From Today's Washington Post Story Link

One Man Is Rescued, Another Dies After Sailboat Capsizes in Winds

By James Hohmann
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 29, 2008; B03



A District man whose sailboat toppled in the wind was rescued from the choppy waters of the Chesapeake Bay this weekend, but he could not save his elderly cousin, despite last-ditch efforts to throw him a life jacket, authorities said yesterday.

After an intensive search involving six agencies, a Maryland Natural Resources Police helicopter discovered the body of James W. Stone, 74, of Falls Church on Sunday morning near Parker Creek.

Stone, who family members said was an experienced sailor, had been spending Saturday at a family vacation home in the bayside enclave of Scientists' Cliffs. He and a cousin, Jeffrey G. Feagin, 33, were trying to turn their 16-foot catamaran to the northwest when 20 to 25 knot winds from the south forced the craft onto its side, according to police.

"It doesn't take much to turn those over," said Sgt. Ken Turner, a Natural Resources Police spokesman.

Neither man was wearing a life jacket when they were thrown into the water, about a mile offshore. Feagin, who lives in the Kalorama neighborhood, grabbed two life jackets, putting one on himself and throwing the other to Stone, police and family said.

For 10 minutes, Feagin tried to throw the life jacket to his cousin, but unusually high winds made that almost impossible, Turner said.

The vest came within 10 feet of Stone.

"Anytime you go overboard like that, it's a very disorienting experience," said Feagin's brother, Frank C. Feagin Jr., who said he came to Maryland from Birmingham, Ala., after the accident to support his brother.

"Jeffrey was trying to right the boat to go around and get Jim," Frank Feagin Jr. said. "He was never able to right the boat. Jeffrey couldn't find Jim anywhere."

After Feagin lost sight of his cousin, with whom he had sailed several times, he decided to grab hold of the pontoon at the bottom of the catamaran, authorities said.

He held on for about two hours in three- to five-foot waves until a passing boater rescued him. Once he was rescued, someone called 911 and a search began, authorities said.

Family members said that Feagin, who was treated for cuts and bruises at Calvert Memorial Hospital in Prince Frederick, was shaken up about the loss of his sailing partner.

Severe weather and high waves had forced rescuers, including the Calvert County Dive Team and the Solomons Volunteer Rescue Squad, to suspend the search from about midnight until sunrise Sunday.

Turner said there were no signs of trauma on Stone's body and investigators do not suspect foul play.

Stone is survived by his wife, Crawford "Corky" Feagin Stone. A funeral is scheduled for Thursday. Stone grew up in Annapolis and graduated from St. John's College. Sailing was one of his passions.

"If there's any silver lining," Frank Feagin Jr. said, "he died doing what he loved."

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

Dingdingdingdingding, we have a winner! Here's your Darwin Award, sir!

Do i wear a PFD at all times: Yes

Do i make anyone on the boat where a PFD when sailing: Yes

Do i make dumb butt comments like you after a tragedy such as this happens and claims a life: Hell no!

No need to make these comments...Im sure everyone invlolved realizes what they did wrong. No use in you rubbing their noses in it. I thought car forums were rough...

You haven't seen rough until you get to this place:

SA Forums

Make sure to check out Political Anarchy.

The PRO at our regatta at Corsica River spotted two girls in their 420 without their jackets on. He immediately got on the bull horn and ordered them to put their jackets on.

It was not windy at that time... just a smart practice.

I appreciated the leadership then... I REALLY appreciated his leadership on seeing the news of what happened down the bay today!

Very sad. I am sorry for their loss.


These incidents make me wonder why some states have not adapted some variation of the "click it or ticket" law, only for PFD's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_It_or_Ticket

Like I want the Feds to tell me what to do!
This 74 year old experienced sailor chose his lot. He made a conscious, balanced choice to enjoy the day as he chose.

We have and need a right to be stupid if we want to. In fact, it's a constitutional right. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (via recklessness if we choose). Plenty of other countries to live in if you need the Feds to keep you out of trouble.

Same arguement with helmet laws.
(I am sliding into my asbestos suit).

Yeah, that personal freedom stuff all sounds nice and great, until the rest of us end up holding the bag for the consequences of someone's "free choice"...in this case, the family who is left without a loved one, the cost of search and rescue (or in this case, recovery), etc.....

As to helmet laws: ever since the abandonment in Florida, there has been a 85% increase in serious head injuries....guess who pays for the lifelong institutional care required for these consequences of "free choice"?

And dangerous situation that it puts the rescue personnel in.

Anyhow. We probably not have this discussion here. This was a great tragedy for the family and I'm sure Mark posted this as a reminder.

I see this thread going off in a tangent.

Helmet laws are stupid. I am a motorcyclist, I wear a helmet 99% of the time. I don't need one when I go three blocks to the Post Office. Should I chose to not wear one and crash thats my problem.

A law requiring an adult to wear a PFD is equally stupid. I also wear a PFD more than 99% of the time. The days when the boat is more of a swimming platform than a sailboat its silly in my opinion to bother. It'd be like wearing one in the bathtub. Now when its blowing 25mph you bet your butt I'm wearing one. He chose his fate.

This mentality that we need to protect everyone is B.S. and honestly really pisses me off. Don't you realize that with every new law that is passed you are losing a right, or in some cases a whole bag of rights?


Plenty of people deserve their fates by ignoring the consequences of there actions, yet they live, and more tragically manage to further pollute our gene pool by breeding. I feel no pity, and if you don't want to pay for those injuries run around to all the assisted living buildings, (or if you prefer, "raisin ranch" and pull the plug on anyone not of retirement age. or.... kick a lawyer in the nuts and thank him for all of the lawsuits that make it possible for you to pay for some other persons inability to adequatly fall victim to Darwinism.

anyone on my boat has to wear a PFD (on the blade. not the tri).
the problem with one persons decision is that it always ends up affecting others. don't wear a helmet, get an injury, someone pays for it. maybe, in this case, someone decides that cats are too dangerous to race in xyz race. same thing can be said if he were wearing a pfd and dies though he probably would not have died then. what about if the boat insurance pays out for the death? then everyones premiums go up.

ding ding ding!

Rec sailors may need a constant reminder that conditions change quickly on the water. They remember their last sail in big wind years ago and don't take into account that they are out of practice and out of shape (not to mention their boat).

I do go out of my way to make a point about some prudent saftey issues to rec sailors at my beach when I think it's important, if the captain wants to do his own thing... at least I rest easy at night.

Sorry for their loss...

I have personally plucked several drowning people out of the water while chasing a cat regattas.

None were wearing life jackets.

Every one of them was hypothermic.

The dude we plucked out of the water at the Tiger Worlds in Santa Barbara took his last breath and then gulped water as we arrived on scene and was floating just under the surface.
We got him on board, got him breathing, I took off all of my foulies and tried to warm him up while we hauled butt to meet the Coastguard. He was barely conscious. It was pretty emotional seeing a person take what would have been his last breath if we wouldn't have pulled him out of the water. We were about 2 miles offshore, the wind was howling over 40, the water was frigid and this guy was in shorts and a t- shirt and had no life jacket. He was blown offshore by the powerful Santa Anas while kayaking.

A PFD would've added buoyancy as well as a slight layer of insulation. That guy would've still been screwed as he was en route to Santa Cruz Island.

So, story after story, no life jacket, people die. What's it going to take?

J

I lost my best friend cause he didn't PUT his PFD on. ~~~ I found it attached to the tramp. A big guy like the 'ROCK' & could swim like a fish... A lung full of water WILL change that...just divorced and left 2 kids behind.

Why got a simple policy overhere. Get a casualty of one of our club sailors and the club loses its license. Non affiliated sailors are not allowed to sail from the beaches in this county and you'll get tickets for trespassing that rule.

Sure as hell stimulates peer pressure at our club to wear PDF's and to pick up "swimmers". In several cases we pick up a "swimmer" before the life guard can.

Only a short while ago, I rescued a distraught person who was part of a rescue services demo/excersize. I had beat the chopper and powerboats to it; who says sailboats are slow !

I saw this guys on his surfboard well outside the surf waving both arms. At the time I was part of a demo ride program for high school teens. I informed my 2 teens of what I was going to do and bore-off to reach this "surfer". He smiled when we lay beside him, parked into the wind, and said something like "under a minute, I'm impressed ! ... Thanks, but its a drill"

Turns out they had a full show planned with an audience of invities on the beach and then some recreational sailboater with two exited teenagers steals the show !

However, we have very good relations with the life guards on our stretch of beach, probably of helping eachother out often.

We also require the wearing of at the very least a shorty, but I must admit that the club is getting a bit to relaxed about that. Hypothermia will kill any ability to right a boat or even swim very rapidly. I found that out once on a hot day I wore a shorty and lifejacket (my absolute minimal attire) and helps another demasted boat getting the rig packed up and the boat ready for a tow. I was in the water struggling with lines, wires and sails for about 15-30 minutes and was happy to be out. Shorty is fine for a short while but if you risk laying in the water for longer stretches of time then you must be well aware that you chances of survival are much reduced, let alone going out in shorts and t-shirt. Seems to me this guys failed to cross the checkboard on at least 2 accounts.

Wouter

According to the article, the guy left with the boat tried to right it to go pick up the man overboard. Do this as a last resort, and only if you are confident you can do it and manage the boat afterwards by yourself.

If a crew is swimming to catch up with a capsized cat but not fast enough the correct action is to turtle the damn thing ASAP. With the sail down in the water as a floating anchor and the trampoline no longer acting as a sail the boat will drift at a slower pace and the swimmer will have a better chance to catch up. Anything to slow down the drift even more is good, paddling, pulling the spi out of its chute in the water, sheet in the main (now underwater) hard...

[quote]anyone on my boat has to wear a PFD (on the blade. not the tri).
the problem with one persons decision is that it always ends up affecting others.[quote]
If you truly believe this why not apply same mentality to the Tri?
When racing all my crew wear life jackets. When cruising if there is any kind of breeze or threat of breeze, I bring out the life jackets and I find that crew usually oblige me and wear them. Just curious as to why a double standard in your fleet?

Ever since the Coast Guard stopped drafting people.... rescue people choose their line of work with full knowledge they will be in dangerious situations.... same as soldiers, firemen, cops and similar.

kathryn,
If I were racing on the Tri then I probably would require crew to wear PFDs. I have only done low level day sailing on it in no more than moderate wind. Looking for more wind though and trying to get some people relatively trained up.
My feelings about wearing a PFD on the cat is that things can happen violently pretty quickly. I guess the same can be said for the 31 though.

On MY boat, everyone wears a PFD at all times no matter what! And it has nothing to do with capsizing or sailing. It's what you DON'T see that can really kill you. Storytime!

Back in '01 I headed back up north to visit my best friend Danny to do some mountain biking, widsurfing and sailing. He's got (had) a Hobie 18 Magnum. We're out on Barnegat Bay blasting along in 20-knot winds having a great time! We're both out on the wire (he's at the helm and I'm crewing) trying to get the boat to go faster and faster. I'm looking ahead and to windward for any traffic in front of us (couldn't see to leeward becase the main had no window in it). Suddenly there's a flash of white, a cracking sound, I slam into something hard and then I find myself under water under the boat.

I come up to the surface amongst the wreckage of the Hobie and see a 30-ft Bayliner sport-fishing boat on top of us and still dragging us along. I look around for Danny and see him near the stern of the Bayliner, facedown in the water in a pool of blood. He's not moving. I swim over, grab him by the hair and pull him back to see a cut across his forehead from ear to ear. He's not breathing. So while in the water, I pinch his nose and start mouth-to-mouth. Luckily it only takes two breaths for him to start choking, spitting up water and breathing on his own.

Then I hear it; the sound of a Cuisanart in the water very close. The guy who hit us still has his engine running and the prop is still turning as he's dragging us. "Shut off your engine! Shut off your f*cking engine," I scream out! I look up and this old guy on the flying bridge looks down at me and says, "you sailed right into my boat!"

He came at us directly from the leeward side at a 90-degree angle and sliced through the starboard hull just forward of the front crossbar like it was butter. The Hobie flipped over crashing the mast across the transom of the fishing boat coming within inches of killing the guy's wife. The aluminum mast came down so hard and so fast that it broke in two places on the rails of the Bayliner. The sudden flipping action sent Danny and I flying into the side of the Bayliner.

The guy shuts off the engine and starts yelling at us as I'm holding Danny in the water pressing my hand over his head. What's left of the Hobie goes down. A large powerboat came up to assist and the skipper (who was retired Navy) and his wife were a huge help to us. They took charge of the "rescue operations" and called the Coast Guard. Two jet skiers came racing in, they jumped off their jet skis into the water and swam over to help us. By now a bunch of other boats come around and someone asks, "how can we help?" I shout out, "don't let HIM leave!" And a couple of powerboats start circling the Bayliner like sharks keeping him from taking off. The Navy guy and his wife got a semi-conscious Danny on board first and as I went to get on board the pain in my ankle and the odd angle of my shin told me that I had a broken leg and ankle. I asked one of the jet skiers (actually one of the only times I've had a positive experience with a PWC) what happened to their rides. "Floated off somewhere. Don't worry about it, we'll find them later," he replied. GREAT GUYS!

The Coast Guard comes in and they want to transfer us to their boat to transport us to shore to the hospital. They call out to the Bayliner owner to throw them a line so they could tie up and send someone aboard. So he throws them a line... but forgets to tie off on his end - he just throws over a coiled rope! That pissed off the Coasties and so they ordered him to heave to and boarded his boat. We started in for shore and before we got there the coastie piloting the Bayliner says over the radio that it's taking on water, is heavy in the bow and probably won't make it back to the marina. So he's going to head straight for shore and ditch it on the rocks. Good! I thought to myself. I hope it does more damage.

We were transported to a local hospital. My leg and ankle were set and put into a cast, Danny had to spend the night as he needed stitches and had a nasty concussion. The Hobie broke apart and sank. The Bayliner had been holed in the bottom about six feet back from the bow which showed how fast and high up on plane he was going. Since it was in the bay and not the ocean, the Coast Guard turned over jurisdiction to the County Sherrif who since he hadn't seen the accident, simply wrote it up as a collission between two boats. I was not pleased about that. I wanted it on the record the magnitude of what this guy did wrong. He could have been arrested. Luckily for us the Bayliner owner didn't contest the insurance issue and it paid for our medical bills and a new Hobiecat for Danny. We didn't bother sueing for more. We're not like that. The guy had just retired two weeks earlier and typical of powerboat dealers, they took his check and handed over the keys without ever instructing him on the rules of the water. The guy first said he didn't see us (how can you miss a 30-ft tall colorful Hobie sail?) and then said that he thought we would move out of his way. He was just an idiot. His wife was terrified beyond belief and will probably never set foot on a boat ever again.

... Always wear a PFD (and preferably get sails with windows in them). <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />