Fatal accident on board the recreational sailing vessel Mollie
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-27)

Location: The Solent, England.

Completed preliminary assessment (PA) summary 4/25: Mollie

Synopsis

Shortly before 1218[footnote 1] (#fn:1) on 5 August 2025, the skipper of the New Zealand registered recreational sailing vessel Mollie (Figure 1) died on board after becoming entangled in a powered winch approximately 2.8 nautical miles south‑south-west of the Needles Lighthouse, Isle of Wight, England.

Earlier in the day, Mollie had departed from West Wittering for a passage to Poole with the skipper and three crew on board. The skipper, Lyall Babington, was a 74-year-old New Zealand national who had set off from New Zealand about 3 years earlier, intending to sail Mollie around the world. The vessel was the skipper’s permanent residence and he had engaged crew in the various ports he visited to assist him with his planned voyage. These crew were unpaid and contributed to their on board living costs. Two of the crew had joined Mollie the day before the accident, the third crew member had been on and off the vessel for about 5 months.

At around 1100, Mollie was sailing towards Poole and had reached the Western Solent. The skipper informed the crew that they needed to raise the storm jib sail to try and improve the upwind progress of the vessel. To hoist the storm jib sail the halyard[footnote 2] (#fn:2) was usually taken to a powered winch at the aft of the cockpit where there were a pair of powered 24-volt (V) direct current (DC) winches mounted on a pedestal (Figure 2). The winches were normally operated by pressing the control switches fitted to the pedestal with the user’s knee. Earlier on the day of the accident, the inboard winch had been used to hoist Mollie’s tender and the hoist rope was left turned around the winch.

As the skipper started to clear the hoist rope from the inboard winch it started to turn, and the skipper’s right hand became caught in the rope around it. As the winch continued to turn the skipper was progressively pulled tighter onto the winch drum, causing severe injuries to his arm and hand, trauma to his head and chest, and pinning him around the winch. The crew tried to stop the winch using the control switch. After a number of attempts the winch stopped turning and the crew assessed the skipper for signs of life. The skipper was unresponsive and tightly wound over and around the winch and the crew called His Majesty’s Coastguard and raised a “Mayday” at 1218.

At 1223 and 1229 respectively, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and rescue helicopter R175 were tasked. Both were on scene by 1249. The RNLI crew boarded the vessel and tried to free the skipper from the winch. As they did so, and without warning, the winch activated and released the skipper and he fell onto the deck. The RNLI crew performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and a paramedic from R175 was lowered onto the vessel. Despite CPR efforts the skipper was declared deceased at 1305. Mollie was taken to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. A postmortem examination of the skipper was carried out, the results of which are pending.

Findings

On 6 August 2025, a preliminary assessment was conducted that included examination of the scene, operation of the aft cockpit winches and an inspection of the switches and powering arrangements. The preliminary assessment identified that:

The skipper died after being pulled into the rope that was turned around the inboard aft winch, probably by his right hand, and becoming entangled around the winch drum.

The inboard winch had a known intermittent defect to its control switch, which sometimes caused the winch to continue to operate after the control switch had been released.

There was no local emergency stop fitted to the aft winches and no means of isolating the winches from the vessel’s 24V DC power system. To cut power to the winches required isolating the 24V DC system by turning off the batteries in Mollie’s forward cabin.

The powered winch had likely been installed by a small boatyard, and the installation was not mass-produced.

Actions taken

No further actions have been taken.

All times are universal time coordinated (UTC) +1 unless otherwise stated. ↩ (#fnref:1)

A line for hoisting or lowering a sail, flag or spar. ↩ (#fnref:2)