The Culprit
31 July 2017 | Brighton
sunny, occasional breeze
Having struggled with boat speed when the wind was dead astern we decided to break out the Code Zero reacher and hoist it to check out the furler. There was little or no wind in the marina so up she went fine and dandy. As Sod's Law dictates, the moment the sail was up a whiff of a zephyr rippled across the harbour, cracking the sheets and catching me a sore one across the chest. I heard a crack and an "OOOF" from the jetty and looked round just in time to see Chris keel over on the pontoon and lie flat on his back with his feet up on a tender. A high speed bight in the lazy sheet had whacked him on the temple sharply enough to cause concussion which we didn't realise until we got to Ramsgate when his continued nausea resulted in an emergency trip to the hospital for a CT scan. Fortunately no permanent damage was done, it was his head after all...
Here is the culprit back in its bag.