Power Winch Safety
By Capt. Wayne Canning
Last spring on a peaceful sunny afternoon in Jolly Harbour Antigua the lives of 2 people were forever changed in an instant. As a middle aged couple from Venezuela were preparing their Amel 54 for more sailing adventures tragedy cut short their plans. Safely secured in the marina they had no clue just how close the danger was, and how the next few minutes would forever change their lives.
After a few days of loading supplies and other preparations they had decided to go aloft for a quick rig inspection prior to heading out to sea. The wife, an experienced and respected sailor, was to hoist her husband up the mast. As they started prepare she realized that due to recent shoulder surgery she would be unable to use the halyard winch as was their normal practice. She instead led the halyard aft to the cockpit where she could use the electric sheet winch to lift her husband. As her husband settled into the bosons chair she pressed the momentary button to activate the winch. The plan was to hoist him a couple of feet off the deck to finish getting ready to go aloft, however when she released the button the winch continued to turn. Pressing the button several times with no change she then ran forward to the mast to try and help her husband get out of the chair before it was too late. Fear gripped her as he headed up the mast yelling "STOP STOP!" Without having had time to connect the safety halyard she feared he would reach the top where the line would break, dropping him back onto the deck. The panicked yelling of the couple quickly attracted the attention of another boater who came to assist. Malcolm an American sailor ran up to the mast to try to help just as the wife ran back to the winch to do what she could there. When she reached down over the feed side of the line to try to free the line from the winch it caught her arm and in an instant she was pulled into the turning winch. Her yells of fear now turned to screams of pain, as the line wrapped ever tighter around her wrist. At this point, to prevent her arm from being twisted, she had to follow the winch round and round as it relentlessly turned. Instinctively and in desperation she reached down with her right hand to try and free her left wrist. Before she knew it the fingers of her right hand were now hopelessly trapped under the ever tightening line as well.
The yelling and screaming caught the attention of a Swiss sailor a few boats down the dock. John quickly ran to the assistance of the trapped wife as she continued to circle the ever turning winch. In a desperate attempt to free the woman he grabbed the line only to be instantly pulled into the winch as well. Within seconds 8 of his fingers were crushed and ripped from his hand. Holding his fingerless, bleeding hands in the air, he stumbled back to the dock. Hearing his yells of pain his half naked wife emerged from the cabin of their boat as he collapsed onto the floating dock in pain. Seeing the bloody stumps of his hands with only his thumbs left intact his wife became hysterical.
While the Swiss sailor lay bleeding on the dock being aided by other sailors who heard the commotion, Malcolm and another sailor were finally able to cut the halyard allowing the stranded husband to slide helplessly down the mast to the spreaders. Unable descend further, he had to watch in horror the carnage below. Finally and mercifully the winch stopped turning on its own allowing the rescuers to free the woman. By this time her left hand had been completely severed and the fingers of her right hand were crushed beyond any hope of recovery. All this took place in less than a couple minutes; witnesses reported it seemed to all happen in an instant.
Other boaters assisted the wounded sailors as best they could while waiting for medical help that took more than an hour to arrive. The husband was assisted down the mast to finally come to his wife's aid and comfort. The wife was eventfully airlifted to a hospital in Miami while the Swiss sailor remained in the Mount St John’s Medical Centre for 5 days. Due to the crushing type of injuries doctors had no hope of reattaching any of the severed limbs the damage was simply too great.
After the police and ambulances left the marina fellow sailors helped clean up the blood and flesh still left on the decks of the Amel. Witnesses described the scene as being like the inside of a slaughter house. The only good part of this is that it did happen in a marina where help from medical personnel, although slow, arrived faster than if the couple had been at anchor or at sea. A more remote location could easily have resulted in the loss of life.
Clearly we as sailors need to learn from this sad story; we need to be aware just how quickly things can go wrong and how important it is to use caution around these powerful winches. With more and more boats being equipped with power winches the danger of this equipment needs to be fully understood. The winch on the Amel had a working load of 3500 lbs.; this is enough to lift a small car! There have been numerous reports of gear being ripped from decks, headboards being torn from mainsails and fingers being injured or severed, it is clear the danger with power winches needs to be recognized and understood.
Although experienced sailors, the couple in this story made a series of basic errors that lead to a tragic ending. Their first mistake was to choose the sheet winch to hoist the husband. A better approach would have been to have the husband hoist the wife using the hand winch. Even if this option had been taken they should have had a third person available to tail the winch and keep the slack out of the safety halyard.
The husband strapped himself in the bosons' chair and readied to go aloft. Like most sailors do, they wanted to put some weight on the halyard to get settled in before continuing up. As the wife pressed the momentary button to lift him just a couple of feet off the deck the winch stayed on once she let go of the button. The couple had been off the boat, away at home for several weeks prior to using the winch. The winch had sat unused for this time. Had the woman tested the winch prior to wrapping the line around it she would have discovered the fault and no harm would have come. Also because they were just getting ready the husband had not connected the safety halyard they had planned to use. Had this been done the wife might not have panicked and worried about what would happen when he reached the top. By the time they realized the problem it was too late.
One witness reported, while helping clean up after the couple had gone to the hospital, that the line remaining around the winch appeared smaller than this winch was designed for. He also noticed the line was coiled around the winch base in a manner similar to how a lot of sailors store lines when not in use. These facts combined with reports the self tailing feature was used indicate a serious error was made. The halyard used on the Amel is a smaller diameter than the sheet lines normally used on this winch. The winch in this case was reported to be a Lewmar 48 ST with electric motor. Using a line too small with self tailing can result in the line jamming in the cam and then rolling under the line stripper. This might explain how the woman got her left had caught in the first place. If the tail end of the line got pulled past the stripper it would have created a loop that may have caught her wrist like a lasso. Once caught the line would have continued to tighten as the winch turned. One could easily see how someone would then reach down to try and yank the line out of the stripper with their other hand only to find that hand trapped as well.
It's unclear how the Swiss sailor got caught up so quickly but it would seem he may have fallen into the same trap. Witnesses reported it was just seconds before he had lost his fingers. This clearly shows how fast things can get out of control and how hard it can be to judge the danger with power winches. Rescuers were also hampered by not having a knife available. The only way to free the trapped woman was to cut the halyard and to then cut the lines from around the winch drum once it finally stopped turning. Time was wasted as help had to stop and go in search of a sharp knife.
Tragic as this accident was, lessons can be learned that hopefully will help avoid future accidents. Winch manufactures advise against using power winches for any lifting including people. As can be seen from this story things can get out of control very quickly. Although most of us have used either power or hand operated winches for hoisting a person up the mast this really is not the safest method. It is much safer to use equipment specifically designed for rope climbing such as the ascenders and descenders rock climbers use, or some of the other devices and equipment designed and sold specifically for mast climbing. Additionally anyone going aloft should attach a safety line at the same time they connect the main lifting line.
Manufactures also recommend you do not use the self tailing feature when using a winch in power mode. It can be hard to tell the loads when under power and self tailing together. It is much safer to be able to slack the line letting it slip some if the power becomes too much for the load. Had the wife done this she could have easily loosed her grip and let the line slip around the drum as it turned. Additionally make sure you only used line correctly sized for the winch and that all lines lead correctly into and out of the winch. It is not completely clear if a line had been left coiled around this winch, however you should never leave lines coiled around a winch when using it. Make sure the tail end falls free and clear of the winch. It is also recommended to use a stopper or clutch on the load side of the line. If this had been done in this case, it is possible the line leading up the mast could have been cut without fear of dropping the husband.
Always test your equipment before placing a load on it. This would include both power and hand winches. Do not assume because it worked correctly last time you used it, it will now. This is particularly true with power winches. Check that the motor turns on and off correctly, that the drum turns freely, and that it only turns freely in one direction.
Whenever using power winches make sure you and others aboard know and understand the proper operation and where the power disconnects are. On this model boat the switch was reported to be just inside the companionway. It is not known why this switch was not used by the wife prior to trying to free the line from the winch, perhaps in her panic it did not occur to her. Once trapped and in pain it is not likely she could have told others where it was. Owners might consider installing power disconnect switches close to each winch so that someone caught in a winch could reach it in an emergency.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly, always have a sharp knife close at hand when working with power winches and follow common sense precautions. Like your shop teacher always told you, be careful of loose clothing, jewelry and long hair when working around power tools.
It would be easy to sit back and find fault in what happened but these were all experienced sailors and the speed at which it all went wrong was surprising. Never assume this could never happen to you, as soon as we let our guard down is when we expose ourselves to danger.
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