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  Tragedy visits the Clipper Race—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond
 | | Great Britain Clipper Race crew at Downing Street Clipper Ventures |
While ocean sailing offers some of the grandest vistas and most personally rewarding miles available to modern sailors, the simple fact remains that sailing small boats across massive oceans is an inherently dangerous pursuit that sometimes ends in tragedy, despite careful caution. This tragically proved to be the case this weekend aboard the vessel CV30, which is competing in the 2017/2018 edition of the Clipper Round the Word Yacht Race, as Simon Speirs, 60, an experienced dinghy sailor from Bristol, UK, tragically died when he was swept overboard whilst assisting his teammates in changing a headsail in boisterous seas and 20-40 knots of Southern Ocean air.
According to reports, Speirs was properly equipped with a full compliment of foul-weather gear, a safety tether that was clipped to the boat, as well as a personal floatation device and an AIS beacon.
It is not currently known how Speirs' tether came unclipped from the boat, but the crew's man-overboard training reportedly kicked into high gear as the team stopped the boat and immediately began searching for their lost mate. Speirs was found some 36 long minutes after being swept overboard, and while a crew of three medically trained sailors (including a general practitioner) performed CPR, the UK-based sailor never regained consciousness.
 | | Great Britain Clipper 2017-18 Race Team ©2017 BPI |
According to reports, Speirs' MOB incident happened on Day 18 of the long leg that's taking crews from Cape Town, South Africa, to Fremantle, Australia, with some 1,500 miles still separating CV30's bow from the finishing line.
Given the situation and the distance to shore, the somber decision was made to give Speirs a Christian burial at sea at 0300 hours UTC (0900 hours, local time) on Sunday, November 19. While Speirs' former crew performed this somber ritual alone, the rest of the fleet reportedly joined their comrades aboard CV30 in solidarity as Speirs was laid to rest.
 | | Evacuated Clipper Race Yacht CV24 partially under water after running aground near Cape Town Clipper Ventures |
While the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race takes careful precautions to safeguard crews, skippers and sailboats, Speirs' death is sadly not the first time this race has lost a sailor, nor is this incident the only significant accident of this edition of the race, as the CV24 crew managed to put their mighty steed aground on the western side of South Africa's Cape Peninsula. While the crew was fortunately unharmed, CV24 will not be participating in the remainder of this year's race.
[N.B., while there's zero excuse for grounding a modern sailing vessel that's equipped with properly functioning GPS, up-to-date cartography and proper chartplotting electronics, a similar situation unfurled during the 2014/2015 Volvo Ocean Race when skipper Chris Nicholson's Team Vestas Wind ploughed into the Cargados Carajos Shoals at almost 20 knots while racing from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi and were forced to abandon their vessel, which was eventually salvaged and repaired.)
 | | November 30, 2014. Team Vestas Wind's boat grounded on the Cargados Carajos Shoals, Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean. Fortunately, no one has been injured. In this image, the crew head back to the boat to retrieve everything they can; including ropes, diesel, Inmarsat dome and sails. Volvo Ocean Race |
Unlike fully crewed, around-the-world races such as the Volvo Ocean Race, which are populated by professional sailors who press their boats to the absolute limits, the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race is designed to serve as an ocean classroom, where experienced and professional skippers are paired with teams of sailors who are eager to increase their skillsets and knowledge.
While this formula is usually successful, the stark truth is that offshore sailing is an inherently dangerous pursuit that can kill professionals and greenhorns alike (case-in-point: professional sailor Hans Horrevoets [NED] was killed on May 18, 2006 after getting swept off of ABN AMRO TWO in the 2005/2006 Volvo Ocean Race). As the old cliché goes, ‘if there's a weak link in the chain, the sea will find it,' and while it's not currently understood how or why Speirs came unclipped from the boat, the sea clearly found-and exploited-a weak spot.
 | ABN AMRO TWO crewman Hans Horrevoets with his daughter Bobbi, before the start of Leg 1 in Sanxenxo, Spain.
© Oskar Kihlborg/Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006
For further images go to http://images.volvooceanrace.org
Volvo Ocean Race |
It will be critical for the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race to do a full investigation into Speirs' death to ensure that the race is instilling the correct culture of safety and proper safety procedures during their training, and to also ensure that a repeat of this doesn't unfurl again.
While tragedies such as Speirs' are often difficult to examine and discuss, please use this tragic tale to revisit and refresh your own crew's MOB procedures, technologies (read: AIS MOB devices and personal locator beacons for the crew, and a properly working fixed-mount AIS receiver aboard the yacht), and crew culture, as mere seconds often carry life-or-death weight when someone goes overboard.
 | | Great Britain leaving for Liverpool – Clipper Round the World Yacht Race Clipper Ventures |
Sail-World.com wishes to extend our deepest sympathies to Simon Speirs' family and friends, and we also wish a safe and speedy passage to Fremantle for CV30 so that the crew can begin to mourn the loss of their fellow sailor and comrade.
May the four winds blow you safely home,
David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor
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