Last Trip of the Season: Schooner Days DCCLXIV (764)

by C. H. J. Snider

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Sympathy, Suggestions And An Experience

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IT comes to everyone who sails, for every season—often joyous, sometimes tragic. Not often as cruelly as for the 30-ft. Circe, last week-end. All sailors have the deepest sympathy for the skipper and crew of that little ship, both for those who came home in the blackness of the last morning of September, 1946, and for the one who did not. This was young Dick Mansell, lieutenant engineer in the navy while the war was on, SPS graduate and mechanical engineer in peacetime.

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September just gone was good to the sailors of the sail. All but him. The month's last golden fortnight made the sap stir in the oldest veins and was not surprising that the Circe should start again for Olcott on the south shore of Lake Ontario that gorgeous last Saturday in the month. It was not a reckless thing to repeat, in such perfect conditions, what she had been doing all summer at no greater hazard. The tragedy was not due to stress of weather. Ship and crew behaved well.

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No one can be blamed for what happened. It was an accident and the only good that can be done by examining it, as we do reluctantly, is to see how such an accident might be avoided, if it could be avoided.

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Circe is small and racy looking, and some might say she was no yacht to cross the lake in. With this we disagree. She is of a type called the Yankee One Design class, which has proven safe for general sailing around Toronto, and the yacht herself has crossed the lake many times. She is completely decked over, ballasted, and has a moderate sail area.

There is no such thing as a non-sinkable, non-fillable, non-capsizable yacht in all combinations of circumstances, but many types are safe in ordinary conditions, and the Yankee One Design is one of these. The ketch in which we cruised 2,242 miles from Toronto to Wisconsin and back this summer is insurable at Lloyd's in a high class but if she were run into she might sink like a stone, if she got afire she might explode, and if caught in a hurricane she might be dismasted and founder or be driven ashore. Against these possibilities precautions are taken. If the storm warnings are up we are not ashamed to stay in port or get into shelter as soon as possible. We have six fire extinguishers in addition to flash chokers. Lifelines in stanchions run all around the ship and we have lifebuoys hanging on both sides, easily thrown overboard. In the cockpit are five buoyant cushions, also easily thrown. We have lifebelts for all and room for all in the two dinghies carried.

All of this would not prevent accidents but would help if an accident occurred. The Circe had a life ring and the skipper was prompt in getting it over the side. His whole conduct was commendable, both in throwing the buoy, putting the ship about, circling around while there was any chance of his shipmate being picked up and then doggedly continuing search for him next day by launch and airplane, after reporting the accident.

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Few yachts of Circe's size tow dinghies, because for use in water at all rough a 10-foot dinghy is small but even one that size is a big lump for a little cruiser to tow or take on deck. We used a 10-foot dinghy for the 28-foot Blue Peter for ten years and know its value and its disadvantages. We cruised the whole length of Lake Ontario and crossed at all points and had no accidents. Smaller sizes are all right in smooth water in harbor, but at night in the lake they are more likely to lead to a double drowning than to save a man. The inflatable rubber dinghies with which airplanes were equipped in the war saved many lives. But just try to get one! Or a Mae West, which you can inflate in the water!

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The Great Lakes Cruising Club recommends issuing life lines or lanyards to each member of the crew going on watch at night or in bad weather. The lanyards are easily made—eight feet of good rope, with a snap hook and thimble in one end and an evesplice at the other. The man makes the line fast around his waist and snaps the hook on to something stout enough to hold him where he is working. He has enough scope to move freely, and should he slip the lanyard will at least keep him close to his ship and shipmates.

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The Circe had a flashlight but the poor lad seems to have left it unused when he went forward. There is little standing wire to cling to in a yacht of her type, only headstay, backstay and four mast-shrouds.

Small cruisers seldom have anything more than the small batten she has two on the covering board. No rail or bulwarks. She has two good handholds on the low cabin top but it was apparently from one of these that the boy's foot slipped.

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It is a help to have a flare attached to your lifebuoy, one that will burn when it strikes the water and send up a smoke by day. It enables the swimmer to see the safety ring and the helmsman to steer for it. It is surprising how fast and how far a moving yacht travels from a stationary target in those awful moments following the cry "Man Overboard!" Be quick on the trigger in giving the alarm if you see anyone go. Get the yell out and a lifebuoy over before he strikes the water. Seconds count.

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And remember, if the man falls overboard to leeward while you are sailing close hauled you are running away from him if you bring your ship about, although that is the natural impulse. The better thing to do is to gybe her over, for this is falling right around on her heel. Most ships wear, or "gybe" as yachtsmen call it, in shorter space than they tack, "come in stays" or "come about," because the wind acts as a brake, slowing up their forward momentum and turning them back towards the man overboard or whatever they have left astern.

It may be hard to remember this in the excitement of the moment. But practice picking up a dropped bucket, first by the gybing movement and then by the tacking one, and time the ship by the stop watch. Adopt whichever method is the fastest. This practice is good life saving drill anyway.

If it is only desired to stop the ship, so as to lower a boat say, of course the simplest way is to bring her up to the wind. But in life saving a good deal depends upon where you stop the ship, as well as when. It is a safe principle to keep her as near to the lost object as you possibly can.

Hauling headsails a-weather is a good way of stopping a sailing craft, and it enables her to get under weigh more quickly. It averts the predicament of getting in irons which may happen if you merely bring her up into the wind.

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TRUE STORY

The sailing master was knocked overboard by the boom while the mainsail was being set by the owner and the mate. In this craft every man on board—and the one in the water—had been skipper of his own ship, however small. And they had all sailed together in this one. The master and one of the hands had been tending the mainsail as it went up. The fifth man was at the wheel.

The mate saw a cap in the water, missed the master from deck, and called "Man Overboard!" That was the only "order" needed. The helmsman threw one life ring, and the hand threw another and ran forward to the tender which was hanging on davits outboard. The owner without question jumped to the after davit tackle and dropped the stern of the small boat into the water. As he lowered the bow the hand jumped in, remembered to unhook the davit tackles in their proper order, and shoved off. The oars were in their place in the boat.

All this had not taken thirty seconds. The master came up from a deep involuntary dive to just miss the stern of the yacht. He could swim, and reached the life ring in six strokes. He hailed. "Take your time. I'm all right. Go ahead with the mainsail so you can handle her!"

The man at the wheel had, with good judgment, put the helm down so as to bring the vessel to the wind and stop her. This is contrary to what is usually the best practice. but it was proper here, for they wanted to lower a boat without capsizing it (that is why the stern was dropped first), and the ship was not easily maneuvered with the peak of the mainsail still to be set.

In two minutes from the word "Overboard!" the master was coming up over the rail, full of beans, dripping wet and with a bruise on his back the size of a dinner plate. Two minutes is a long time to be fighting for your life. It has been said somewhere it takes four minutes for a man to drown. Not always. A non-swimmer will drown sooner, and a good swimmer may keep afloat much longer. At all events, in rescue work seconds count. This rescue was made in circumstances much less complicated than the Circe's misfortune—broad daylight, smooth water.

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Have safety gear handy.

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Have flares for your rings.

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Don't be afraid to wear belts and lanyards at night for hazardous work.

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Give ship and crew pickup drill at the beginning of cruise.

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Pickup practice saves seconds when the real thing happens, and organization accomplishes more than haste.

The time for organization is before, not after, event.

The helm must not be deserted.

One man must never let the object overboard out of eyesight or earshot. If it is pitch dark let him do what he can with a flashlight.

Another must get the main-sheet inboard fast, so that it will act as a backstay. Then you won't worry about gybing.

Someone else must get the tender alongside.

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If you are properly trained and organized orders are unnecessary, but let one man give whatever are to be given. The skipper is the natural choice — don't wait for him. He may be the man overboard.

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So a "rescue boss" should be trained. He may be other things as well — helmsman, lookout, main sheet man or tender crew; he may have to be all five.

As in air raid precautions, stations should be manned in duplicate, for we never know who will be the missing man.

Learn to handle the dinghy — to haul it up if towing astern, to launch it from deck or davits, to get into it quickly without capsizing it, to pick up its own weight with it. Get your man in over the stern. If you try the bow or the side you will dump it, sure.

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As general practice, gybe instead of coming about, if you lose anyone overboard when sailing close-hauled.

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Don't go offshore without a practical tender—a small boat fit for use in rough water.

A sailing dinghy is its own tender. Anything larger should have a tender of appropriate size.

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Flashlights help, but use with discretion, and know your way to every rope in the dark.

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Stay ashore if you can't swim, but don't trust swimming ability alone. The best swimmer may have no chance at all in oilskins.