{"id":162367,"date":"2026-03-25T06:33:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/?p=162367"},"modified":"2026-04-16T09:37:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T08:37:36","slug":"balancing-the-visceral-joy-of-sailing-with-its-mental-toll-nikki-henderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/comment\/balancing-the-visceral-joy-of-sailing-with-its-mental-toll-nikki-henderson-162367","title":{"rendered":"Balancing the visceral joy of sailing with its mental toll – Nikki Henderson"},"content":"It\u2019s rare that emails landed in my inbox with a subject like \u2018MAIB reports on fatal sailing accident\u2019. But a recent Monday was one of them.\r\n\r\nIn August this year a 74-year-old Kiwi skipper died after getting \u2018entangled in a powered winch\u2019<\/a> on his 57ft steel monohull Mollie<\/em>. He was a few miles offshore from the Needles, en-route to Poole, having sailed to Europe from New Zealand.\r\n\r\nThe MAIB report detailed what happened: a 24V electric winch with an intermittently defective control switch started turning unexpectedly as the skipper was removing a rope. His right hand got caught and he was pulled violently against the winch drum. With no emergency switch close by to cut the power to the winches, the crew could not free him in time, and he died. It\u2019s a harrowing read. But, read through it we must, without judgement or ego. Because we learn by reflecting on tragedy.\r\n\r\nElectric winches<\/a> are divisive. On one side, they make sailing dramatically more accessible, especially for those who aren\u2019t so physically able. But they also carry serious risks. Electric winches can create an unhealthy disconnect between sailors and their boats and nature.\r\n\r\nThey mask the loads involved, they tempt people into relying on power rather than technique, and they make mistakes happen faster, with more force and with greater consequence. In Mollie\u2019s case, these consequences were fatal.\r\n\r\nSo, how do we weigh the danger against the upside? Some might say keep it manual. But that\u2019s unrealistic. Once you\u2019ve used a power tool, it\u2019s hard to even fathom going back to the arduous, by-hand method. You\u2019re going to be hard pushed to persuade a tree surgeon to swap their chainsaw for a handsaw.\r\n\r\nArticle continues below...<\/em>\r\n\r\n[collection]\r\n\r\nThat comparison is useful, though. Everyone instinctively knows a chainsaw is dangerous. But electric and manual winches look almost identical. They operate in similar ways. Most have no automatic kill switch, no emergency stop beyond a fuse (which definitely won\u2019t blow before someone is dragged into the drum). It\u2019s too easy to underestimate the risk.\r\n\r\nIn September I was teaching a 19-year-old who\u2019d only ever sailed with manual winches how to operate a boat equipped with electrics. She had bad habits to unlearn, and to her frustration I asked her to repeat manoeuvres until she did them safely. By the end of the day she was ready to throw the entire winch at me. She\u2019d been using winches for years \u2013 why wasn\u2019t that enough?\r\n\r\nTwo things struck me. First, how little distinction she made between a manual winch and an electric one. To her they were essentially the same piece of kit. And muscle memory is only useful if it\u2019s correct. We\u2019d save a lot of grief if our training systems taught safe winch and rope handling to a consistent standard from the very first course \u2013 with consideration for the fact that every sailor will almost certainly apply those handling skills to an electric winch one day in the future.\r\n\r\nSo, what can we learn?\r\n\r\nFirst, electric winches need more obvious identification. Perhaps glow tape or red tags or warning labels would be a good start to signal danger. Manufacturers could adopt more stringent safety standards \u2013 what about emergency stop switches located right beside every winch, so an operator can kill power with a knee, hip or spare hand. Second, buttons and switches need regular servicing (and clear manufacturers\u2019 recommendations).\r\n\r\nThird, winch-handling education needs stronger emphasis. Even the absolute basics \u2013 like avoiding loose clothing, tying back long hair, or understanding that the winch itself is dangerous, not just the line attached to it \u2013are often missed fundamentals.\r\nPerhaps the most sobering detail in the report is the skipper was caught not while operating the winch, but while removing a non-working line from it. That could be any of us \u2013 training or no training.\r\n\r\nHopefully, this awful event will encourage reflections on the broader safety culture around electric winches. Because, as of today, it hasn\u2019t kept pace with how widely they\u2019re now used. Electric winch technology has outrun the training, regulation and awareness that should accompany it.\r\n\r\nI\u2019m not saying we shouldn\u2019t use them \u2013 far from it. I see first-hand how electric winches open doors for new boat owners, and that\u2019s a good thing. But, let\u2019s step up and make the changes we need.\r\n\r\n
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Do you find a sense of belonging at sea? A deep intuition that it\u2019s the right place for you? Dare I say it, but sometimes being offshore can oddly feel more emotionally comfortable than being in my own home. Life at sea is so sensory that the experience is incredibly visceral. The wind on your face, the movement of the boat, the sounds of waves, the distinct smells of human life down below \u2013 it\u2019s totally immersive. And that\u2019s why the memories of sailing linger so vividly. I sometimes find I can feel the memory. During the Covid pandemic, I remember putting my head out the window on a windy day and feeling immediately comforted. I suspect many of you will agree: sailing is healing. Even in tough conditions, its call for your presence pulls you entirely into the moment. It\u2019s not unlike a long distance trail run or a cold plunge; your body and mind are exhausted \u2013 and at the same time invigorated. But, with big highs come big lows. Sometimes as sailors we can pay a high price. And, this is a side of sailing often overlooked. Article continues below… Watching famous freeclimber Alex Honnold scale a skyscraper on television recently made me realise that our sports sit in similar territory. Sailing, climbing, alpinism, long distance hiking, biking \u2013 all carry real, inherent risk. That hit home in January with the sombre report of the crewmember on Walross 4 who was injured during the RORC Transatlantic Race and later died. I doubt anyone involved with that incident would view that voyage as healing. And the wounds left by that death far exceed just the casualty. Yes, sailing can be deeply healing, but we also need to acknowledge its potential long-term psychological cost. On the final day of last year\u2019s Middle Sea Race \u2013 the day we crossed the line in first place \u2013 I experienced a harrowingly close call when the mainsheet clipped a crewmember\u2019s neck. Thankfully, they survived without any lasting physical injury. It was a near miss and nothing \u2018bad\u2019 happened in the end. Yet, in the weeks that followed, I struggled to get over it. Once the symptoms worsened enough, I investigated and realised I was suffering from PTSD. And, not for the first time. I recognised the emotional turmoil from earlier in my career, when I arrived in Fremantle during the Clipper Round the World Race after sailor Simon Speirs had died on another boat. Again, nothing had happened directly to me, yet the psychological impact was long lasting. In fact, after over a decade sailing professionally, I\u2019ve now realised that rescues I\u2019ve been involved in, the \u2018close calls\u2019, and tragedies I\u2019ve witnessed have all left their mark. I\u2019ve since seen many sailors affected by experiences others might dismiss: severe seasickness, rig failures, bullying or major conflict, minor injuries that were millimetres away from lost limbs or worse… Near misses and scary moments at sea can stay with us in unexpected ways. And, …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":155362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[969],"tags":[1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162367"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162368,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162367\/revisions\/162368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162367"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=162367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}