I never sailed much above 30 knots but always wondered what could be consequence of crash at very high speed.

Can somebody recall or observed speed sailor crash at the speeds above 40 knots?

I imagine that harness lines are engaged to some stage.

What could be the main cause of the crash at speed and how to prepare our-self to minimize to damage ?

If the contact with water is hard or just danger is with hitting our equipment ?

What could be the main cause? Spin out, catapult, weed or hitting something in the water?

If crashing at Luderitz speed run is daily occurrence or rather unusual event ( taking into account that only highly skilled pro sail there and water conditions are almost perfect) ..?

Lots of questions there,
Here are mine Clauses of the crash......not enough skill for the wind/water conditions, too big a fin/sail and I get lifted off the water, not enough weight in the jacket and I get lifted off the water, fin spinout due to poor technique .

Results of crash....flip onto back and come to a slow gradual stop......flip and rag doll to a sudden stop in the water.....hit board and break ribs....hit sail/boom and break ribs. In all I've had very few injuries in crashing and most have missed hitting the gear.lots of tweeked neck and backs thou
Some of the softest hits have been at 44+ and the worst at 30 smashing my back

Craig, you forgot the hitting the bottom one, that's always fun...not!!!!

Kato,
Post that vid of Mathew clipping the bottom at SP - I couldn't find it.

Select to expand quote

mr love said...
Craig, you forgot the hitting the bottom one, that's always fun...not!!!!

Never done that,that's you and Matts experience

This is what happens when you trip a rail at 35knts. The trip over the front had some decent acceleration.
I was sore for days afterwards!!

Select to expand quote

sausage said..

Kato,
Post that vid of Mathew clipping the bottom at SP - I couldn't find it.

I have seen that video of Mathew clipping the bottom or what ever happened , I vaguely remember the fin and it didn't have a great deal of rake, those kind of accidents in shallow water can be avoided with fins with more rake, e,g weed speed fins are more forgiving and the board will sit flatter with less tendencies to be over fin powered, you will in a lot of cases get a slight warning before the fin lets go with the weed speed, where as more upright fins just explode without warning
back to Mathew i'm sure if he had a fin with more rake he would have sailed over the speed bump rather than a dead stop, I mite be wrong but I sail reasonably shallow water and know that 1 or 2 deg's can make or break

Select to expand quote

Bender said..

This is what happens when you trip a rail at 35knts. The trip over the front had some decent acceleration.
I was sore for days afterwards!!

Bender,
You should post the photos of your bruised arse

Here you go!

Mat's fin touched the bottom. He was hooked in and broke the harness line as he got flung! I think he said the worst part was hitting the bottom with his body!! But it looks like he just bounced on the water to me. He probably felt like he was hitting the bottom!!

Crashes at Luderitz were fairly rare. There was only a couple of hard ones amongst the windsurfers that I know of. Jacques had a bad one right at the finish. He stayed in the water but hit the bottom on the shallow edge. It looked like it knocked the stuffing out if him!

Marc Kappes had a bad one where he spun-out and slid downwind hitting the leeward bank. He thought he had broken his arm but luckily it X-Rayed ok and was just very badly bruised.

I had a spin-out but managed to skid along on my back and stayed in the middle of the canal. Not even a bruise! Just very lucky!

A couple of the kiters had bad ones...........

At Sandy Point, Peter J had a very bad one. Not at extremely high speed but awkward enough so the board came up and broke his nose. Very nasty! (He wears a face guard now!)

Most of my bad high speed crashes have resulted in wrenched back, twisted neck or sprained shoulder. I have put my body through a few sails and destroyed quite a few booms!

Last year I was sailing at Wello the water ahead looked very flat very tempting so I went for it on a good gust suddenly the fin touched I was in a full speed stance but didn't knock me off immediately I turned the board towards deeper water & thought I was right then the big hit came over the front I went broken boom, mast, uni, harness line & a hole in my sail amazingly the board was fine last recorded speed on my GPS was 35kts.
Other times ive crashed at high speed due to spin out are more forgiving as you can feel the fin let go & most of the time you have time to control the fall.

Yep the bottom hits are rippers. My big one was at the PiT , happened so fast I had no chance to even think about it. I had just passed a guy on a wave board to leeward after unnecessarily giving him some lip for being in my way. Flicked back into the bank but went too close and the next second I was on my back in knee deep water going WTF. Carbon boom in about 17 pieces, spreader bar snapped in half, rail in the nose of the board compressed where it drove into the sand bar and a few bruises. Could have been much worse. Impact was at about 41 knots from memory. Definitely some Kama involved in that one.
My funniest one was a complete lift off. I came out from behind the dune and bore off, the nose gave a little wiggle then the next thing I knew I was still sailing flat but was 4 or 5 feet in the air looking at the expression on John Rorsheims face who was walking back as I flew past him at head height. Did the big bail out on to my arse, thank God for wetsuits, could have been a bit messy. John pissed himself laughing for 10 minutes.

Touch wood it's never happened to me but I'm sure my time will come. Although I did come very close the very run before Matt when travelling at over 46knots and managed somehow to track out of the sand bar into deeper water before it was the end of me.

Select to expand quote

sailquik said..

Mat's fin touched the bottom. He was hooked in and broke the harness line as he got flung! I think he said the worst part was hitting the bottom with his body!! But it looks like he just bounced on the water to me. He probably felt like he was hitting the bottom!!

Definitely did hit bottom with my body...To make it worse, I managed to pin my right-hand/elbow underneath me, which caused my hand to slam into the sand.

Lets just say that I had about 30 seconds post-crash, where Kato asked if I was ok... and I said "no"... thought I had snapped my wrist... eventually got some feeling back into my fingertips, so was all ok.

Crashed at 42.8kn

I had one at the end of a bear-away at Melville doing 35kn. Board was trimming too flat and caught the nose. Managed to hold on with the back hand to try and launch myself out of the harness line and hit the water prone, head first, face up. the high support of my seat harness caught the water and acted as a break and remember feeling what felt like all my vertebrae between hips and neck pop. Took me a few minutes to feel confident enough to try and stand up in the knee deep water but remained sick to the stomach for a while though that was 'post adrenal low' in retrospect.
I don't want the same thing happening again so I try to only crash going over 40kn..so far neither has happened..
Also looking at a different harness..and now wear an impact vest at all times.

Some nice crashes in this video from 2009, great vid btw...

Some great crashes from 1993 - one bloke goes straight through his mast!

^fabulous videos Tobhed & Peter. Took guts to go again after those two crashes by the french girl Beth? . And E-501 going through his mast

I made the mistake of telling my partner how shallow the water is where I sail and he is now worried I'll come off and hit headfirst and end up in a wheel chair..Doesn't sound like that happens?
Where I sail it's muddy and we use weedfins. So far I havent had a stack but I've only been doing GPS 6 months & hit 31kts..Probably will stack it as I 'm getting a bit overconfident..
Ever heard of anything that bad happening or can I convince him Ill only do my shoulder..

Select to expand quote

sboardcrazy said..

I made the mistake of telling my partner how shallow the water is where I sail and he is now worried I'll come off and hit headfirst and end up in a wheel chair..Doesn't sound like that happens?
Where I sail it's muddy and we use weedfins. So far I havent had a stack but I've only been doing GPS 6 months & hit 31kts..Probably will stack it as I 'm getting a bit overconfident..
Ever heard of anything that bad happening or can I convince him Ill only do my shoulder..

1. Don't crash if you can possibly avoid it!
2. Don't let your fin hit the bottom! My worst crashes, and the only ones where I have hurt myself, all happened when I sailed in to shallow water and hit the bottom. I thought I knew the depth but now I always double check and walk the intended course if in doubt. Soft mud bottoms are best if you do hit because you can often save it without crashing. Hard sand (Sandy Point) is unforgiving. This is also a good reason to use a super shallow fin!
3. see my comments on hurts in the previous post. Thankfully, I have not seen very many bad ones and most were just a winded sailor or less. The natural reaction most times if you go over the front is to land on your back which is pretty harmless (beyond maybe getting winded).
4. Always wear a helmet! Lost count of the times I have whacked my head on the boom, mast or board.
5. An impact vest or buoyancy vest is a great idea. It can also double as a weight vest, if you get the right one (Prolimit), for those epic speed days!

^^ Spoken like the true gentleman you are Daffy! I actually wear two vests for extra buoyancy and protection. Helps with avoiding a good winding.

Well at least i wear a helmet + vest.. should probably check out where I sail first though although others are going for it with similar size fins..

Got to agree with Daffy on this. My worst one was I actually ran aground into the shallows and stopped dead hooked in. I got smashed into the sand bottom with my right knee taking the impact which dislocated my knee and tore my ACL. Very scary feeling and lots of rehab and I wasn't even going fast.

Select to expand quote

sboardcrazy said..
...
Ever heard of anything that bad happening or can I convince him Ill only do my shoulder..

Ask Hagar :/

I haven't got anywhere near 45 knots and probably never will, but have had a couple of crashes at 40 knots - both at Sandy Point. In both cases it was the fin letting go (poor rider technique) and I had plenty of warning. First time I just unhooked and jumped clear and skidded along on my back - for quite a while.

The second crash, probably a year later, I had plenty of warning when the fin let go and the board went sideways but chose to hang onto the gear as it was really nuking and I didn't want my gear to blow across the inlet - big mistake. I saw a white flash and then was numb and dazed with a very smashed up nose and a nearly broken eye socket. This was with a helmet and buoyancy vest. I lost masses of blood and ended up in hospital for four days, having 5 units of blood put back into me and surgery on the nose artery to block it off as they couldn't stop the bleeding...

Grisly photo here for those with strong stomachs!: gpsteamchallenge.com.au/sailor_session/show?date=2011-07-10&team=16

From memory I think that Jacques has had a crash at 45 knots. Maybe he can tell us what that felt like.

I've had plenty of slower speed (mid 30's knots) falls though where it all happened so fast I had no time to react. In these cases I haven't had time to unhook and my harness line just breaks.

You've done well mate considering the steep learning curve! Straight out of 20 years retirement and into high wind speed sailing.

Select to expand quote

ka43 said..

Got to agree with Daffy on this. My worst one was I actually ran aground into the shallows and stopped dead hooked in. I got smashed into the sand bottom with my right knee taking the impact which dislocated my knee and tore my ACL. Very scary feeling and lots of rehab and I wasn't even going fast.

How long did it take to get your confidence back?
Pedro.. Wish I wasn't reading this thread..

Select to expand quote

NotWal said..

sboardcrazy said..
...
Ever heard of anything that bad happening or can I convince him Ill only do my shoulder..

Ask Hagar :/

That's right Dave, you don't need to be doing 40 knts to get seriously injured sailing, and I'm sure that there are plenty of stories of slower sailing injuries.

For me I was doing 25 knts and happened to rail trip, the only time in my sailing history, and I was stuck in the harness and went straight down and into my sail at right angles. The result was a broken neck - 3 broken vertebrae including a C2 peg fracture. I spent 4 months layed up wearing a Halo, then many more months with physio. I was wearing a helmet which I'm sure saved my life. I went back sailing as soon as possible, and I am as careful as I can be. This sport is one of my passions in life and I will sail as long as I can. Yes you can get hurt but I met many more people in hospital worse off than me, and heard of people breaking their neck falling out of bed, tripping over the mat and falling over in the bath.

So sail with passion, wear a helmet, wear an impact vest, don't take unnecessary risks, watch our for sand banks and be smart about your sailing.
Have fun and keep your passion in life !!!

BTW the GPS Team Challange and the community of people it attracts is the best thing that has happened to me and I love that I have made so many long lasting friends !

Haggar, wow! Respect man.

I have some good stacks and often come out bruised and battered, but it's sobering to hear just how nasty it can get.

Its got me thinking my buoyancy vest could do with an upgrade to an impact vest. Anyone have any up to date recommendations?