A well-designed preventer system is just as important as any other part of the rigging, but it’s often an afterthought, sometimes little more than an old mooring line tied around the boom. As the average size of a cruising yacht, and a mainsail, increases, it becomes ever more critical. In the preceding pages, we’ve looked at four cases over the last 20 years in which accidental gybes led to serious injury or death of at least one crew member. Although these fatalities happened for different reasons, many of them shared similar features, such as strong winds and large seas, helmsperson inexperience, fatigue or distraction and the skipper being away from the cockpit. Two had preventers rigged that failed. In particular, the Platino report demonstrates the huge loads involved, and the importance of how gybe-prevention equipment is fitted and rigged. It makes for sobering reading and has made me sit back and think about how I do things on my boat and when I am aboard other boats. Hopefully, these two articles will serve to make us better, safer and more aware skippers.
Chastened by the reports’ findings, I spent a day with Iain Horlock, chief rigger at Devonbased rigging company, Jimmy Green Marine, to better understand how to design a preventer for a cruising yacht under 50ft. We used Nimrod, my 36ft Cheoy Lee, to create a traditional preventer system and also tried two alternatives to a preventer: the Walder Boom Brake and the Wichard Gyb’Easy.
PREVENTER RIGGING
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2024-Ausgabe von Yachting Monthly UK.
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How to rig preventers and boom brakes
Rigging a preventer or using a boom brake is just good seamanship when sailing downwind, but doing so badly is asking for trouble, says Rachael Sprot
Don't let Thames sewage kill off this lovely boat
Samuel Pepys mentions oysters in his diaries 68 times, but that was when they were as common as winkles along the banks of the Thames and when they were a source of cheap protein for the masses.
I finally found the magic of the sea
I won’t be in theatres with a notebook as much as usual this month – time for some wider, wetter horizons – but may be musing, as I often do, on how rare it is for theatre to express a convincing reality about the oceans and the trade or pursuit of seafaring.
TECHNICAL GOLDEN OLDIES
Ken Endean looks back on the boats he has owned over 50 years and explains why the hull lines of older yachts continue to offer first-class handling
HOW IT WORKS MARKING
Many cruising yacht skippers mark very little on board their boats.
TECHNICAL INSTALLING A NEW ENGINE
When a mysterious loss of coolant jeopardised his sailing, Andy Du Port knew the time had tome to replace his yacht’s:veteran Volvo Penta
NEW GEAR
Dennis O’Neill rounds up the latest marine innovations, including developments in women’s sailing jackets
MARIE TABARLY HONOURING HER FATHER
Marie Tabarly took line honours in the Ocean Globe Race, surpassing her father’s record while racing aboard his famous 73ft ketch Pen Duick VI
HEATHER THOMAS SMASHING RECORDS
In leading her all-female crew to victory in the OGR, Heather Thomas has broken records and taken women's sailing into the stratosphere
MAIDEN MAKES HISTORY AGAIN
Being the first all-female crew to win a round-the-world race is seismic in itself, but the diverse nationalities of the crew are just as significant for the future of sailing