Tragedie op ABN AMRO TWO in
de Volvo Ocean Race.
Op 18 mei
2006 gebeurt het fatale tijdens de Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006. Aan boord van de ABN AMRO TWO om 02.11
GMT is het bemanningsleid Hans Horrevoets, 32-jarige Nederlander, bezig met het
trimmen van de spinnaker.
Het schip vaart tegen een 30 knopen door
metershoge golven en is nog een
Hiermede
betuigen wij aan Petra zijn vrouw en Bobbi zijn dochtertje ons medeleven alsook
voor de bemanningen van de ABN AMRO TWO en van de andere boten in de VOR.
Hans Horrevoets
Wat is er juist gebeurd ?
Heel vroeg
in de morgen zeilde de ABN AMRO TWO met 25-30 knopen wind onder grootzeil,
spinnaker en stagfok. De
schipper, Sebastien Josse, stond aan het roer. Hans Horrevoets was de spinnaker aan
het trimmen en ook Nick Bice, Andrew Lewis en Lucas Brun waren aan dek. Een grote golf
spoelde over dek en als het water weg was was Hans niet meer aan dek.
ABN AMRO
TWO navigator Simon Fisher vertelt wat gebeurde :
"Onmiddellijk
gaf de schipper het MOB signaal en riep iedereen aan dek. Ikzelf bleef benedendeks om de MOB
procedures en GPS positie in te stellen. De spinnaker ging onmiddellijk naar
beneden, de stagfok opgerold en de stuurboordkiel neegelaten. De motor was ondertussen gestart en
met motor-zeil-vaart ging het terug. Met de harde wind op kop ging ook het
grootzeil naar beneden waardoor het moeilijk werd om koers te houden in de
richting van MOB positie."
"Eens
Hans was gevonden ging Simeon Tienpont met droogpak, harnas en lijn te water om
de drenkeling aan boord te halen. Ondertussen kregen we medische standby
van het Derriford Hospital, Plymout UK. Hans werd benedendeks gebracht en we constateerden geen
hartslag. CPR
(hartmassage en beademing) werden gestart door de eerstehulp bemanningsleden
George Peet, Nick Bice, Andrew Lewis, Lucas Brun en Luke Malloy, die hiervoor
een opleiding volgden.
CPR werd gestopt om 04.20 UTC."
Spijtig
genoeg waren alle inspanningen tevergeefs en er werd dan besloten om zo snel
mogelijk naar Engeland te zeilen.
Movistar
Twee dagen
later werd het aan boord van de Movistar kritiek door een lekkage aan de kiel. Met de hevige
wind (35-40 knopen) en na de gijp verdubbelde in binnenlopende
water en een tweede hulppomp moest worden gestart. Dan wou de schipper Bouwe Bekking het risico
niet meer lopen om zijn bemanning nog verder bloot te stellen aan een mogelijk schipbreuk.
Na de
mayday werd er afgesproken dat de ABN AMRO TWO de bemanning zou aan boord nemen
in afwachting dat er hulp kwam. Iedereen ging aan boord van een
reddingsvlot en namen in de mate van het mogelijk ook persoonlijke spullen,
communicatiemiddelen en voedsel mee. Het tweede reddingsvlot werd niet
opgeblazen maar zo meegenomen zodat er uiteindelijk een reddingsvlot meer zou
zijn op de ABN AMRO TWO.
De
bemanning van beide boten werden terdege op de proef gesteld alhoewel
het tweede avontuur in tegenstelling met het eerste beter afliep.
UIT PERSCONFERENTIES :
Roy
Heiner Technical Sailing Director TEAM ABN AMRO
There is nothing in the world that can
prepare you for something like this. These are sailors that need to continue in
the future. Hans was a very personal friend, we sailed round the world together
and I would like to share with you some of the things we have done with Hans:
The body was transferred in Falmouth, around 0837 yesterday. We spent the night waiting on the Dutch frigate to rendezvous
with ABN AMRO TWO. We took the body out of the hold, put it on a stretcher, had
a minute of silence, and Hans was transferred to the rubber dinghy and put into
the frigate van Galen. The frigate went to Dover, where the body was transferred
to a helicopter so that it could be taken to Rotterdam, Sestenhoven airport. The family were waiting and saw
the body. They were deeply grateful to the crew.
The planning is for the funeral to be on Saturday. The body was released this
morning by the coroner.
I have here a statement from the family. Mariek van der Rij, sister of Petra.
In her grief, Petra cannot find her words to express her sadness. We are very
grateful to the crew that they were able to recover Hans under these
circumstances. Hans and the crew will be in our hearts forever.
This is a very respectful moment. ABN AMRO looks at it like that. One of our
team members has suffered an unfortunate moment. I would like to thank ABN for
their efforts, for providing assistance and appropriate action in helping Hans,
Petra and Horrevoets families in the future. Their will be statements made
later.
Roy Heiner:
We hope this press
conference will promote seamanship and safety on the ocean.
This team has been fantastically courageous, and has done many great things as
far as seamanship is concerned, being out there in extreme moments on the
ocean. I am very proud of them.
Sebastien Josse on what happened:
We sailed downwind 25-30
knots wind, I was on wheel, Hans on spinnaker sheet. One nosedive, and
Hans was not on board. We started the procedure of rescue for Hans. He did not
have a harness or life jacket.
Simon Fisher on what happened:
We had all got up for a sail
change, had everyone on deck. There was 12 knots of wind. During that
change, the wind went from 12-14 knots to 25 knots quite quickly. We put
a spinnaker on, and it got quite windy and the waves got big. We went downstairs to put our harnesses on.
Hans was hanging on to the most important sail and
would have been the last to go down. The wind was getting up quite quickly. We
were in the process of clipping on. Prior to changing the sail, it was our
intention that all the crew would wear our harnesses at night. As sailors, we
are also trying to make the boat go as fast as we can. We take safety very
seriously but at the same time we are sailing a race.
I spent the majority of the rescue operation below. Being the navigator,
I was responsible for hitting the man overboard button, making sure we got back
to the place where we lost Hans.
It blew me
away how professional this team was. In Melbourne we discussed this procedure,
so we were all prepared. Within minutes, the boat was completely cleared up.
These boats go very fast - downwind at 25 knots, but we were only
The guys on deck had released jon buoy, an inflatable man overboard device. We
put as much stuff in the water as we could to make it as easy as possible to
find Hans. Half a mile away we found life ring and at point two of a mile we
found the jon buoy, and shortly thereafter we found Hans.
Obviously it has been very difficult. We are a very strong team. Weve spent a
lot of time together in the last year and a half. We've been there for each
other to deal with the situation. It was unfortunately that we had to pick up
the movistar crew, but it was good for our crew to see some friendly faces and
talk about it, so it was nice as well.
Gerd Jan Poortman (not on the boat)
For me I had a few days to deal with it and talk with people and prepare
myself for the arrival. Personally I was impressed with the clapping. I
was relieved; a big weight came off my shoulders. Its been very sad these
last few days but that day was a moment of celebration for me.
Nick Bice on whether Hans was wearing a harness:
All the people on deck at
the time except Hans were clipped on. He was trimming
the spinnaker, the most important sail and the last person to go to get clipped
on is that guy. A matter of 30 sec or a minute and he wouldve been down to put
on his harness. Everyone else on deck at that time was clipped on.
Roy Heiner
You cant all go down to clip on at the same time,
you have to go down one by one.
Sebastien Josse
Save your life.
Simeon Tienpont
It is your own responsibility to clip on. I work on the bow and get hit a
lot by waves and I always wear a harness. In our team, Seb has always been
clear about this and so have the watch captains, but it is our own
responsibility to clip on, and you have to take that responsibility as well.
Roy Heiner answering a question about how exactly Hans had died:
We will only know this when
autopsy is done. We have not heard the results of that.
Simon Fisher on whether ABN AMRO TWO will continue:
We will make that decision
as a team together. We dont have to rush. We will make
an announcement later.
George Peet on the medical procedure
Upon the man overboard call, there were plenty of people on deck to handle
the situation. Once we were turned around and were under control, I went
back downstairs with Simon Fisher and immediately contacted the medical people
in England and told them the situation, told them my plan, and prepared everything we had. We broke the safety seals, got
out all our medical boxes and had all the stuff ready to go. As soon as we got
Hans onboard we initiated basic CPR, and life support.
We were really, really limited with the facilities we had on board to save
someone.
Simeon Tienpont on medical procedure and retrieving Hans from the water
By the time we found Hans, we saw he was drowned.
George went for all the cpr. As soon as we got him on the deck, we had him downstairs
within a minute and we started immediately with five of us
trying to resuscitate him, checking on each other, keeping the right pace and
being as professional as we could. We tried to warm him up. George and I spoke
to the doctors in the UK, and asked them for advice.
After we turned the boat I went downstairs. Each person has a certain task on
the boat what to do with a man overboard. We followed
that procedure; I put on my survival suit and flares. I sat at the back of the
boat. When we found Hans, it was purely a call from Seb as to whether I went
overboard or not to help retrieve him. We were doing 3 knots and you dont
want to be dragged away from the boat. When we saw
him, he was six metres from the boat. The swell was too big, but we tried once
to get to him. Seb decided not to go from the boat again, but to do another two
laps and this time he came really close to the boat,
and then we could grab him.
Roy Heiner on the safety of the Volvo Open 70
In general, whatever boat you have at sea, it will be dangerous. I think it
is a great but we must always remember the sea is a dangerous place.
Luke Molloy
I was actually inside the boat when Hans was washed overboard. We had just finished a sail change, dropping the
spinnaker and I was packing it. I was still in my thermals and I went
down to put on my harness and foul weather gear with George. While we were
getting ready, boat nosedived, heeled to windward, and we heard water coming
down the deck. We heard the sail flogging and shaking whole rig. Seb screamed,
MAN OVERBOARD everyone on deck. I got out the hatch and assisted where I could.
Simeon Tienpont
When I came on deck we were preparing for a reef. Lucas and Andrew Lewis
had everything set up. I had just packed the masthead spinnaker. I grabbed a
grinder. Water swept over the deck. I think two seconds later Seb was saying,
where is Hans, where is Hans? Within no time we
realized he was gone, the spinnaker was flapping, we were grinding it on and
nothing was happening of course. Scott Beavis ran straight away to the
jon buoy and I went back to the smoke unit and life buoy and threw it
overboard. At the time, the guys spiked the spinnaker off and snuffed it
down. I went back to grinding and pulling the kite down. Seb and everyone
knew we had a plan. We furled the mainsail, got the dagger board down,
and we tacked. And I went downstairs to put on my gear for the rescue.
Simon Fisher
While we were trying to resuscitate Hans, Scott Beavis was on deck,
motoring downwind to make it as stable as possible for the guys doing
cpr. After we stopped, it was a few hours before we got going again. We had to obviously speak to Volvo to make sure everyone clear
about what had happened. We had turned around in a
rush and the sails had been dropped on the deck quickly. We stopped and tidied
our boat up. We ended resuscitation at 0420, and it took an hour to take stock
and sit down together as a crew and talk a little. An hour later we were
sailing again. At a steady pace, but not race pace. As the hours went by, we
were eager to get back into our normal watch system, and a day later we were
back to sailing full speed.
Lucas Brun
I was on deck when everything happened, helping Andrew Lewis get kite down,
preparing everything. We all did our roles onboard. As soon as we got Hans
onboard, it was very tough situation to deal with. He
was trimming, joking with you, the next minute we were dragging him out of the
water. Nothing can prepare you for that. Then you have to let the
person go. Then you have to be on deck in your watch. Normally there are four
of us in a watch, now in one watch there were only
three. What would we be saying? What would we be talking about?.
You cant be prepared, you just cant imagine.
I think the entire group, not just me, would take the decision to sail the
Volvo again. Accidents do happen. This was an accident, it could have happened
to any one of us. It is just life.
It was very difficult.
Simon Fisher
I knew it would be hard arriving on dock. It is normally an emotional
moment, but it really blew me away when we arrived back here. It drove home how
much support there is for everyone in this race, and what a close-knit family
we are.
Nick Bice on the movistar rescue
I was steering at the time, when the call came to go to movistar. I just
wanted to make sure those guys were safe as well. We
have a lot of friends on that boat too. It makes your heart sink. The
only thing in my mind was to get those guys off the boat. The call had to be
made; whether they had to jump off or stay onboard. It could have been
disaster, when Bouwe made his decision, we got them off. I havent seen 10 happier guys step onto a Volvo 70, and it was great
to get them to shore safely.
Simeon Tienpont on whether he would do the Volvo Ocean Race again
I think so. Of course it blows you away, but I think when you are out there
your world is on a Volvo 70. It is
On safety
Im not really afraid after accident. Especially after we have gone through
the southern ocean, where the water was really cold and the nights pretty
dark. Everybody started realizing at that stage that if you fall
overboard, that is going to be a tough situation. At that stage you think about
it yourself. Speaking personally, I always do my own thing; I always clip on,
not only for myself but also for the team. Hans was one of the guys on our boat
that was always pushing for safety. I dont feel more unsafe after this than
before. I never felt really unsafe. It doesnt change
the sailing.
Seb on rescuing movistar
The fact that the we rescued the team from movistar and that we were able
to save ten extra lives was an amazing feat.
Simon Fisher on whether they were prepared for the rescue of 10 people?
No. Obviously we did the survival training here in the UK in Hamble,
getting in and out of life rafts etc, but never as a
team did we try to pick up a life raft and get people off the boat. As
difficult as it is, we did it in 10-15 knots of wind and a nasty swell. It was
difficult. If we had had to do it in 50 knots, the odds would have been
stacked. It was a testament to our crew how professionally they handled it. It
was good Bouwe agreed to do it our way. It was done very nicely. The guys
jumped into the raft, and we were able to come alongside and pick the guys off
their raft. Movistar came around and got the raft back to them and we repeated
the whole procedure.
Roy Heiner on movistar
I received a telephone call from Bouwe for the amazingly professional way
they ABN AMRO TWO carried out the rescue. Not one thing went wrong. He
thanked us for it.
Luke Malloy on life jackets
In Spain we had some really expensive lifejackets with harnesses round legs
with jacket around the neck. But it was very comfortable to wear with the
weight of the jacket on your neck and it was causing pain down our spines as
well as on our necks and shoulders. After leg
one, we chose just webbing harnesses and found them easier to wear. You have to
find something that is easier to wear. These are ones we like wearing and we
wear them readily.
Roy Heiner the future
It might seem strange, but when we talked in Falmouth we decided our goal
was the end of today in our thinking process. We wanted to make sure we could
put this press conference behind us and that the
sailors could get in the climate to move on. The structure at the moment is
that the sailors decide if they compete in the next leg of the VOR. It is the
decision of the sailors if they decide to carry on. They have to decide
as a team, and we will not allow the team to be split. It is a possible they
will not sail, it is possible they will sail. The choice is up to them. After
today we will start this process of thinking. Out of respect of Hans, we
first have to get through today.
Hans contributed to the success of team, he is embodied in the team. He was
completely committed to offshore sailing; he was part
of the selection process that selected the team. He only stepped onto boat at a
later stage because of a crewmember not able to race. He became part of the
crew before the race. It was a complete dream for him. He was completely happy, nothing could be more important to him in his sailing
life. He was very compassionate and hard working very team orientated player.
Roy Heiner - on psychologist
We have a professional psychologist with us. She
came with us on the boat in Falmouth. She is
there to listen and make suggestions. Depending on the situation we found on
the boat, she would be able to help
professionally. Her name is Luz de Ridder.
Simeon Tienpont on memories of Hans
As a sailor he was of great value. We were talking the first night out. Hed
never sailed at night on a Volvo 70. It was
blowing over 40 knots of wind, and he showed his value to us
as a team. He was really pushing, driving to win and hanging on to the
wheel.
He was a very social guy and very pleasant to have on
the boat. He was from my own country, and it is always easier if you need to
speak with each other, maybe youre closer sometimes. Every moment we sailed
together, we loved it.
George Peet memories of Hans
Of all the guys on the boat I knew Hans the best. He was the opposite
trimmer to me, on the opposite watch. We
always had to work closely together on every sail change. We are both really
competitive guys, out of the same mould. We almost had
a punch-up about two hours before this happened, going into another sail
change. Hmm, that was pretty intense. And then all this happened, you can put
it behind you pretty quickly. It wasnt necessarily bad, it is all in
competitive spirit. You dont always see eye to
eye, but you try to do it quickly and keep the boat going.
Andrew Lewis memories of Hans
I was on watch with Hans. Offshore there is a bowman and watch captain, a
trimmer and a pitman. I was offshore pitman and Hans was the
trimmer. Off watch, he was the person I ate meals with and person I woke up
with. Now there are only 3 people on my watch. It is hard to be woken up
by George or Luke and me sitting there by myself. Your off time is your own
time, the only chats I had were with Hans. I spent the last four days
alone on my off watches cleaning my own dishes and no one there to really talk
to. A hard one.
He was always a positive guy, first to grab a bucket to bilge the boat out,
first one to strap a bucket over a cap that was leaking. If he didnt have time to get ready to go up on deck, he would go up in
thermals and get soaking wet. None of us will forget.
He is one of the reasons I am here. Hans felt we
were good enough to sail and we are reaching the next level
of sailing. It is so unfortunate, but these things happen. Hans was
definitely a very important part of this crew.
Roy Heiner on who the team will be if the boat continues sailing
I think it is too early to say anything, it is completely the choice of the
crew if they carry on or not. But what we have said is that there will be no
new team members. Either everyone has to do it or no one does it. That
means Johnny (Gerd Jan Poortman) would be on the
team if the team decides to carry on and Johnny would be part of that
decision.