http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2097873,00.html - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2097873,00.htm l

Anyone seen this? One of the very few cases of death by entrappment, but Sunsail have actually been found guilty of 'gross negligence'.

Something tells me that quick release harnesses might be rushed through a lot quicker than expected, also are we to see a knock-on effect with Sunsail and other such companies placing restritions on who they hire trapeze boats to, or even whether they continue to provide trapeze boats in the light of this ruling?

See also http://www.lrmt.co.uk/Laura_Rose_News/Laura_Rose_Morgan_News_PDF/Sunsail_employees_charged_with_manslaughter.pdf - http://www.lrmt.co.uk/Laura_Rose_News/Laura_Rose_Morgan_News _PDF/Sunsail_employees_charged_with_manslaughter.pdf

and http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1736560,00.html - http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1736560,00. html

I find it hard to comment from the limited information available. It is noticeable that it was the staff in charge on the day who found themselves in the dock. Typically these are quite lowly paid individuals enjoying a season working in the sun. I wonder what policy guidance they had received from Sunsail? 

On reading those articles, it seems that only the individuals have been punished. Wouldn't this be a corporate manslaughter case in the UK? Maybe Greek law is different. Anyone know?

Yeah that was my main question when I first read it, would  amast head float have helped. I know it would have on a mono hull but I dont know enough about cats to decide.

I do think that sun sail should have taken some of the stick because the empolyees may have been following procedure exactly. (but may not have its very hard ot tell)

i was on a beach holiday about a month after this happened with a different company and i know they were fitting floatation bags at the top of the halyards on all the cats and bigger boats!

i do wonder what the effects will be on the beach clubs, i do hope it is not the reduction of cats!

This is an extraordinary case. The hotel staff were found negligent in 'ensuring the girl sailed with adults' implying that this is the Greeks legal president over ensuring suitable ability or rescue cover. I don't doubt the inherent danger involved in watersports was considered by the judge who gave it no mention.

As somebody mentioned, in the UK that would be a 'corporate' responsibility, for which -following the Lyme Bay incident- all operators are insured for (or should I say: insured to cover hysterical parents compensation claims). This insurance is one of the reasons it is more cost effective to do such things in Greece. The ruling might have much to do with the Greek authorities wanting to protect this foreign business interest....... just speculation.

The incident will have no bearing on the UK situation but it is worth remembering, if you like your kids, you wouldn't let them go rock climbing/horse riding (incidentally the statistically dangerous thing you can do)/caving/etc without any proven experience on their own....... so why is sailing any different.

Minorca Sailing fit mast head floats to all dinghies as a matter of policy, regardless of the skill level of the crew. It is also the policy at Queen Mary that all hired asymetric boats have a mast head float.

I sail my Laser Vago with a mast head float, it may not be cool, but when sailing solo it is very much safer. The modern asymetric dinghy will turnturtle almost immediately with the kite up, the Laser 2000 loves to invert and after having been caught once underneath it is not something I would wish to repeat.

A 40 litre mast head float on a Hobie cat would have almost certainly given this girl a chance to free herself and most probably would have prevented the inversion.

Quick release harnesses are not the answer, preventing or slowing inversion is.

They weren't meant to be "on their own". They were at an organised sailing centre with rescue boat cover.

Insurance has absolutely nothing to do with this. You can't insure yourself against criminal charges.

"Sunsail are also accused of breaching Greek port regulation number 20 which, at the time, forbade the hire of catamarans to under-16s without an adult on board."

They do have very high quality rescue cover and with the water at about 24 deg C and everyone in bouyancys aids it couldn't be much safer.

This Sunsail thing is a tragic accident and I am sure we all feel for the families loss; but a full life is not without risk and I'd hate to see our sport legislated to a point where we are not able to enjoy sailing.

regards,

Rick

I worked for sunsail for the season this happened and the following season (but at different clubs to where this happened) and don't really have a lot of good things to say about them. I also worked with the guy in charge of the beach at the incident and the guy who was first on the scene in a RIB the season following this incident. It badly affected each of them and both still had nightmares.

Sailing policy did change dramatically after this tragedy, before the way things were run was an accident waiting to happen. Kids club staff without being even RYA lvl 2 were taking young kids out in F6 in hobie 15's regularly and a few did pitchpole them. Trapezing off the leeward side was frequent. There were no knives or any kind of first aid equipment in the safety boats either and mast floats were not fitted to most of the cats.

Since then all the safety boats have 'crash kits' with wire cutters, breathing tube, first aid kit, etc. All (hobie) cats have mast floats and all sailing with kids is done with an instructor. Forms must be singed by parents stating which boats the kids are allowed to use in and out of kids club, this list is available to the beach staff. As for the knife issue, knives are supplied but so cheap they were close to useless. I always carried by own (RYA recommended) one on safety. Sunsail never has enough safety cover for the huge amounts of guests on the water and many of the RIBs are sometimes in very bad shape (cannot even get on the plane!). The RYA hate sunsail for this and other reasons. In one instance I couldn’t get to a capsized cat in time near a lee shore even though I’d seen the situation well before it happened. I just about managed to get the kids off before the cat got crushed to pieces on the rocks by the waves. With a RIB with a properly maintained engine or adequate amount of safety boats this would never have been such a close call.

As for what actually happened, no one knows really. It has been discussed and debated amongst the staff at length. I sure trapezing off the leeward side caused on contributed to the capsize but as for the entrapment who knows.

It's pretty scary seeing the name of someone that you worked with in print and convicted. I regularly was in charge of safety, it could easily have been me. I don't think any of the staff did anything wrong.

Thanks for the insight, and you are brave to put it in your own name on a public forum. Don't take the rest of what I'm about to say as personal; it is a general point I want to make.

"the way things were run was an accident waiting to happen. Kids club staff without being even RYA lvl 2 were taking young kids out in F6 in hobie 15's regularly and a few did pitchpole them. Trapezing off the leeward side was frequent. There were no knives or any kind of first aid equipment in the safety boats either and mast floats were not fitted to most of the cats."

"I regularly was in charge of safety, it could easily have been me. I don't think any of the staff did anything wrong."

Anything strike you as inconsistent about those two statements?

What did the staff do to get things changed? Ultimately, if you were in charge of safety and you couldn't get things changed, did you quit and say why, clearly and up the management line? Ultimately, sometimes doing that is part of what being a professional is about.

I realise that Sunsail and similar companies pay not a lot of money to staff who are primarily there to enjoy a season by the water in the sun. They are obviously not the people who run the company. Nevertheless, it is easy to blame remote management, and it is equally easy for management to blame the staff on the ground. I suspect that if this had happened in the UK, both groups would have found themselves in court.  

Not quite that simple in my mind.  Sunsail at the time and I suspect still do not have any form of Functional safety management.  The clue to whose fault this is lies in the title.  Unless a company adopts a proactive approach to ensuring it operates safely it will simple keep closing the door after the horse has bolted.  I wonder how many sailing centres keep occurrance logs and do trend analysis to intercept accident chains before they occur?  How many near misses occurred in the company prior to this incident.  If Sunsails management team were on top of this they would have been able to spot potential problems coming by sharing data across thier centres.  It is not the job of the beachfront staff to set policy.  Once policy is in place they form the most inportant part of it's implemetation but to ask an young person with little experience in the field to formulate their own policy possible is frankly rissable and constitutes a shocking abdication of responsibilty.  This doesn't absolve them of any moral responsibility but if following a few near misses sunsails management had issued instructions not to allowing trapezing off the leeward hull, etc etc, they would known the dangers and been able to do their best to mitgate them.

Its a culture thing!

It is very disappointing to hear an ex employee talk about Sunsail in that way. I have taken my family on 6 or 7 Sunsail beach holidays and have been VERY happy with the staff, rescue service and generally the quality of the kit.

However, I think I am happy because I have a good understanding of the risks involved. When my father was competing at International level, 35 years ago, he had a phrase 'Rescue boats can only rescue corpses', which whilst melodramatic and probably only aimed at me instilled a self preservation ethos.

Sunsail and others need to take responsibility for letting youngsters out on kit and in conditions that they cannot handle. They also need to help people understand the risks.

When our children's friends come to the sailing club for the day I don't care if they think i am controlling and sometimes spoil their fun, in loco parentis is a responsibility, especially when messing in water with children who have not been brought up growing gills!

I take your point. When I say "in change of safety" our role was to co-ordinate saftey via radio and conduct hull/board counts each hr.

The staff and I repeatedly complained about the state of things to our manager but his hands were tied. He gets his budget and rules to run the centre from the head office and he did an excellent job given the limitations that were imposed on him, there was nothing he could do. As staff we did the best job we could.

Quitting would require loss of a bonus in excess for £1000 (for full season staff) plus paying for a flight back the UK. When you are getting paid (we worked this out) £0.80/hr (excluding socialising), and are required to socialise each night with guests and buy drinks at UK prices, you are lucky to make it out with any money at all. Losing £1200 is not an attractive prospect if you are broke!

There is a procedures manual but this only contains the 'sunsail way' of righting each of the dinghies, which of course had 2 people in the rib in each photograph. This was never the case since there were not enough staff. We each came up with our own methods to cope with this, hence the newspaper report saying the guy on safety who attended the capsize needed to radio for assistance.

I should point out that the sitation is FAR better in low season since we actually have time to maintain the kit, safety boats, and have adaquate safety cover. High season is just chaos every day, how the guests do not see this I'll never know! Half the hobie cats had tape over holes in the hulls and sent out each day for months and just drained out each day. There was no time to do a repair.

I think you need to be carefull what you write on a public forum I would probably delete these posts and think abou the implications of what you are saying as Sunsail may take this the wrong way i would hate to see what you say here comming back to haunt you.

If you really want to get this off your chest it might be advisable speaking to a journalist that could offer you some legal suppport and publish your views.

Clearly some legal points here, but my belief is that management / ownership of a sailing school like this, ought to require decent quality of coverage & kit being provided.

Actually, though we really don't know what happened.  You have to feel sorry for all involved.  What a tragedy.

They are supposed to be qualified instructors and therefore, you might hope, do have "experience in the field". http://www.sunsail.com/club/dinghy_sailing.html - http://www.sunsail.com/club/dinghy_sailing.html

However I agree that policy can't be the responsibility of seasonal staff. 

This is a sad tale as it ended in death, but it comes down to a matter of point of view. Do you think risk related activity providers have a legal imperitive to remove all risk....... not possible. Do you think pavement providers have a legal imperitive to remove any possibility of tripping (risk) ...... also impossible. Do you think paper providers have a legal imperitive to make it impossible to cut your self ..... blah blah. People do sometimes need to take alittle resposibilty for the risks involved with living, and more so with 'pleasure seeking'.

"Trust me, I'm a doctor." Possibly. "Trust me, I'm an insurance salesman." Hm.

You are missing the point. The costs are not the issue. The staff have jail sentences against them, albeit suspended. You can't insure against going to jail.

No, but they do have responsibility to exercise due care, especially when dealing with children. They also have a responsibility to comply with the law, which they apparently didn't. 

Without knowing all the details, the verdict of this tragic case sounds about right to me - "gross negligence", not manslaughter.  The boat was being sailed in an inappropriate manner (although we've all done it) and clearly the supervision and safety facilities on offer at the time were inadequate.  One person on a rescue/safety/observation/callitwhat youlike boat is simply not enough.  Surely any such boat, whether at a sailing school or Olympic games, must have two people on board?

I'm not saying that all risk should be taken out of sailing (it can't be), but it seems some fairly basic things were not done on this particular day.  Whether that was the fault of the individuals convicted is difficult to tell, but the centre manager has to have overall responsibility.

Like all accidents it isn't usually one thing going wrong that leads to the event, but rather an accumulation of adverse factors. Safety comes from everybody playing their part, however in the case of novice sailors and young sailors their inability to recognise the dangers inherent with certain courses of action means they are exposed to much greater risks if others don't take care. As an adult with a reasonable level of experience I make decisions on the basis of being safe without relying on a safety boat. I still want the safety boat there because anything can happen, but first and forsemost I need to be prepared to deal with situations myself. The staff at the Sunsail centre should have been more proactive in recognising unsafe situations, properly staffed and equpped etc. It may not have prevented the death of this child as sometimes despite everybodys best efforts horrible accidents do occur, but I for one would want to be able to say that I considered the issue of safety and made reasonable decisions on the basis of that consideration. What appears to be unforgiveable is that Sunsail appear to have not applied reasonable care and not made decisions based on reasonable care for safety. I guess what I am trying to say is that whilst I don't condone a nanny state attitude to safety, i.e. life is for living, it doesn't mean that we shouldn't take the time to recognise the risks and make decisions on that basis, especially when we are responsible for others.

I was once trapped by my trapeze hook being caught on the underwater gunwale lip of a capsized FD. I actually came to the point where I thought 'this is it' (wouldn't have been too bad a way to go, actually). Luckily, once I'd relaxed, I tried something else with my last effort and slipped free.

All the while there was a German Police rescue boat alongside, crewed by trained life-savers in wetsuits ready to jump in at any moment, but under the circumstances (I won't go into more detail) they had no way of supposing my plight before it would have been too late, and in my view on that occasion they would have been completely blameless had I drowned. It was just one of those things, one of the risks we take when we go sailing (but generally don't fully appreciate).

I can only endorse the earlier comment about rescue boats only rescuing corpses. I view them as a means of getting home if e.g. my rig collapses; the responsibility for my safety is ultimately mine, and even a personal rescue boat couldn't necessarily be expected to save me from drowning. Maybe that's a point that needs to be made to novices before they become too gung-ho and develop a false sense of security ('No probs, there are rescue boats to save me')

That is an excellent suggestion; young kids "stuck" on the job don't always have the means to resign and walk ... even if they know somthing is wrong.

http://www.rya.org.uk/NewsAndEvents/newsroom/news/lefkadaaccident.htm - Yes

There is a difference between sailing under instruction and sailing for your own means. When hiring or under tution in a boat, there should be rescue cover to cover you to the highest degree and when sailing independantly you take your own risks. When I sail my own boat, I don't expect anybody to be able to rescue me, save my boat and in most situations would only see rescue cover as a possible assistance. We have a formulated standard of procedures for the worst case scenario on my boat and if every teaching establishment knew their boats properly they would be able to do the same. Not every boat is the same and you can't simply cover rescues with one set of rules. We know that if a crew member is trapped below the boat, we won't be able to right it before the trapped member becomes unconcious and know how to deal with it. Maybe establishments that use high performance boats should consider the same areas as we have. Every place I have worked with confirms to the highest standard of procedures, to the point that we had to log every slightest risk of safety to the pupil. I have the deepest sympathies for the family involved with this tragic incident and also for the staff that had to attend to it. I also hope that management within this area take responsibility and take measures to prevent it ever happeneing again.

Precisely. Part of the attraction of this kind of centre for families is that parents and children can independently do their own thing, with the parents comfortable that that their children are safe. 

Interestingly the RYA article http://www.rya.org.uk/NewsAndEvents/newsroom/news/lefkadaaccident.htm - http://www.rya.org.uk/NewsAndEvents/newsroom/news/lefkadaacc ident.htm  says:

"The conditions of RYA Recognition for Training Centres have now been revised to ensure that instructors are aware of the dangers, and masthead floats are now used where necessary to prevent inversion. Safety boat crews are now trained to right an inverted boat immediately, rather than try to disentangle the crew."

With some boats though, its impossible to right them immediately. Boats with fully battened sails especially carry a lot of weight when submerged with water and I'd tend to say that with higher performance boats, the times involved with righting them could prove fatal to someone trapped under the water. If my crew is trapped underneath my boat, my instant reaction would be to go straight for the knife because I'd rate his chances of survival higher. The mast floats are a step in the right direction though.

If by "the structure" you mean "the management", then I think that is the truth but not the whole truth.

If, as has been suggested by m_liddell, trapezing to leeward was common and allowed, then as qualified professional instructors, the instructors at the centre should have stopped it. It seems quite possible that trapezing to leeward was the direct cause of this girl's death, although none of us know for certain what happened.

The fact that the staff on hand did everything to rescue the girl after the capsize does not make them blameless, if they could have prevented it in the first place.