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Just a cautionary note

5K views 39 replies 37 participants last post by  Padeen2 
#1 ·
. . . . . and perhaps unnecessary for the wise amongst us.

When there is a problem with your anchor winch, stay the heck away and carefully figure out what to do before doing anything.

We were out on our annual sailing holiday and were anchored shallower (but not seriously shallower) than we should have been. I wanted to ensure that when the tide turned an hour later, we wouldn't be blown further into the shallows so I went up on deck and hauled up the slack on the anchor chain using the anchor winch.

The winch started running as expected but when I let the control go, the winch never stopped. The boat was semi-aground in soft mud so wasn't going to move and thus the chain went tight, jumped out of the gypsy, did this again a few times so without thinking, I waited for it to jump again and grabbed the chain to keep it out of the gypsy. As I did, the tail fell back into the gypsy and before I knew it, my hand was drawn in.

OK I know there will be many automatic responses of "You should know better". Believe me, that has been said to me by everyone I know, everyone in the hospital and many times by myself so save it.

Anyway, luckily the chain jumped again just a second before it went bar-tight and I got my hand out.

So, purpose of this post? Just a warning of what can happen.



I think the surgeons have managed to save the end of the finger. I'll have the rest of my sailing holiday at home thinking about how to avoid this in the future and to find out what went wrong with the winch.
 
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#31 ·
You know you've been a nurse too long when you can look at that pic and hear yourself thinking, "Hmm, pizza sounds good."
 
#33 ·
Ouch Andre. I hope you make a complete and speedy recovery. I'd point out that windlasses and winches are a serious danger and several members, including Andre, have been injured by them in the last two years.

It is good idea to not have the windlass controls where you can reach them and still have your hands on the rode—since that's how most of the serious injuries involving a windlass occur.
 
#36 ·
Ouch! Man, I can identify with that. I “popcorned” the end of my finger with a skill saw. No way to stitch it as the skin was just shredded and the meat was just exploded. I took the advise of a friend and it really worked out well for me. It took us about an hour but we carefully pieced it all back together, lathered it with Neosporin and taped it up. I changed the dressing every day and re applied the Neosporin each time. I did this until it was completely healed; I never let it get hard or develop any kind of a scab. It took about three months but today I have 100% feeling in that fingertip and the scar is barely visible.

That’s a really nasty looking wound and I hope your healing goes as well as mine. Keep that thing clean and keep it soft until it’s completely healed.

DB
 
#37 ·
Owwwwwwww!

Nasty, but you are very lucky. Stupid, yeah, but we've all done stupid stuff. And thanks for sharing if for no other reason than to reinforce what we *should* all know.

My favorite sailing saying is "If a sailboat was a factory, OSHA would shut it down". Pinch points alone make a boat a dangerous place to play.
(OSHA being the Occupational, Safety and Health Admin. ; the guys here in the States that enforce workplace safety)

I've just barely dinged my thumb and a finger on the tablesaw and bandsaw respectively; can hardly even see the white line it left. :eek: Hurt like hell though.

This past winter my Dad lopped off the nail and tip of two fingers w/a radial arm saw. No sewing THEM back together!:eek:
 
#38 ·
I was once man hauling a chain whilst under power in the pitch dark after having run aground.I had earlier in the day plodded through the mud with the anchor and chain to set it at the mouth of the shallow creek in which I was stranded.
Both under power and man hauling the boat came of the sandbank shot forwards and overran the chain which as I recall was somehow tangled in the pulpit.
I ended up with my hand wrapped between the chain and pulpit and had to release it using the hand.
My friend cut the power and as the boat drifted back the chain went slack.
Luckily didnt loose anything!
 
#39 ·
Reminds me a of a MayDay call I heard a couple of years ago. Seems as though the captain ran the anchor line back to a stern cleat and would release it from the helm. One of his crew happened to get his thumb wrapped around the line and had it severed in the process. They had the thumb on ice and were heading into port ASAP. No idea how his thumb turned out but it's a good reminder to keep your hands and feet away from any line that could possibly have tension on it. Something I always remind anyone on board while sailing.
 
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