John Fisher
British sailor, John Fisher, crew on the Volvo Ocean 65 Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag, went overboard on Monday and is presumed lost. Fisher went missing while on watch approximately 1,400 miles west of Cape Horn, in high seas, with winds at 35 knots. The water temperature was 9-degrees Celsius (48.2 degrees Fahrenheit.) After searching for Fisher for roughly ten hours, the team reluctantly called off their search and headed for South America.
Richard Brisius, the President of the Volvo Ocean Race, issued the following statement:
‘I am extremely sad to inform you that one of our sailors, John Fisher, from Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag, is now presumed to have been lost at sea.
‘This is heart-breaking for all of us. As sailors and race organisers losing a crew member at sea is a tragedy we don’t ever want to contemplate. We are devastated and our thoughts are with John’s family, friends and teammates.
‘Yesterday, just after 1300 UTC, Race Control for the Volvo Ocean Race were informed of a man overboard situation by Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag.
‘We immediately coordinated with the team as well as the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, who have located a ship and diverted it towards the scene. But at current speeds it remains over a day away.
‘With the rest of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet approximately 200 miles downwind, sending them back upwind to assist, against gale to storm force winds, was not a viable option.
‘The Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag team conducted an exhaustive search for several hours in extremely challenging weather conditions, but they were unable to recover their teammate.
‘Given the cold water temperature and the extreme sea state, along with the time that has now passed since he went overboard, we must now presume that John has been lost at sea.
‘All of us here at the Volvo Ocean Race organisation send our heartfelt condolences out to John’s family, his friends and his teammates and we will do everything in our power to support them in this very difficult time.’
The Volvo Ocean site describes Fisher as a “long-term member of the Ragamuffin and Scallywag super maxi crews, Fisher has plenty of big boat experience and has sailed with skipper David Witt for many years. A Sydney-Hobart veteran, he makes the step into the Volvo Ocean Race world for the first time in 2017-18.”
This is the second tragedy to occur on the 2017-2018 Volvo Ocean Race. In late January, the Volvo Team Vestas 11th Hour collided with a fishing boat near Hong Kong. One fisherman was killed.
Thanks to David Rye and Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.
Obviously its courting danger to run this race and of course its each crewmember’s decision to take it on.
But still it’s a little hard to understand how in this age of PLBs and AIS COB beacons let alone strobes and other older kit the poor guy could have just vanished. Technically-speaking it’s possible to strap on 3 electronic aids, only one of which has to function to provide a target, two of these operating beyond-visual-range.
But again this particular event isn’t about safety.
Not knowing very much about ocean racing but a great deal about the sea one wonders why he was not, apparently, wearing a harness. One understood this was required under ocean racing rules.
Good Watch
In the conditions described in the article jacklines are laid out fore and aft on the boat and crew members must wear harnesses that clip into the jacklines. Crew members are tethered to the jacklines. At the moment the boom jibed, Fisher was “untethered.” I suspected he was wearing an inflatable lifejacket (which I view as unsafe, extremely unreliable, and lethally comfortable). Some inflatables will inflate upon contact with sea water, but not if the wearer has sunk below a certain depth.
Speculation is he was unconscious when he hit the water.
I suggest any time jacklines are rigged crew members should be wearing Type I lifejackets with a saltwater initiated strobelight and beacon/tracker actuated to the Iridium satellite system. In those seas you couldn’t see a bobbing head twenty feet away from you.
Of course, the rule of unintended consequences would dictate that lazy skippers will not rig jacklines to avoid wearing cumbersome Type 1 lifejackets.
Captain Crossland, we can think of inflatables as being akin to three-point harnesses in motor vehicles. Absolutely it’s the case that five-point harnesses will work more effectively as a matter of simple statistics immune from human nature. But human nature dictates three-point harnesses will be used more frequently and hence will be more statistically reliable than five-point harnesses. “Lego” style PFDs are all too often found just yards away from drowning people because (especially for sailors dancing around on the deck of a sailboat) they’re optimized for excellent flotation, not physical activity.
The biggest danger from inflatables I’ve directly observed is that of embarrassment at shopping for groceries while still wearing a PFD, because inflatables are indeed forgettably comfortable. 🙂