffice to say that it is now a case of Geoff and Lynn having to sort out their insurance and us going by cab to Palma to make a formal police report. Geoff now has to source a new outboard, but stoic people that they are they are not going to let it spoil there Balearics cruise.
Please let it be a warning to all of us, these toys that we all love are fun but also dangerous, it is up to us as skippers and owners to make sure we show the initiative to alway wear a Kill Cord, to make sure our love ones and friends always do, especially the younger more exuberant members. This thankfully ended up with no one seriously hurt it could have ended up as a tragedy with someone facing a manslaughter charge. We all remember that family tragedy a while ago in Cornwall, it can be prevented. BTW, neither off the Spanish lads involved in the wake boarding had bouancy aids on or a spotter in the rear of the rib.
Please,nI don't want this post to be a tirade of replies or anecdotes, just a warning. I am going to also post this on the Cruising Association forum and ask that Mike JW posts it YBM forum
This could have been a very nasty incident.
