Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Another Sailing Head Injury - Not Cool



At about 34 seconds into this video see head and boom collide in almost zero wind!

13 comments:

Joe said...

Poor seamanship skills lead to accidents.

Pandabonium said...

Judging from the location of the injury, it doesn't look like a helmet would have helped. Situational awareness and due care would have.

Happy Thanksgiving, Tillerman.

Tillerman said...

Come on guys.

Poor seamanship? The preventer broke!

A helmet wouldn't help? The injury was above the hairline!

Situational awareness? These are professional VOR sailors! If it can happen to them, it can happen to anybody!

You guys are in denial.

Baydog said...

It was an accident. Accidents happen. They should always be crouching somewhat when standing under the boom, wind or not. That's why they call it a BOOM. Still, no helmets. Poppycock. I've been banged hard in the head twice in my life, the second time with seven staples to keep the flesh together. No glamorous Youtube
exposure for me though. When I start wearing a helmet when I sail, take my boat away. :)

Baydog said...

If my injuries were above the hairline, I would have had a broken clavicle.

doryman said...

The only sailors I personally know (2) who have ended up in the hospital from boom injuries were possibly the most experienced sailors I have ever known.
I'm not buying the poor seamanship argument.

Chris Partridge said...

I'm going rowing. No boom, no helmet.

Noodle said...

Life kills! Better wear a helmet. Airbags... why don't we have airbags on boats? Oh, and rowing won't save you. There's Laurels and Hardys everywhere.

JP said...

Ooch!

I had a bang like that last year and I don't think I'm........

Sorry, lost the train of thought there.

O Docker said...

I'm not in denial.
I've never been in denial.
I haven't watched this video.
I didn't see the guy get clonked.
Or stitched up.
That wouldn't have happened to me.
I have cat-like reflexes.
I always keep my head down.
I'm not in denial.

Joe said...

Poor seamanship skill number 1: The sails were not lowered.

Poor seamanship skill number 2: Making an assumption that the boom will stay in place. In the Navy we saw endless videos of people who fucked up and got injured. It was drilled into our heads to always pay attention and assume that if something could go wrong, it would go wrong. (Drill, drill, drill.) An expression used over and again in the Navy, heads up! Another one used constantly, "Keep you head out of your ass!"....pay attention!

Poor seamanship skill number 3: Why didn't the skipper or the helmsman yell at our victim to keep his head down near the boom? The helmsman was looking right at him. Poor communication!

Knowing someone who is the most "experienced" sailor you know or a person being paid to sail on a floating billboard does not equate to good seamanship.

O Docker said...

Joe has a point.

The Pardeys, who have been around the world a few times on boats you can poop on, are not big fans of safety tethers.

They think if you're wearing one, you get a false sense of being safe and tend to pay attention less.

I don't think they'd like helmets for the same reason.

Well that, and you can't make a helmet out of wood.

Sam Chapin said...

Tacking is always a problem. The boom tends to slant back and forth when you are head to wind. Crews under the boom may think the boom is across and come up tro do somethhing else and get hit. Gybing is a little clearer.... boom goes over once.

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