Cowes Week yachtsman dies after falling off the boat

These are the conditions at Cowes that took the life of a sailor. The man was washed over the side north of Osborne Bay during a Lendy Cowes Week Race on August 10.

The man, aged in his sixties, was seriously injured after falling into the sea. The Cowes RNLI Lifeboat team said they went through rough sea to get to him. It is thought that the man was dragged through the water by his boat’s mainsheet.

According to the lifeboat crew, the first person to reach the man in the water was another man who dived into the sea from another yacht called Riff Raff, part of the RS Elite fleet.

The injured man was pulled out of the water and put onto a RIB which was then escorted by the RNLI to the Trinity Landing pontoon. However despite their efforts, neither the RIB team or the RNLI crew were able to resuscitate him.