Ocean Race skipper: Albatross moment broke my crew as we searched for John Fisher

Scallywag skipper David Witt has revealed how his friend and crew mate John Fisher lost his life during the Volvo Ocean Race.

In an interview with another friend Geoff Waller, Australian Witt describes the moments which led to Fisher's death in late March when Scallywag was battling cold and heavy seas about 700 miles from Cape Horn.

Video captured the tragic moments with Fisher being hit by part of the mainsheet. Witt has watched it numerous times, analysing what occurred.

Witt says Scallywag had trouble motoring back to where the 47-year-old British sailor went overboard. He also details the flash of false hope the crew went through, the failure of the boat's search system, and how time stood still during the long and agonising search.

In the interview, posted on sailingillustrated.com, Witt says Scallywagg had sailed conservatively after fixing broken gear following the Auckland stopover.

"We had lost 100 miles (but) weren't too worried about it because we knew what was going to happen with the weather, we knew there was going to be more carnage and a big high pressure system around the Horn — there was going to be a re-start of the race," he said.

"We sailed probably the most conservative we have ever sailed then the accident happened like two days later. We had all the right planning in place, it all went wrong on us.

"It was just a whole lot of things all went wrong at the same time, just one of those unfortunate things. It could have happened to me five minutes earlier."

Witt said the wind lifted from 35 to 45 knots and Scallywag "went down a massive wave and the boat nose-dived". The rudders came out of the water leaving the boat impossible to steer.

John Fisher

Witt said: "It happened to be at the same time Fish was forward trying to tie up a sheet or something...he sort of moved back, got into the wrong spot basically. When the boat jibed the boom came across — the mainsheet got him on the back of the neck.

"The boom didn't even get him, the boom is too high on these boats. It was a bit of the mainsheet at the wrong angle.

"I've watched (the video) quite a few time — I'm pretty confident he was dead before he hit the water. He actually ended up on the (sail) stack for a while. A wave came and he basically just rolled off the stack."

Witt said he called out to Fisher and received no communication back.

Witt said: "People have got to understand...I've read some ridiculous stuff...it was dark, just on dawn, and five degree water temperature which you can only last an hour in consciously.

"If you don't drown you've probably got about an hour before you go into full hypothermia, so about two hours is about the limit.

"I knew it was really imperative that I got the boat back on its feet to go back and try and find him as quickly as I could. (But) that's easier said than done when its five degree waters, 45 knots, eight metre seas.

"The crew did an amazing job, when you think back to what we did...within 15 minutes we were upright and trying to get back to the MOB (man overboard) position. The boys did everything right, the procedures right. One of the problems we had was it was so windy we couldn't motor.

"We were motoring up the seas, getting to the top, and the boat is coming back down the seas backwards because it can't motor strong enough...we had to get the storm jib up and motor sail, tack with the motor to get upwind of the MOB position, then we started our search, we didn't find him, we didn't find anything."

Witt confirmed the AIS (automatic identification system) antennae had broken after leaving Auckland, so they could not locate Fisher via his personal beacon. He thought they had been searching for about three minutes, and was told it was actually three-and-a-half hours.

Witt and at least one other crew member were close to hypothermia themselves, having not donned wet weather gear in the frantic search bid despite the cold water washing across the deck. Breaking point came when a potential sighting of Fisher turned out to be an albatross.

"There were pretty broken people, I had four or five people crying, really not being able to get it together after four and a half hours searching," said Witt, describing when they began to set sail towards Puerto Montt in southern Chile.

"I had to make the decision to look after the people who were on board and we weren't going to get him.

"We weren't in a very good state to make decisions, it was a pretty long seven days. It was a good thing we were all there together to talk through the whole thing and help each other. Then it dragged on a bit long.

"The pleasing thing for me was the team decided to continue the race before realising that was the wishes of Fisher's family, shore team and everything else.

"One of the hard things in these situations is people expecting how you should act...I don't think there is any real right or wrong answer. The last thing Fish would have wanted was his accident to cause the finish of the whole programme."

Witt said support from other teams "blew me away a bit".

"Everyone realises it could happen to anyone, it could easily be them. It changes you, that's for sure," he said.

"Our result was getting back in the race and having everybody in a sound mind and keen to keep going."

Witt details how Team Hun Sung/Scallywagg is still strong, with immediate plans to sail the Sydney to Hobart race, and the long term possibility of entering the America's Cup.

"It's pretty exciting for Scallywag going forward," he said.