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Volvo Ocean Race Sailor Lost at Sea

The sailing world was both shocked and deeply saddened on Monday with the development of a tragic man-overboard situation in the Volvo Ocean Race. While sailing downwind at speeds of more than 20 knots deep in the throes of a Southern Ocean gale, Hong Kong entry Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag lost crewmember John Fisher (UK) overboard in the early hours of Monday morning, local time. The team had been sailing at the rear of the fleet of seven Volvo 65s, some 1,400 miles west of Cape Horn when the incident occurred. Conditions at the time saw winds of more than 35 knots, a massive sea state, and water temperatures hovering in the upper 40s.

John Fisher, seen here on Day 6 of Leg 1, Alicante, Spain, to Lisbon, Portugal. He was an experienced offshore super-maxi racer, but this was Fisher’s first Volvo Ocean Race.

© 2018 Jeremie Lecaudey / Volvo Ocean Race

After several hours of searching — and with the barometer on a constant decline and conditions forecast to further deteriorate — the team led by Australian skipper David Witt made the unquestionably hard decision to turn the boat back downwind and head toward the South American coast and relative safety. Sailing well behind the fleet when the incident occurred, it was decided that sending any of the other teams 200 miles upwind into gale-force conditions would have been a very risky and dangerous move with very little chance of reward. A commercial vessel was diverted to the scene from 400 miles away and — in theory at least — should have been on the scene to conduct a search yesterday. We have not heard any updates from this search.

Yesterday morning VOR President Richard Brisius issued a statement confirming that it’s assumed Fisher has been "lost at sea." Fisher is reportedly the seventh sailor to perish in the more than 40-year history of the race, and the first since 2006. He is, however, the second person to die in the past three legs of this edition of the VOR, as Vestas’ collision with a fishing boat outside Hong Kong at the conclusion of Leg 4 saw a local fisherman lose his life. Speaking of Leg 4 of the VOR, as we reported here on January 17, Scallywag had a man overboard incident then as well. There was a full write-up and even high-definition video of that incident immediately following.

SHK/Scallywag Team Manager Tim Newton, spoke with skipper David Witt and navigator Libby Greenhalgh and shared the following timeline:

  • Weather conditions were 35-45 knots with 4- to 5-meter seas with showers reducing visibility. It was 15 minutes before sunrise.
  • The team was sailing with a single reef in the mainsail and the J2 jib. The Fractional 0 sail was hoisted but furled.
  • At roughly 1300 UTC SHK/Scallywag surfed down a large wave leading to an accidental crash jibe.
  • John Fisher was on deck, in the cockpit. At the time, he was moving forward to tidy up the FR0 sheet and had therefore unclipped his tether.
  • As the mainsail swung across the boat in the jibe, the mainsheet system caught John and knocked him off the boat. The crew on board believe John was unconscious from the blow before he hit the water.
  • He was wearing a survival suit with a wetsuit hood and gloves and a lifejacket. 
  • The JON buoy and the horseshoe buoy were thrown off the back of the boat to mark the position.
  • It took some time to get the boat under control and motorsail back to a position near where the man overboard occurred.
  • At 1342 (UTC), the team informed Race Control, by email, that there was a man overboard and they were returning to the MOB position to start a search pattern.
  • With input from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre and Race Control in Alicante, a search and rescue operation was carried out for several hours but there was no sign of John, the horseshoe buoy, or the JON buoy.
  • With weather conditions deteriorating, a difficult decision was taken to abandon the search and preserve the safety of the remaining crew.
Kitted up to head out on deck, Fisher is pictured here sailing in Leg 7 from Auckland to Itajaí, Brazil, on March 24

© Konrad Frost / Volvo Ocean Race

The team has not resumed racing; rather they’re sailing in a northeasterly direction toward shore in Chile. "The conditions are extremely challenging, with strong winds and a forecast for a building sea state over the next couple of days," said Newton.

We at Latitude 38 would like to express our most sincere condolences to the family of the deceased and to the entire Scallywag crew and team. John Fisher, 47, leaves behind a wife and two children who reside in Adelaide, Australia.

As for the rest of the fleet, Team Brunel is having their breakthrough performance of this VOR and are closing in on Cape Horn with a lead of around 85 miles over the next five boats, which are grouped quite close.

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