A tragic lesson

codprawn · 24 September 2005, 14:21

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/n...re/4265864.stm

A British schoolgirl drowned in Greece whilst on a sailing holiday - she was sailing a catamaran when it capsized - she was wearing a harness!!! I think it proves what many say about NOT being tethered to your boat - although I suppose just as many die from falling overboard but if you have good survival gear on or the waters are warm it would be better to be throw clear.

She was sailing with her family on a sunsail holiday - 5 Sunsail employees are charged with her death!!! Yet again a tragic ACCIDENT where they are trying to blame someone - sounds even worse in Greece than it is here - unless you happen to be Greek of course.....

Poly · 24 September 2005, 16:56

This is obviously a very sad story.

Codprawn implies that she shouldn't have been tied to the boat - but i am guessing she was trapeezing on a performance catameran - and its the only way they can be sailed (and bloody good fun).

She should have been shown how to release the hook if she capsized but with most trapeze harnesses this is not that easy under load, in the dark (under the trampoline) and even harder if you panic. There are a new breed of quick release hooks around, but fortunately this sort of incident is very rare so many people have not converted to them yet.

Whilst you can never garuntee that a safety boat will be able to respond fast enough it will be much better placed to do so if it carries and has readily available a pair of bolt cutters and the crew are trained which bits of rigging to cut.

Hopefully the holiday companies will take this opportunity to review their practices to minimise the risk - but lets face it going on the water is dangerous.

laser · 24 September 2005, 19:08

the RYA have done an awful lot of research in to entrapment and there is a lengthy article on their website about it. As they found out, it happens very rarely!!

Dan Wash · 24 September 2005, 21:18

I have a beachcat as well , this is not a new problem . People experimented with breakable hooks. Its not usually being 'tied' to the boat but getting caught on the tramp. There is a system that doesn't use hooks , but a ball and socket. Bottom line is a sailing school should know the dangers and have a saftey boat and crew should always have a knife.