Sailors destiny?

[onavegador]

What happened aboard the German registered Sailing Yacht Escape, a CNB 66. I heard rumors that a accident happened aboard and the owner and his wife died. May be an accidental gib, there have been two more crew members aboard the boat.
Did some other sailor knows more?
Thank for any reply.

[GordMay]

Volker and Annemarie’s Blog:
“Sailing-escape” ➥ https://sailingescape.blog/?s=
English ➥ https://sailingescape.blog/

[onavegador]

Hi Gord


Thank you for your reply.

Yes, I know the blog. But something, may be an accident, happened after the Bermudas en route to the Azores, and this after Tropical storm Alex. The rumors are that a coast guard was involved to evacuate people from board. I read a blog sailing-invia.com with the title R.I.P. Annemarie and Volker.



May be you find out more.

[SV Tom Crean]

Oh no. I met them both years ago when they were just starting - we exchanged a lot of messages back and forth. They loved sailing, loved the boat and have been sailing it for a maybe 2/3 years now.

Crap

[Chotu]

I don’t know what the story is, but here is the track.


https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/5...916480/journey


It looks like it began on its current track Monday at 4 AM. After some other maneuvers prior to that.

The last iridium check-in was today at 11am.

Sunday afternoon into Monday the boat was only doing a couple knots here and there.

Looks like something happened between 4 PM and 5 PM on Sunday.

And finally, the boat has been flying right along since Monday at 4pm. Looks like it’s making six or 7 kn again. Headed for Europe.

[onavegador]

just checking I see that SY Escape is in Halifax/Nova Scotia. Thank you all for your reply and mentioning noforeignland.

[SV Tom Crean]

Originally Posted by onavegador

just checking I see that SY Escape is in Halifax/Nova Scotia. Thank you all for your reply and mentioning noforeignland.

Such a horrible accident. They both loved sailing and Kurt loved his boat - was a dream for both of them when they started cruising the CNB back in 2019.

We still don’t know the full story, that will come out in due course but was possibly the main sheet that caught them. I sailed a 66 for a couple of years and the only way to get hit with the boom is to be up on deck as the boom is so high. The main sheet is brought back to the cockpit sole just in front of the helms.

[txg]

Here are more details about this horrible story:



https://www.bwsailing.com/anatomy-of-a-tragedy-at-sea/


I have no experience in sailing a 66 footer, but on our small 35 we always avoided rounding up for reefing and instead preferred to reef downwind.

[wingssail]

Reading those details again emphasizes in my mind how dangerous a big powerful sailboat can be in stormy conditions.

This CMB 66 carries over 2000 sq ft of plain sail area and the boom is 25 ft long. There is a tremendous amount of power in those sails and while they can be completely docile most of the time, even in strong weather if well controlled, things can get out of hand in an instant, as seen in this occurrence. The owner and his wife were fatally injured by the flogging mainsheet while trying to reef. The crew had performed this several times previously on that voyage, yet still it went wrong. Somehow when they came up into the wind this time the mainsheet was not sufficiently pulled in to prevent the flogging.

That is a BIG boat and that flogging main is capable of instant death. Even on my small 43' a wildly swinging mainsheet can cause a serious injury. This happened last year when my very experienced mainsheet trimmer was knocked unconscious and suffered a severe cut on the chin when the mainsheet hit him in the back and threw him to the deck during a gybe. By comparison we have only 843sqft of sail area and a main boom of 13 ft and that was in 20 knots of wind, not 35.

These days more people have money and are able to buy fantastic yachts, often ones which I would consider BIG. I sailed on a few boats over 60 feet and I often wondered how those sails could be managed by shorthanded crew in heavy conditions. Then we hear of people new to sailing who are considering 55-65ft catamarans. OMG, what could go wrong there?

It is important to remember that when we go to sea we are playing for keeps and a big boat carries deadly force. Immense respect is due.

[SV Tom Crean]

Give you an idea of how big the boom is - I used to say the cabins slept 8 but you could sleep another 3 in the boom. I never liked the arrangement of the main sheet in the cockpit, and also you had to reef at the mast. It’s a big powerful rig that needed taming or it could be dangerous.

[deblen]

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...-s-266446.html

[fxykty]

Wow, this is almost a replica of the Platino tragedy a few years earlier just north of NZ. A similarly sized sloop monohull broke its mainsheet during an accidental gybe, causing uncontrolled boom movements that killed two people. Very, very sad.

It sounds like the weather forecast lulled the crew into reefing later than the conditions warranted. The final reefing sounds like it was rushed and the sheet not tended properly, leading to the loose boom and broken mainsheet.

Are the mainsheets undersized so that they are still hand manageable? Or are they sized equally to the travellers and blocks and shackles and just happen to be what breaks first?

It took me almost the entire story to realise that the boat had a boom furling mainsail. Perhaps with that kind of furler the main cannot be reefed other than upwind? Certainly the ability to reef off the wind is a critical safety factor for short handed crews offshore.

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by txg

Here are more details about this horrible story:



https://www.bwsailing.com/anatomy-of-a-tragedy-at-sea/


I have no experience in sailing a 66 footer, but on our small 35 we always avoided rounding up for reefing and instead preferred to reef downwind.

A harrowing story and tragedy indeed. Condolences for the deceased, their families and all involved.

On a side note, many boats, especially those with full batten mains can not be reefed with pressure in the main and have to be rounded up to do so.

Shorthanded in bad weather we even furl the Genoa before reefing the main. It's just one thing less to take care off and easy to unfurl after the reef is in.

[SV Tom Crean]

No traveller on the CNB. Mainsheet ends in cockpit just in front of helm with a powered winch (which you really really need). It does show that a powerful main and boom along with having to round up for reefing is not a great solution for shorthanded sailing.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Franziska

A harrowing story and tragedy indeed. Condolences for the deceased, their families and all involved.

On a side note, many boats, especially those with full batten mains can not be reefed with pressure in the main and have to be rounded up to do so.

Shorthanded in bad weather we even furl the Genoa before reefing the main. It's just one thing less to take care off and easy to unfurl after the reef is in.

We have a full battened, very large roach mainsail and can slab reef at any point of sail. Closer than 60* AWA is easiest as the sail can be eased and lies off the rig, but with certain techniques can be reefed even dead downwind. So I don’t think batten length has anything to do with it.

We do keep the jib drawing so that the boat has some way on and doesn’t just wallow. Downwind that takes some wind pressure off as well.