How can we minimize head injuries due to boom / jibe impacts?

[Bored Stiff]

It's only "ignorant" if you embrace ignorance as a virtue.

One can always blame others for your failures, that way you will always have plenty of failures that you can point to demonstrating your great virtue!

I’m not 100% clear what you are saying, but I think you are implying that every accident and injury a person has is their personal fault? This is ignorant. And even if true (which it obviously isn’t) it would be no reason not to find ways where it may be possible to reduce the likelihood or consequence of impact for those that want. Even professional chefs cut themselves occasionally.

 

[Steam Flyer]

I’m not 100% clear what you are saying, but I think you are implying that every accident and injury a person has is their personal fault? This is ignorant. And even if true (which it obviously isn’t) it would be no reason not to find ways where it may be possible to reduce the likelihood or consequence of impact for those that want. Even professional chefs cut themselves occasionally.

Yep, even professional chefs cut themselves occasionally. That's a great analogy.

I've been a sailing instructor for a bit over ten years and have dealt with a few head/boom strikes, including going into the ER with a student. There's a big difference between big boats and small boats, and between skilled sailors coping with challenging conditions and the less-skilled who have a lapse of situational awareness.

Without addressing those differences first, there's no point in discussing the issue IMHO.

The problem with helmets is that they interfere with situation awareness and add an encumbrance to the sailor. And they don't protect from the worst-case strikes.

I am 110% in favor of reducing the likelihood and severity of impacts. That's just good sailing IMHO.

 

[Schnappi]

This padding’s so easy on the knuckles, I could punch all day.

 

[Tanton Y_M]

Raise the boom.

Yep, even professional chefs cut themselves occasionally. That's a great analogy.

I've been a sailing instructor for a bit over ten years and have dealt with a few head/boom strikes, including going into the ER with a student. There's a big difference between big boats and small boats, and between skilled sailors coping with challenging conditions and the less-skilled who have a lapse of situational awareness.

Without addressing those differences first, there's no point in discussing the issue IMHO.

The problem with helmets is that they interfere with situation awareness and add an encumbrance to the sailor. And they don't protect from the worst-case strikes.

I am 110% in favor of reducing the likelihood and severity of impacts. That's just good sailing IMHO.

Raise the boom.

 

[Steam Flyer]

Or lower the boom, so it hits people in the butt rather than the head!

 

[Mambo Kings]

Nobody passed any regulation in the US saying we have to wear ski helmets. It just started to happen because (a) People wised up and (b) The manufacturers saw the market and helmets started to look cool.

Its starting in sailing. the younger competitive sailors are starting to wear helmets......and I am certainly not going to discourage them.

And there was nothing wrong with this lady's situational awareness as she went on to win the North American championship and subsequently Atlantic Coast championship.

 

[Mambo Kings]

The problem with helmets is that they interfere with situation awareness and add an encumbrance to the sailor.

Hey Steam.....I think the "situational awareness" shtick is an urban legend and not really true anymore.
You see more helmets at the front of the fleet than the middle and back of the fleet. These are people who like to be situation aware.

 

[Steam Flyer]

Good example, but it doesn't prove what you think it does.

How do these peoples' sailing situational awareness compare to average?

I hope that my posts above do not indicate that I discourage anybody from wearing a helmet if they want to.

About 7 or 8 years ago I spent a fair bit of time/effort diddling with a boom brake for smaller boats, which could be integrated with the vang. The idea was to slow the boom down enough to eliminate injury but not inhibit maneuvering; the problem is that to work both reliably and have substantial improvement, it needed to be aligned very precisely with the vertical pivot of the gooseneck. IMHO it's do-able but would be expensive and require adjustment fairly often. Helmets are cheaper.

 

[Sail4beer]

Girl who sailed out of our club was hit by a 420 boom and a couple of years later with a lightning boom. Her father recently told me that she can no longer sail and had to stop practicing law since her vision has been affected from severe concussion.

 

[Tanton Y_M]

Or lower.

 

[fufkin]

Schumacher

 

[Marty Gingras]

Am surprised and impressed how much the collective attitude has moved on, at least round here. I think the cross pollination with other sports where helmets are now virtually standard, many sailors also cycle and ski, have normalised their use. The foilers have helped make them cool, and have prompted development of better kit.

Came back late 2021 after taking eight years off sailing. Was surprised and pleased to see upwards of 20% racers wearing helmets whereas before it was less than 1%. Mostly women and young folk. Haven't adopted it yet, though at 61 and 6'5" I'm starting to think it would be prudent.

 

[Bored Stiff]

I don’t think anybody would suggest that a helmet is a substitute for good seamanship or awareness. But here are some things that could be done - not all/any ideas may be relevant to your class, skill level or location.
A. Design - rigs with higher booms or no booms, carbon, padding, place fittings internally, sheeting arrangements etc
B. Processes - formalise a wind limit for sailing, or gybing, or running depending on experience. Agree a communication protocol amongst crew when manoeuvring. Set race courses that avoid high risk manoeuvres.
C. PPE - mandate or chose to wear head gear.

 

[carcrash]

A key focus of how I rigged my Olson 40 was safety. Safety is the reason for the stern scoop with a boarding ladder a swimmer can easily deploy.

For the main, I’ve got a Vang-Master used only as a topping lift, no tackle. Two separate main sheets, port and starboard, with dead ends at the toe rail. Close hauled, both sheets are coordinated to position the end of the boom at a specific location. When gybing, the boom is pushed up a couple of feet, well overhead, as it comes across. And it comes across under control, or not at all.

 

[SloopJonB]

The day I have to wear a crash helmet is the day I step ashore.

Higher booms and preventers are the solution IMO.

Any boat small enough to have the vang snap shackled to the mast is super easy to rig as a preventer - just unclip it from the mast and clip it to the rail.

Still works as a vang but also prevented from sweeping across. I did it that way on a couple of my boats and it worked perfectly.

 

[El Borracho]

A key focus of how I rigged my Olson 40 was safety. Safety is the reason for the stern scoop with a boarding ladder a swimmer can easily deploy.

For the main, I’ve got a Vang-Master used only as a topping lift, no tackle. Two separate main sheets, port and starboard, with dead ends at the toe rail. Close hauled, both sheets are coordinated to position the end of the boom at a specific location. When gybing, the boom is pushed up a couple of feet, well overhead, as it comes across. And it comes across under control, or not at all.

Good idea. More conventional vangs could have a setting that forces the boom higher on a gybe.

Using a water reef in sporty offshore conditions could be a big help, too.

 

[cyclone]

Go boomless

 

[Marty Gingras]

Using a water reef in sporty offshore conditions could be a big help, too.

Water reef?

 

[El Borracho]

Water reef?

AKA flattening reef. The first small reef on many sails. Keeps the reaching boom outta the water.

 

[jmh2002]

Go boomless
View attachment 569513

James Wharram, 1981: "It's a Gaff Sail", they say. "No", I say, "What you and the wind are looking at is a soft Wing Sail."

Now we call this a square top mainsail. And it's boomless too.

And of course we have seen similar concepts on some high performance dinghies and catamarans over the years too.

Like most things in life, there are some trade offs, but also some advantages too.

The Wharram Wingsail Rig | James Wharram Designs

By James Wharram. Drawings by Hanneke Boon 1997 "It's a Gaff Sail", they say. "No", I say, "What you and the wind are looking at is a soft Wing Sail." Whether you see the TIKI sail as an old fashioned gaff sail or a new evolved soft wing sail is a matter of dispute. What is not in dispute is...

www.wharram.com

For people who might be into this here's an interesting video: