Artemis

The seriously injured crew member was given CPR on the dock and apparently that was unsuccessful.

Edited by Mister Nick - 09 May 13 at 10:18pm

I'm shocked. It's Bart Simpson that's been killed. What a shame to take such a hugely talented sailor and such a nice guy from us. My thoughts are with his family and team mates. Just stunned personally

I see from the above posts, that the 'elf and safty/ban all fun, bridgade have now found themselves a new soapbox! As with all walks of life, pushing the boundarys has its risks. If we ban AC 72s, where do we stop? I note that Gael Pawson was quick to lable them as "death traps" in the Mail. Should we ban catamarans? I'm sure Miss Pawson would like that! What about other dangerous persuits, Hill walking, cycling etc...?

When tradgedies like this occur it does seem to be one of the first things people start ranting about, I guess its human nature. We all want to have fun but we also want to be safe. In recent years what with the overly litigous US model gradually being rolled out across the entire western world, there does seem to have been a gradual decline in personal risk assesment and more of an expectation on others.
Its a real shame that our media instantly clamour towards the darker side of issues but it goes hand in hand with the litigous culture, painting things as unsafe, and often uncontrolled when in reality there are teams of people in the background striving to make things safer and better, but who reports this heh?
I suspect many of us have had close shaves in various craft resulting in us doing things differently in the future. I know of Dart 18 sailors who've cut through the tramp as a last resort and numerous hookings up on monohulls with wing elastics, control line etc. I've even knocked myself out tacking my 600 and luckily came to lying face first over the new windward rack. Sailing is risky and the only way to totally de-risk it is to stop, but many of us relish the challenge and accept the risks, although clearly we do what we can to minimise the latter.
The sensible approach is not to stop althogether, but to reduce the risks. The AC teams will undoubtadly investigate, they will learn and they will reduce the risks where possible but I personally dont think they should stop.
Thursday was certainly one of the darkest days in competitive sailing and a day I pray never occurs again but lets give those involved the chance to do what they do best, and get on and sail.