The death of a professional sailor who suffered a fatal head injury on a superyacht while preparing for a regatta in Antigua was an accident, a coroner has ruled.
Sam Richmond, 37, from Southampton, was a member of the crew on board the 102ft Southern Wind yacht Farfalla when the accident happened.
He was hit by a pulley after part of the rigging failed in March 2022 during training for the Superyacht Challenge.
He was knocked unconscious and taken to a hospital in Florida where he died two days later.
Mayday call
The inquest in Winchester, UK, heard that a pad eye – a type of bolt – on board the yacht had failed, causing a block – or pulley – to swing loose, hitting Mr Richmond on the head and causing him to lose consciousness.
In a statement, skipper Richard Chadburn said: “The block exploded into the back of Sam Richmond’s head.
“Following what happened a mayday call was put by the yacht, the sails were brought down and first aid was administered.”
The yacht was motored back to the shore and Mr Richmond transferred to hospital by ambulance.
Pad eye was the weak link
Sam Laidlaw from yacht owner, Red Birdwing, paid tribute to Mr Richmond.
“Sam was somebody I had sailed with on boats of various different sizes for over ten years, he was a great professional and would bring joy and enthusiasm,” he said.
And he told the inquest that examinations into the accident had found the cause of the loose block was the pad eye and he said the pad eye was ‘a very solid piece of metal’.
“You would expect the rigging to fail or training blocks to fail but you wouldn’t expect the pad eye to be the weak link,” he said.
Tighter checks
The inquest heard that tighter checks have now been introduced by Red Birdwing, and the components would be inspected and replaced every two years and new, stronger, titanium fittings are also now being used.
In his conclusion, coroner Jason Pegg said the pad eye had fractured due to ‘fatigue cracking, which had developed over time since the construction of the yacht in 2014’.
“The fatigue cracking was caused when cyclical forces were applied to the pad eye when the yacht was under sail and the pad eye was not aligned with the load of the rigging, which reduced the load-carrying capacity of the pad eye,” he said.
Yacht racing campaigns
“The pad eye had an inadequate maximum working load capacity for securing the runner turning block.”
Mr Richmond had been sailing since childhood, after learning the ropes in an Optimist dinghy at the age of six.
His transition from sailing as a hobby to a career began with a stint as an instructor in Spain, followed by coaching national youth squads.
He transferred to ‘big boat’ racing in 2004 and managed a variety of yacht racing campaigns.
Mr Richmond had worked as UK sales manager for sail-making firm North Sails in south-east England for more than a decade.
