We know that RIB crews and Instructors in our Junior Sailing Programmes are given the most rigorous training in safety writes W M Nixon. Yet over the years who hasn’t occasionally seen an outboard-driven RIB being treated as though it’s a toy, designed for playing harmless nautical chicken? But in reality any propellor – and an outboard propeller in particular – is probably the most lethal weapon with which you could possibly share the sea, even when it is being used responsibly with the best intentions.

So a report here in American Scuttlebutt will strike a chill in the hearts and minds of all thinking sailors. Put simply, a ten year old boy sailing pupil has been killed by an instructor’s RIB while taking part in a capsizing exercise. The story is here. It may have happened in America. But it is always lurking, ready to happen anywhere.