Sailor died after being 'entangled' around winch

The yacht Mollie was brought into Yarmouth harbour following the accident on board

A sailor on a round-the-world voyage died after becoming entangled around a powered winch while at sea on the Solent, an accident report has said.

Lyall Babington, 74, was skippering his yacht Mollie from his native New Zealand when the accident happened off the Needles on the way to Poole on 5 August.

A preliminary report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said he caught his hand in the rope and was "progressively pulled tighter onto the winch drum".

It found the inboard winch had a known defect and there was no local emergency stop fitted to the aft winches.

Photos posted on social media by Mr Babington showed him at stops including Istanbul and Tangiers in the months before arriving in the UK.

He took on unpaid crew members at various ports during his planned voyage from New Zealand.

Two of the crew had joined Mollie the day before the accident, the third crew member had been on and off the vessel for about five months.

The MAIB report said that at about 1100 BST, Mollie was in the Western Solent, sailing from West Wittering in West Sussex towards Poole in Dorset when the storm jib sail needed to be raised.

The MAIB report identified issues with the yacht's winches

As the skipper cleared the rope from around the inboard winch, it started to turn, trapping his right hand, which became "entangled around the winch drum".

He was pinned around the winch, causing severe injuries to his arm and hand and trauma to his head and chest, the report said.

After a number of attempts, the crew managed to stop the winch from turning using the control switch, by which time Mr Babington was unresponsive.

The crew members issued a mayday call and an RNLI lifeboat and coastguard helicopter were sent to the vessel.

The MAIB report said the RNLI crew boarded the vessel and tried to free the skipper from the winch.

As they did so, and without warning, the winch activated and released the skipper and he fell onto the deck.

He was declared dead at 13:00.

Investigations found the winch had a known defect to its controls, which sometimes caused it to stay on after the switch had been released.

No further action had been taken, the MAIB said.