Sailing Magazine
By Richard Crockett
Today I can again share one of those features which every person who goes to sea in a small boat should read.
It was written by Dudley Dix who was asked to write this article by Dr Cleve Robertson, CEO of National Sea Rescue Institute in South Africa. This was in response to his concern over the number of lives lost in ocean capsize accidents of leisure boats around the South African coasts and elsewhere.
Being a yacht designer and active offshore sailing man, Dix was the right man to pen this piece as in January 2014 he came close to being capsized aboard one of his own designs. “This is what he said: ‘In January 2014 I was skipper of the 38’ ‘Black Cat’ when we were capsized by a massive breaking wave about 75 miles offshore from Cape Town. It wasn’t a full capsize although the boat went from upright to nearly upside-down in an instant. In seconds we had a boatload of water and the chaos of crew, food, equipment, cabin soles and even a fridge that had been bolted into the table, flying around in the cabin with great force. In our case, the boat remained intact and came back upright very quickly, but it gave us insight for an instant into what it is like to be in a boat that has been capsized on the ocean.
Dix wrote a book entitled “South Atlantic Capsize” in which he covered his near capsize in great detail. If one can still find a copy, get it, as it’s one of those books that should be a permanent item on board every yacht crossing oceans.
READ IT ALL HERE: Pages from 2016 07 – SAILING Magazine – OCR
