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Safe by Design
Yachting, as long as done competently and responsibly, is quite a safe activity1. Nevertheless, on most yachts, there is considerable room for improvement. Safety has been a design priority and safety facets have been optimized throughout the development.
Crew Competence
This is by far the most important facet of safety and every sailor is well advised to get as much training, education and practical experience as feasible.
A yacht can’t make a crew more or less competent. A well-designed yacht, however, makes it easier for a competent crew to give their best and doesn’t get in their way.
  • The old rule “if you think about reefing, do it” may not be acted on right away if reefing is a lengthy and cumbersome process. On Lynx, reefing and shaking out reefs can be done quickly, effortlessly and easily from the cockpit. Hence it is much more likely done as soon as it occurs to the skipper and not when it is too late. The same applies to trimming, setting a preventer, etc.
  • Maintaining a good lookout, while navigating and taking care of other urgent things is a challenge if there is good visibility only from the cockpit and the navigation station is hidden away somewhere in the dark. On Lynx, there is good visibility from everywhere – cockpit, pilot house incl. navigation station and below, which makes it much easier and much more likely to keep an eye at the surroundings at all times.
The Human Factor
Human error is the most frequent cause of accidents. While it is easy to second—guess the errant skipper and attribute the error to incompetence or carelessness, the reality is much more subtle. Even for a highly competent crew a sequence of seemingly correct decisions can result in a serious mistake. It is prudent to understand these patterns and to learn how to avoid typical mistakes.

Decisions get worse and more erratic as tiredness, cold and seasickness set in. Lynx counteracts these by being see-kindly, easy to sail and maintain, warm, comfortable and by protecting the crew from the elements. A watch is much less tiring for the crew and the rest during the off-watch is much better. The crew stays warm in the first place, has a much easier time preventing getting sick and recovers faster. A rested, healthy and warm crew is a safer crew.
Accident Types
Accident reports make for sobering reading, whether in their official, unabridged form, or in press articles or in books about the subject2. A few types of incidents result in almost all accidents, injuries and deaths. Eliminating these issues as far as possible increases safety by a large margin, especially if the human factors are dealt with effectively.

Good statistics are hard to come by. Kruse (pg. 50) estimates casualties to be in line with the casualties of driving cars. The comparison is on the basis of the Clipper Ventures numbers.
An excellent summary (in German) is Jan-Erik Kruse, Yachtunfälle. Gefahren erkennen. Risiken minimieren 2023 (978-3-667-12762-4)