‘Popular’ sailor killed in world yacht race

● Tether investigated after Simon Speirs is swept overboard in gale force winds

A British sailor who died after being swept overboard during a prestigious round-the-world yacht race has been described as a popular and sensible man.

Simon Speirs, from Bristol, was taking part in the 11th edition of the biennial Clipper Round The World Yacht Race as it crossed from South Africa to Australia during leg three of the race.

The 60-year-old retired solicitor was racing on board the Great Britain yacht,and had been on the foredeck of the 70ft vessel to help change a sail when the incident happened.

Mr Speirs had been wearing a lifejacket packed with a beacon and approved waterproof ocean oilskins. He was given a Christian burial at sea yesterday.

Describing Mr Speirs as a “popular chap” who was “very sensible”, race co-founder Sir Robin Knox-johnston said the sailor with more than 40 years’ dinghy experience was washed off the deck in gale force winds.

Mr Speirs then became separated from the boat, which was in the Southern Ocean in rough seas with 20 knots of wind.

“It is absolutely tragic to lose someone like this,” Sir Robin said.

“He was clipped on with the safety tether. He had done additional training, he was an experienced sailor and he was one of the safety committee on the boat.”

Pressed on what the death might mean for the rest of the race, Sir Robin said the tether in question needed to be examined by the Clipper team and safety professionals.

He said a joint decision would be made on how to proceed in conjunction with specialists.

The death of Mr Speirs is the third in the 21-year history of the Clipper race. An independent investigation alongside the Marineaccidentinvestigation Bureau is being undertaken, which is a normal process following such incidents.

“The tether was state-of-theart,” Sir Robin said.

“It was new for this race, it is top of the range, it has got type approval by everyone.

“All we know is that he was tethered on and that something has gone wrong.”

The competitors still racing have been instructed to use both clips on their tethers as an extra precaution until it can be established what happened.

Sir Robin said the crew and the medical team on board did everything they could to save Mr Speirs. He revealed his heart sank when he received the call to say a sailor had gone overboard.

“We train hard to get people back if they go over and indeed they did a brilliant job, getting him back in 36 minutes, which in those conditions is very, very good indeed,” he added. “It shows the training really did cut in properly and the crew did a very good job. There were three medics on board, a surgeon, a doctor and a paramedic. Really that boat was strong from a medical standpoint.

“They all worked for nearly an hour to resuscitate him, but he never regained consciousness.

“If it was possible to bring him around, that was the team to do it.”