List of fatal accidents in sailboat racing

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Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Oceanic yacht racing is one of the most dangerous sports in the world.[1] It was particularly dangerous in the early days when oceanic racing was more like early mountain climbing in terms of sense of adventure and achievement. Modern safety and communication equipment has improved safety however like any sport in natural environment risk is always present. In many races, participants have changed from explorer to professional athlete.

Deaths during crewed round the world races and record attempts

Race Name Date Name Place Boat Description
Whitbread / Volvo Ocean Race
 1973 Paul Waterhouse,
Dominique Guillet
and Bernie Hosking 		Southern Ocean Tauranga,
33 Export,
Great Britain II (respectively) 		Each swept overboard
(Hosking twice)[2][3]
Whitbread / Volvo Ocean Race
 1989 Tony Phillips Southern Ocean Creighton Naturally Swept overboard and recovered too late
Volvo Ocean Race
 18 May 2006  Hans Horrevoets (NED) Off Land's End United Kingdom ABN Amro
Volvo 70
 Washed overboard and recovered
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 5 Sep 2015  
Andrew Ashman (GBR)[4]
 IchorCoal / Clipper 70 Head Injury Boom/Mainsheet
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 1 April 2016  
Sarah Young (GBR)[5]
 IchorCoal / Clipper 70 Swept overboard
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 18 Nov 2017  
Simon Speirs (GBR)[6]
 Great Britain / Clipper 70 Swept overboard
Volvo Ocean Race
 26 Mar 2018  John Fisher (GBR)[7] Southern Ocean Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag Volvo Ocean 65 Swept overboard

Deaths during solo round the worlds races and record attempts

Race Name Date Name Place Boat Description
BOC Challenge 1986  Jacques de Roux (FRA) Southern Ocean Skoiern IV
Vendée Globe 1992  Nigel Burgess (GBR) Atlantic Ocean Nigel Burgess Yachts
Vendée Globe 1992  Mike Plant (USA) Atlantic Ocean Coyote Lost at sea prior to departure
Vendée Globe 1997  Gerry Roufs (CAN) Southern Ocean Groupe LG 2

Deaths during offshore racing

Race Name Host Club Date Name Place Boat Description Ref.
1976 OSTAR Royal Western Yacht Club Mike Flanagan (USA) GALLOPING GAEL 38 ft Monohull Sailor and Boat Lost at Sea [8]
1976 OSTAR Royal Western Yacht Club Mike McMullen Three Cheers
1978 Route du Rhum 16 November 1978, Alain Colas Azores Manureva Unknown
1979 Fastnet race
 Royal Ocean Racing Club 15 Sailors
1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Cruising Yacht Club of Australia 27 December 1998 Phillip Charles Skeggs
Bruce Raymond Guy 		Australia Business Post Naiad drowned
heart attack
28 December 1998 John Dean,
James Lawler
and Michael Bannister 		Australia Winston Churchill all drowned
28 December 1998  Glyn Charles (GBR) Australia Sword of Orion
Doublehanded Farallones Race 27 March 1999  Harvey Shlasky (USA), 51, of Berkeley, California United States White Lightning, J/29 ,[9][10]
Transat Jacques Vabre 21 October 1999  Paul Vatine (FRA), 42, Le Harve France ORMA 60 Boat Capsized Paul was ondeck and lost other crew member was below deck [11]
Doublehanded Lightship Race Island Yacht Club of Alameda 16 March 2008  Matthew Gale (USA), 68, Mill Valley, California
 Anthony Harrow (USA), 72, Larkspur, California 		United States Daisy, Cheoy Lee Offshore 31 [12]
Cowes-Cherbourg Race Royal Ocean Racing Club June 2011  Chris Reddish (GBR), 46 United Kingdom Lion, Reflex 38 [13]
Chicago-Mackinac Race Chicago Yacht Club July 2011  Mark Morley (USA), 51
 Suzanne Bickel (USA), 410 		United States Wingnuts, Kiwi 35 head injuries and drowning during capsize[14]
Farallones Race San Francisco Yacht Club 14 April 2012  Alexis Busch (USA) of Larkspur
 Jordan Fromm (USA) of Kentfield
 Alan Cahill (USA) of Tiburon
 Elmer Morrissey (IRL)
 Marc Kasanin (USA) 		United States Low Speed Chase, Sydney 38 [15][16]
Calif. to Ensenada, Mexico yacht race. 28 April 2012  Kevin Eric Rudolph (USA), 53, of Manhattan Beach, Calif.,

 William Reed Johnson Jr. (USA), 57, of Torrance, Calif.,
 Joseph Lester Stewart (USA), 64, Bradenton, Fla.

 United States Aegean, Hunter 376 [17][18]
Islands Race Newport Harbor and San Diego Yacht Club 9 March 2013  Craig Thomas Williams (USA), 36, California
 United States Uncontrollable Urge, Columbia 32 Carbon [19][20]
Chicago-Mackinac Race Chicago Yacht Club July 2018  Jon Santarelli (USA), 53 United States Imedi, TP52 overboard resulting from wave strike [21]

Deaths during yacht races

Race Name Host Club Date Name Place Boat Description Ref.
Big Boat Series St. Francis Yacht Club 18 September 1994  Larry Klein (USA), 42, San Diego United States San Francisco Twin Flyer, 38 foot sloop [22]
2007  Bruce Goldsmith (USA), 71 J/29 Boom head injury
America's Cup Testing Golden Gate Yacht Club 9 May 2013  Andrew Simpson (GBR) United States San Francisco Artemis Racing, AC72, Boat 1 Entrapped after the boat broke apart and capsized.
Antigua Superyacht 8 March 2022  Sam Richmond (GBR), 38 102 ft S/Y Farfalla Training Incident with rigging failure causing a head Injury [23][24]

References

  1. ^ "Yachting: No sport for the faint-hearted - CNN.com". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
  2. ^ "Volvo Ocean Race 1973-1974"
    (Note that this source has a typo which misspells Bernie Hosking's name as "Hocking" in the Leg3 tab. Spelled properly in the Leg1 tab.)
  3. ^ Race 1 Summary (volvooceanrace.com)
  4. ^ "Andrew Ashman: Fatal Injury Official Statement". Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  5. ^ "Fatality Statement - Sarah Young". Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  6. ^ "Clipper Race fatality: Great Britain crewmember washed overboard". Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  7. ^ "An Update on John Fisher". Volvo Ocean Race. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  8. ^ "The Royal Western Yacht Club of England | OSTAR 1976".
  9. ^ "Sailor Struggles With 'What-Ifs' of Boat Race / His friend died after being swept overboard". SFGate. 30 March 1999. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  10. ^ "Scuttlebutt: Sailing news with a North American focus". Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  11. ^ "Transat Jacques Vabre - Paul Vatine Missing".
  12. ^ "Experts mystified by loss of sailboat and 2 aboard". SFGate. 18 March 2008. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  13. ^ "Sail World - The Worlds largest sailing news network: Sail and sailing, cruising, boating news". Sail-World.com. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  14. ^ "Report: Boat in deadly accident unfit for Mackinac race". Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  15. ^ "Latitude 38 - 'Lectronic Latitude". Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  16. ^ "US Sailing Releases Full Report on Farallones Race Tragedy". Archived from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-08-08.
  17. ^ "Sailors Saddened by Recent Yacht Race Deaths - weather.com". Archived from the original on 2012-10-08. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  18. ^ "Panel: Newport-Ensenada yacht ran aground". The Orange County Register. 12 June 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  19. ^ Daisy Nguyen, Associated Press (9 March 2013). "1 dead, 5 rescued in Calif. sailboat race accident". USA Today. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  20. ^ "Latitude 38 - 'Lectronic Latitude". Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  21. ^ "Chicago Yacht Club Statement on Recovery of Jon Santarelli". www.cycracetomackinac.com. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  22. ^ "Routine Race Ends Tragically : Sailing: Perch collapses and ends life of Larry Klein, one of America's brightest hopes, during event in the Bay Area". Los Angeles Times. 23 September 1994. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  23. ^ "Sam Richmond passes away".
  24. ^ "Home". yachtfarfalla.com.
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