A yachtsman was crushed to death yesterday after his 29ft Westerly GK29 fell on top of him in the yard, at Weymouth Sailing Club.
Kevin Keeler, 56, a company director who ran locally based software company Software Dimensions Ltd, died at the scene despite paramedics efforts to revive him. He had taken his 1980 glassfibre yacht, Ginny Kwik, out of the water last week for maintenance to be ready for the summer season. The vessel appears to have been held in a four way metal cradle – it was not being moved at the time according to Euan McNair, commodore of Weymouth Sailing Club.
Kevin Keeler
The Commodore added that Keeler had joined the club last summer. “He was coming up to a year of membership and it’s tragic this has happened. Everybody is shocked, and our thoughts go out to his relatives.”
Meanwhile the club’s yard is effectively shut down while Police and Health and Safety Executive officers investigate the incident.
A spokesman for South Western Ambulance Service, added: “We were called at 12.30pm. We attended with a helicopter, an ambulance, an operations officer and a rapid response vehicle.”
The GK29 Ginny Kwik. Image: BNPS