74-year-old Lyall Babington, who was enjoying an around-the-world trip, died after becoming entangled in a faulty powered winch on board his yacht off the Isle of Wight, an official investigation has found.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published its preliminary assessment into the fatal incident involving the recreational sailing vessel Mollie, which occurred shortly before 12:18 on 5th August, around 2.8 nautical miles south-south-west of the Isle of Wight.
The skipper, Lyall Babington – a New Zealand national – was living aboard the 57ft steel yacht and had been sailing around the world for 3 years. At the time of the incident, he was sailing from West Wittering to Poole with 3 unpaid crew members.
At around 11:00, the yacht reached the Western Solent and the skipper instructed the crew to raise the storm jib to improve upwind progress. The halyard was taken to a powered 24-volt winch at the aft cockpit, where a pair of electric winches were mounted on a pedestal. Earlier that day, one of the winches had been used to hoist the yacht’s tender and the rope had been left wound around the drum.
As the skipper attempted to clear the rope, the winch suddenly activated. His right hand became caught and he was progressively pulled into the drum. He sustained severe trauma to his arm, head and chest, and was pinned to the winch. The crew tried several times to stop the winch using the control switch before eventually succeeding.
The crew found Babington unresponsive and raised a Mayday call at 12:18. Yarmouth RNLI and Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 175 were both tasked and arrived on scene by 12:49, as previously reported by Island Echo. Lifeboat crew boarded Mollie and attempted to free the skipper. Without warning, the winch activated again, releasing the skipper who fell onto the deck.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was carried out by RNLI crew and a helicopter paramedic, but the skipper was declared deceased at 13:05.
The yacht was brought safely into Yarmouth, where detectives from Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary attended.
A preliminary assessment by MAIB has found that the which had a known intermittent fault causing it to continue running after the control switch was released. There was no local emergency stop, and the only way to cut power to the 24V system was by accessing battery switches in the forward cabin.
The winch system was believed to have been installed by a small boatyard and was not a mass-produced design.
How sad to hear that he died this way. RIP