THE KNOWLEDGE
Could you sort the fallout of a violent gybe?
Handbook, spent 10 of his 23 years at the RYA as chief examiner
QIt is the roughest sea Simon has ever experienced. He and his four crew are sailing eastwards on his classic 1960s 12m wooden sloop, Sea Thrift, towards the Azores with about 500 miles to go. Fortunately it is daylight for the next few hours. Simon is an experienced sailor and his crew are all reasonably competent.
Sea Thrift is well kitted out for ocean cruising with the recommended safety equipment and satellite communications. The wind is Force 8 and freshening. The boat and crew are broad reaching with a triple-reefed main and storm jib. Simon reckons it is time to drop the main.
As he briefs the crew in the cockpit, shouting in the wind, the helmsman loses concentration. The yacht accelerates down a wave and gybes. The mainsail tears from leech to luff. As the yacht turns beam on to the sea, a breaking wave rolls over the deck and lifts off the hatch over the main saloon. The hatch is still just attached by a hinge but the saloon is open to the sea.
During the gybe, Jim, one of the crew members, was sitting in the path of the mainsheet and has been hit pretty hard. He is injured and clutching his arm and crying in agony. The remaining three crew are fortunately all ok but still badly shaken by the experience.
They look to Simon for the next instruction. What would you do in his position? What should be the main priorities?
AThe man with the injury and the flogging mainsail will be making the most noise but in my view the most immediate problem is preventing water from entering the boat’s main saloon.
The yacht needs to be steered downwin
