Conference unifix::sailing

2168.0. "Larry Klein dead in SF Bay " by STAR::KENNEY () Wed Sep 21 1994 14:35

From:	US2RMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 21-SEP-1994 11:35:58.72
To:	Multiple recipients of list <[email protected]>
CC:	
Subj:	Larry Klein Dead in SFBay

This was posted to rec.boats.racing.  I thought it would be
good for everyone on the Laser list to see.

X-Dream's hiking support broke while underway.  None of them
had life jackets on.

Will

********************************************************

The following is something I wrote for myself to get some of my 
thoughts in order and, sadly, to have my recollection recorded in case we ever 
get sued.  I've checked it for facts, but not for grammer and my notorious 
run-on sentences.  Distances and times are approximate as I was so hyped up on 
adrenaline time was practically standing still.  I believe my story agrees 
with Susie's, I'm just quite a bit longer winded.

Begin included text
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following is my account of what happened on the X-119 X-Dream 
during race 5 of the Big Boat Series, September 17, 1994.  I figure I better 
write it down for both myself and possibly others, I'll decide after I finish 
writing.

Saturday was shaping up to be an awesome day.  We had lucked out 
because our sail maker's ride bent their mast the previous day and he agreed 
to come race with us.

Race 4 was a blast.  The boat was tuned great and pointing higher and 
faster than we'd ever seen.  We screwed around with Cassiopeia at the last 
top mark and then gibed through the SC 70 fleet as they blew bye on both 
sides.  I think we finished 2nd to Twin Flyer and corrected out to 6th.

Race 5 was shaping up to be even better than Race 4.  We were on our 
final upwind leg about halfway between Alcatraz and the city front and much 
farther ahead of most of our fleet than we'd been at a similar position in the 
previous race when we saw Twin Flyer up ahead.  We were on starboard tack 
coming back to the city front and somebody mentioned Twin Flyer was dead 
in the water.  My first thought was "great, they've been kicking our butts this 
whole regatta, finally that flimsy looking boat broke, and now were going to 
beat them and the rest of the fleet."  Then I noticed that there was only one 
person on Twin Flyer.

Twin Flyer was about 500 m away when we noticed we were closing on 
them and about 400 m away when I noticed there was only 1 person on the 
boat.  We were trimmed in and barreling up the bay at about 8 kts with 
maybe 20-25 kts true (I couldn't see the instruments from my spot on the rail).

Somebody said "They're in trouble, we need to help them."  At this point 
we were about 300 m and closing fast.  All I could see was a boat with one 
person on board, some red flotation cushions floating in the water, and a 
spectator boat motoring around.  We bore off a little for better visibility and 
all of a sudden I could see all of these heads bobbing in the water.  Somebody 
asked for the jib down and prepare to help them and we all left the rail.

I went forward to help get the jib down after starting to blow the halyard 
and getting kicked off by Brian.  We were about 200 m away and still going 
full speed.  The jib came down FAST.  On the way back from the foredeck I 
heard the people in the water yelling for lifejackets so I went below to grab 
them.  None of the people in the water had on lifejackets.  While I searched 
for and found the lifejackets (they'd been moved around before the race to 
make room for stowing sails) we tacked onto port.  I came back on deck with 
the lifejackets and no one left to throw them to.

As I climbed back on deck I saw one guy slowly drifting away behind X-
Dream while wrapped around our man overboard gear and waving and 
smiling (turns out he was separated from the main clump so Rich triggered 
the man overboard gear as we went by him on our way to everybody else).

There was a whole slew of our crew on the starboard rail around the 
cockpit area working on something, three of our crew on the starboard rail 
even with the cabin, and I think one person up on the starboard rail forward 
of the mast.  The boat was on port tack, healed way over to starboard, and 
moving at a knot or two with the main slightly luffing and pulled in just 
enough to maintain leeway.

I heard somebody on the rail say something like "I've got you, I can't pull 
you in the boat, but I'm NOT going to let go," so I headed down to a hole on 
the rail even with the middle of the cockpit.  As I headed to the rail I noticed 
somebody climbing on board forward of the mast, somebody climbing up the 
transom, a mess of people still obscuring sight of whatever was going on at 
the rail even with the cockpit, and two guys being held next to the boat even 
with the cabin top.  I heard "he's got no pulse, somebody go below and call 
mayday" and Judy passed me on her way down the hatch headed for the VHF 
as I headed for the rail.

When I got to the rail I saw that two crew were working on the guy near 
the shrouds and Susie was holding onto the next one aft.  These were the last 
two in the water along the rail with some commotion going on inside the rail 
and aft.  I helped hold onto the guy aft of the two still in the water and 
initially had no luck dragging him into the boat as he was limp and unable to 
help us.  As they pulled the guy just behind the shrouds onto the boat I 
grabbed the seat harness he was wearing and helped heave him into the boat.  
This made room to try and haul the last person onto the boat.

The last guy in the water looked like he was fading fast.  He couldn't even 
twist his shoulders so that we could get a better angle to try and drag him in.  
He managed to say "I can't move" when I asked him to try and help us get 
him into the boat.  I was debating getting a halyard to winch him up when his 
condition finally hit home and I decided the halyard would take too long.  I 
grabbed his red foulies at his chest and heaved him up and got his right 
shoulder onto the rail.  Susie was able to get his right leg wrapped around a 
stanchion at the same time.  We slowly were able to roll his left shoulder over 
his body, under the lifeline, and onto the deck.

One of the guys boots came off as we rolled him onto the deck which was 
kind of ironic as the reason he was so tired was that he had been unable to get 
his boots off, they filled up with water, and he had trouble treading water.

We were lying on the leeward rail patting the two on the shoulders saying it 
was going to be all right when the guy in the red foulies managed to speak 
again and say that his leg hurt.  I looked aft and saw Chris kneeling on the 
deck with the guy's leg pinned between Chris's leg and a stanchion.  I was 
going to ask Chris to get out of the way when I noticed that he was giving 
mouth to mouth to somebody on the deck and John was performing 
compressions.  I don't need to describe the sight of the guy in arrest as it was 
disturbing enough that I'll never forget.

We dragged the two guys up onto the cabin top and then onto the 
windward side.  Though it seemed like an eternity, I'm told everybody was on 
board in less than 2 minutes from the time we saw them, dropped our jib, and 
got the last person on board.

We yelled to the two guys on Twin Flyer (one had managed to self rescue) 
to tell us how many crew they had and they responded 'two' the first time.  
We asked again and they said eight.  We had five on board, two on their boat, 
and our man overboard gear was nowhere in sight.  Susie said she had seen 
the last guy climb onto a spectator boat.

We motored off towards the St. Francis with Chris and John still 
performing CPR.  Judy told the Coast Guard we were heading to the St. 
Francis, one person still wasn't breathing and didn't have a pulse, and to have 
an ambulance meet us there.  Judy came back on deck and everybody started 
repeatedly yelling "come on Larry."

We lowered the people on deck, who still couldn't move very well, down 
below so we could drop the main.  We dropped and secured the mainsail as 
we entered the harbor mouth and the coast guard came screaming up in a 
zodiac.  They approached from the starboard side in response to our hail, and 
upon being informed that Larry still didn't have a pulse, transferred two 
medical personnel onto X-Dream.  The two coasties immediately relieved 
John and Chris.

As we motored down the channel to the St. Francis, Brian kept looking 
below and making the three stretched out on the cabin floor and quarter 
berths talk to us and keep moving.  The guy in the red foulies really looked 
pale and was unresponsive so somebody headed down below to work on 
keeping him moving, get off his wet clothes, wrap him in a spinnaker, and try 
and keep him from slipping further into shock.

After barreling down the channel at full throttle with the coasties clearing a 
path ahead, we flew into a slip at the St. Francis (boy am I glad reverse works 
well on X-Dream), tied off, and a minute or two later heard the ambulance.  I 
heard somebody say we had gotten to the dock about 10 minutes from the 
time we started the rescue.

We then sat out of the way and watched as the medical personnel spent 
about 20 minutes working on Larry.  After a while they stopped CPR for 
about a minute and started removing all their equipment.  Somebody then 
started CPR again and they moved Larry off to the ambulance.  They told us 
they still had no pulse but had seen an encouraging blip on one of their 
instruments.  Much later we learned that Larry didn't make it.

I've been going over and over everything that happened during our rescue 
and I can't think of anything that went slow or wrong.  Everything was 
textbook perfect.  I really feel lucky to be part of a crew where absolutely 
everybody did what had to be done in an emergency.

Somebody asked if I felt slighted because nobody mentioned us during the 
awards ceremonies.  I actually would have been upset if they did give us any 
awards as I believe we did what any sailor should do for us in a similar 
situation.  We weren't competing to see who could do the best job of rescuing 
somebody, we were assisting a vessel in distress as required by law and our 
morals.

In the final analysis, and I think writing this down has helped, I'm not sad 
we lost one guy, I'm glad we probably saved 5.  Though I'm sad for the family 
and friends Larry left behind, I'm not sad for Larry.  I think everybody who 
sails implicitly accepts the risks and I hope when I go it's like Larry, doing 
something I love.



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% Subject: Larry Klein Dead in SFBay
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    Sadness..... Larry Klein was one of the two people who got me into
    racing when he worked at Ullman Sails in Detroit.  My Merit 25,,
    "Walkure" was one of two project boats fielded in the 1985 MORC regatta
    and much of the set up came from Larry.
    
    He was a knowledgable and engaging guy.  He shared his knowledge
    without prejudice.  He liked to be center stage...but then he often
    deserved to be there.
    
    This is indeed a sad message.
     

    This is indeed sad and troubling.
    
    One of the items to take from this is "where were the lifejackets?". 
    I have noticed that in harbor racing, you hardly ever see folks
    wearing them. The bigger the boat, the less often they are on. I guess it
    is that feeling of security. Hey, we are in a busy harbor, this puppy
    is feeling dailed in, what can go wrong?
    
    Once it hits 15 knts, my crew has em on. Old throwback to my catamaran
    racing days. You never know when the keel is going to come off, or you
    are going to get run over by a port tack boat, or some nimrod is going
    to make a manuever you need to crash tack to avoid collision. And then
    it is too late. I buy the nice Omega racing versions. They look decent,
    so no one complains. Cost 4 times as much, but it is worth skipping the
    arguments.
    
    It sounds like the rescue boat crew had it's act together. Would your
    crew know what to do if they came upon such carnage racing or
    otherwise? 
    
    The only thing I might question is why not shoot a couple of flares off
    to attract some help as soon as they were on scene. They didn't yet
    know how many people were in the water. But from the discription, I
    would never second guess the captain, as he did all the really prudent
    things.
    
    I sure hope someone nominates these folks for the US Sail lifesaving
    medal. They sure earned it.

    I would guess that inthe panic, such things as flares etc. just fade
    from the mind.  They must have all been concentrating on bringing the
    people over the side.
    
    Does any one know the details of what happened ?  I am assuming that
    X119 is about 11.9 Metres say 40ft or so.  How did a 40 foot boat with
    8 people on board end up stopped in the water with 7 crew in the drink
    ?
    
    

                  I N T E R O F F I C E   M E M O R A N D U M

                                        Date:     23-Sep-1994 09:37 EST
                                        From:     BONNIE JAMES, COMMUNITY MED, M
                                                  [email protected]@umc@WRLMTS@WRL
                                        Dept:      
                                        Tel No:    

TO:  [email protected]@umc@WRLMTS@WRL

CC:  [email protected]@umc@WRLMTS@WRL

Subject: Larry Klein Dies in Big Boat Series                         

X-News: leif rec.boats.racing:1094
From: [email protected] (Michael Henry)
Subject:Larry Klein Dies in Big Boat Series
Date: 18 Sep 1994 18:08:50 -0700
Message-ID:<[email protected]>

Larry Klein died yesterday after he fell into the water when a rack on a
modified Hobie 33 broke and sent Larry and 3 others tumbling into the bay,
during the StFYC Big Boat Series. X-Dream was able to recover three
sailors but Larry went undiscovered for quite a while. When he was finally
located and hauled ashore CPR was given and he left in an ambulance with a
pulse. He died a short time later. Larry Klein, a past Rolex Yachtsman of
the Year, Finn Champion and friend, was a major contributor to yacht
racing and will be sadly missed. A wreath was placed on bouy #A and all 
fleets sailed by before the start of todays racing.
-mh


    

    don't forget, the water temp is a shade over 55 deg F.  It was the
    hypothermia that did in Larry and nearly did in Paul. (or was it
    George) I forget who saved who (second hand knowledge).  boots were a
    big factor (lack of them helped a lot).  The fellow who was supporting
    Larry and Paul (or George) did not have any and was far more mobile in
    the water.  He wrote that he felt larry go limp and his other charge
    was fading fast.
    
    It's easy to point this and say: no lifejackets, dumb.  but these guys
    are professionals and very few pro's wear them, got to ask why?
    
    I'm not sure the answer is as simple as what it seems.
    

    
    
       In the last two issues of Sailing World which has close
    connections to US Sailing, there has been at least 5 stories on Larry's
    death. The boat was a Hobie 33, but it was super modified. It was 37
    feet long and had hiking wings. From the pictures I saw, they looked
    EXACTLY like hobie 21/18sx wings. The boat was an experimental boat
    with all kinds of tricks. After a bad first race, the boat was blowing
    everyone else away and was on the final legs when disaster struck. The
    big lead was one of the reasons it took so long to get help to them. 
    
       Larry's death has caused a tremendous shakeup. The most likely result 
    is going to  be the need for sailors of all sizes of boats to be wearing
    lifejackets once the wind comes up.
    
       The cause of death is believed to be the fact that with his boots
    on, he could not tread water easily. An article I read last night from the
    guy who was trying to keep him afloat until help came said the same.
    Larry was one of the biggest, strongest guys on board, but he was
    wearing boots.  the saying "if you need to wear boots, you need
    lifejackets too" was brought up. A good saying indeed. 
    
       There is a proposal to make everyone toss a float and pick it up
    before the start of a race to prove everyone knows how to do a
    retrieval. I don't think this one will fly. Just makes it easier to
    have pre-start collisions. The only guy who didn't get dunked was a
    non-sailor who knew nothing of stopping a runaway boat. Practicing a
    recovery once does not improve the chances of a rookie stopping an
    out of control boat in my mind. It should be a lesson to all of us to
    make sure our normal crew knows how to effect a recovery. My crew knows
    the minute anything blows off the boat, we are going back for it 
    immmediately unless racing, as I like to the man overboard manauers to 
    become normal.  ( I must admit we have not tried to effect an
    unconsious person on board yet. Maybe next year while scrubbing the
    bottom).
    
       I also believe in the rule we have in Hobie racing that at 15 knts,
    the lifejacket flag goes out, and anyone seen without one has their
    boat disqualified. I like to carry really well made lifejackets that
    are comfortable. Easier to get people to wear one. In fact, I usually
    carry my own with me on other boats. Then I know I will be comfortable
    and safe. Makes a great Christmas gift...
    
       There may be a push to get the inflatible harness CG approved as
    they are less restrictive, yet provide needed bouyancy in a emergency.
    
        The final line of thought was the race was just about over and the
    win was in the bag. Complanency (sp) may have started to set in. The
    key here is to remember just because you are in home waters, or made
    landfall, you cannot let your guard down.