Volvo sailor drowned a minute from harness

by Volvo Ocean race media on 24 May 2006 Hans Horrevoets was just one minute away from fitting his harness and life jacket when he was tragically washed overboard, the crew of ABN AMRO TWO explained this morning.

Speaking for the first time since the Dutch sailor died in the accident last week the team, who will make a decision on their continued involvement in the race over the coming days, revealed Horrevoets was the last in line to go below deck and get suitably equipped for the rapidly deteriorating conditions. As he waited, a wave swept over the deck at 0210 and he disappeared.

At a Press Conference at Gunwharf Quays today, the assembled media, who also heard the full details of how the grieving crew moved on from their tragedy to rescue crew from the sinking movistar, were told how troubles began when conditions suddenly shifted from benign to stormy.

Having just completed a sail change to deal with the increasing wind – the wind jumped from 12 to 25 knots in a matter of minutes – skipper Sebastien Josse gave the call for the crew on watch to attach their harnesses and wear their life jackets.

As Horrevoets, 32, was trimming the spinnaker, watch captain Nick Bice explained, it is accepted practice that whoever is trimming the spinnaker sheet is the last to go below deck, but in the short time he had to wait, a wave washed over the deck and as the water cleared the Dutchman was no longer onboard. The cause of death will be determined by the autopsy currently being performed in Holland.

Bice said, 'All the people on the deck at the time, except for Hans, were clipped on. Unfortunately Hans was on the spinnaker sheet when we went slamming forward, which was the most important sail at the time. Any sailor knows the last person to get clipped on is that guy.

'In a matter of 30 seconds or a minute he would have been down there and put his harness on to come back on deck.'

Roy Heiner, head of the ABN AMRO Volvo Ocean Race project, revealed a psychologist has now joined the team to offer support. He added, 'You can’t all go down to clip on at the same time, you have to go down one by one.'

Navigator Simon Fisher continued, 'It got very windy very quickly, the seaway got very big. One by one we were all going downstairs to put our harnesses on and Hans being the guy who was trimming and holding on to the most important sail on the boat, was the last to go down.

'It was our intention as a crew to wear our harnesses at night. Obviously we are racing, and trying to make the boat go as fast as we can. We take safety very seriously, but at the same time we are sailing a race.'

The crew went on to explain the heroic efforts they made to turn the boat around and rescue their stricken crewmate.

Fisher said, 'Being the navigator I was the person responsible for hitting the man overboard button and making sure we went back to the spot where we lost Hans over the side. First thing I’d like to say is, it completely blew me away how professional this team was. In Melbourne we discussed this procedure, so we were all prepared.

'Within minutes of it happening the boat was completely cleared up. These boats are very, very fast downwind in 25 knots. You cover ground very quickly, you see the miles ticking away, but we were only 1.6 miles from Hans when we had the spinnaker down, the staysail furled, the daggerboard down so we could turn upwind. We got the boat was turned and we could go back.

'We were making our way back upwind, all guys on deck, the search lights all ready. Simeon (Tienpont) had his dry-suit on and diving gear to go in the water if he needed to. We started motoring upwind, there was 37 knots of breeze by this stage so to actually sail was very difficult, so we had to drop the mainsail.

About half a mile from the man overboard position we found the first life ring we threw over the side. Then 0.2 of a mile away we found the Jon-Buoy (emergency dan buoy with a strobe light fitting) shortly after we found Hans.'

Simeon Tienpont was then on standby to enter the water and retrieve his crewmate. He explained the situation as he saw it unfold.

'When I came on deck we were preparing for a reef. Lucas (Brun) and Andrew Lewis had everything set up. I had just packed the masthead spinnaker. I grabbed a grinder. Water swept over the deck. I think two seconds later Seb (Josse, the skipper)was saying, ‘where is Hans, where is Hans?’ Within no time we realized he was gone, the spinnaker was flapping, we were grinding it on and nothing was happening of course. Scott Beavis ran straight away to the Jon-Buoy and I went back to the smoke unit and life buoy and threw it overboard.

At the time, the guys spiked the spinnaker off and snuffed it down. I went back to grinding and pulling the kite down. Seb and everyone knew we had a plan. We furled the mainsail, got the dagger board down, and we tacked. And I went downstairs to put on my gear for the rescue. We followed procedure; I put on my survival suit and flares. I sat at the back of the boat.

'When we found Hans, it was purely a call from Seb as to whether I went overboard or not to help retrieve him. We were doing three knots and you don’t want to be dragged away from the boat. When we saw him, he was six metres from the boat. The swell was too big, but we tried once to get to him. Seb decided not to go from the boat again, but to do another two laps and this time he came really close to the boat, and then we could grab him.'

'By the time we found Hans, we saw he was drowned. George went for all the CPR. As soon as we got him on the deck, we had him downstairs within a minute and we started immediately with five of us trying to resuscitate him, checking on each other, keeping the right pace and being as professional as we could.

We tried to warm him up. George (Peet) and I spoke to the doctors in the UK, and asked them for advice.' Resuscitation ended at 0420. Horrevoets was dead.

With the body of their friend onboard the crew set about heading to the UK, some 1,200 miles away. The crew, the youngest in the race, reflected on the ordeal they had just witnessed.

'It took an hour to take stock and sit down together as a crew and talk a little,' Fisher said. 'An hour later we were sailing again. At a steady pace, but not race pace. As the hours went by, we were eager to get back into our normal watch system, and a day later we were back to sailing full speed.'

Lucas Brun added, 'As soon as we got Hans onboard, it was very tough situation to deal with. He was trimming, joking with you, the next minute we were dragging him out of the water. Nothing can prepare you for that. Then you have to let the person go. Then you have to be on deck in your watch. Normally there are four of us in a watch, now in one watch there were only three. What would we be saying? What would we be talking about? You can’t be prepared, you just can’t imagine.

'Accidents do happen. This was an accident, it could have happened to any one of us. It is just life.'

Having sailed a couple of days alone with their thoughts the crew learned another crew had suffered in the violent conditions out in the Atlantic. movistar, their rivals in third place on the leaderboard, were sinking and eventually decided to abandon ship. Bice explained, 'I was steering at the time, when the call came to go to movistar. I just wanted to make sure those guys were safe as well. We have a lot of friends on that boat too. It makes your heart sink. The only thing in my mind was to get those guys off the boat.

'The call had to be made; whether they had to jump off or stay onboard. It could have been disaster, when Bouwe (Bekking, the movistar skipper) made his decision, we got them off. I haven’t seen ten happier guys step onto a Volvo Open 70, and it was great to get them to shore safely.'

Seb