Sailor crushed as he tries to prevent yacht collision

by News Mail/Sail-World Cruising on 6 Mar 2010 It's an early lesson we are all taught as sailors, but the occasional sad example of someone ignoring the lesson brings it home again. A sailor was rushed to hospital yesterday after he tried to prevent two boats from colliding by getting between them.

Australia's recent flooding has meant that rivers on the eastern coastline used for anchoring by cruising sailors are flooded and running with debris. When an anchor gave way on one yacht in Queensland's Burnett River, it collided with the next, and then the next, and twelve boats anchored near each other broke free in the flooded river yesterday afternoon.

The 56-year-old sailor was rushed to hospital after being crushed between two of the boats at about 4.30pm yesterday.

The man was in a dinghy between two vessels trying to separate them, when they crashed together crushing his pelvis and legs.

'He was able to get himself onto one of the boats, and paramedics went across to him in a dinghy,' Queensland Ambulance Service Burnett Coast acting officer-in -harge Warren Smith said.

Queensland Fire and Rescue officers were ferried across to the yacht to help move the patient, in a boat borrowed from passers-by.

'We put him onto a spine board and strapped him in, then lifted him onto a boat and slowly transferred him to the boat ramp where we had an ambulance waiting,' Mr Smith said.

'We really appreciated the help from the people who offered their boats to help.'

The man was in a stable condition last night, with a fractured pelvis and cuts to his legs.

Fellow cruising sailor Jim Currier said the boats may have broken free because of the large amount of hyacinth weed in the river, which was brought down with the floods.

It is believed the weight of the weed caught on one boat’s anchor caused the rope to snap, sending the vessel crashing into others.

'It was like dominoes – they all bumped into each other after that,' Mr Currier said.

The most common similar injury is when limbs are caught between a wharf and a yacht when an ill-advised sailor tries to prevent collision by using arms or legs.