Skipper dies after being wound round his boat’s faulty electric winch

The skipper of the Mollie died after becoming entangled around the electric winch drum, an MAIB investigation has concluded

An investigation by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has concluded that the skipper of the New Zealand-registered yacht, Mollie died after becoming entangled around an electric winch drum.

Lyall Babington, 74, was sailing 2.8nm south-south-west of the Needles Lighthouse off the Isle of Wight with crew when the fatal accident happened. He lived on board the 57ft steel yacht and left New Zealand three years ago to sail around the world.

On 5 August 2025, Mollie left West Wittering for a passage to Poole. Babington was sailing with three other crew members; two had joined the day before, and the third crew member had been sailing the yacht on and off for around five months.

Once Mollie had reached the Western Solent, Babington informed the crew that they needed to raise the storm jib to try to improve the boat’s upwind progress. To do this, the halyard was usually taken to the cockpit‘s aft pedestal electric winches, which were controlled with a switch usually activated by the user’s knee.

The winches were powered by 24-volt direct current, and the inboard aft electric winch was known to have an intermittent switch defect, which caused the winch to continue turning even after the switch had been released.  Earlier in the day, it had been used to hoist the yacht’s tender, and the hoist line had been left turned around the winch.

Lyall Babington wanted to sail Mollie around the world and had left New Zealand three years ago. Credit: MAIB

When Babington went to clear the hoist line from the inboard aft winch, it suddenly began to turn, trapping his hand.

As the winch continued to turn, he was pulled tighter onto the winch drum until he was eventually tightly wound over and around the winch.

The crew tried to stop the winch by pushing the control button, and after several attempts, the electric winch stopped.

Babington was found unresponsive. The crew issued a Mayday and the crew of rescue helicopter R175 and Yarmouth RNLI attended.

RNLI volunteers boarded the yacht and tried to free Babington from the winch; without warning, the winch activated and released the skipper.

CPR was performed, but Babington was later declared dead. Mollie was taken to Yarmouth.

The MAIB report concludes that:

• Lyall Babington 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 in 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.

No further actions have been taken.

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