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Rescued by freighter in Caribbean a few days ago.

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Initially Posted - 01/09/2008 : 16:57:52

The story's [url="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/22573279/"]here [/url]on MSNBC.

Watch the interview, it's pretty good.

David
C-250 Mainsheet Editor

Sirius Lepak
1997 C-250 WK TR #271 --Seattle area Port Captain --

Edited by - delliottg on 01/09/2008 16:58:09

Steve Blackburn
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
1091 Posts

Response Posted - 01/09/2008 : 20:15:28

What kind of boat is it, anyone know? From the decking it looks like a Bavaria.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 01/09/2008 : 20:50:33

Sounds like it was a 39' coastal cruiser. Too many things "deteriorating from day one" for a blue-water passagemaker. I'm wondering what the sinking was about--reminds me a little of a friend on a C&C returning to Mystic from Antigua through some storms, electronics wiped out and taking water through the top and the bottom. Not a good feeling 600 miles (4 days+) offshore.

It appears that storms like that are going to be more frequent--look at the tornados in the midwest and the monster on the west coast just this week. Abnormal, or used to be.

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 01/09/2008 20:57:32

Steve Blackburn
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
1091 Posts

Response Posted - 01/09/2008 : 21:13:20

Sounds like the engine blew up which pierced a large hole on the hull. It does look like a coastal cruiser. Sounds like he left in a hurry and lacked the experience required for a voyage like this.

On another Note that girl Heather in a 20' Flicka set out for a circumnavigation also had a hell of a time and came back after only 100 miles out. She also got caught in a big sudden storm and being sick like a dog had a real hard time. Very interesting and humbling to read here story: http://www.solo-sailor.com/ShipLog.htm

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 01/09/2008 : 22:02:42

People who've never seen an ocean storm can't imagine what it's like to be out there in 40' seas--and I mean really out there, where there's no place to hide and nobody to help. A Flicka is an incredibly stout little boat, but she must've felt like a cork in a clothes washer. Anybody who's crossed oceans knows that there is no such thing as a "weather window"--you can make your best guess, and then you get whatever Mother Nature decides to give you. If I were to do it (which I won't), I'd want something like one of Pacific Seacraft's substantially larger models--and I don't mean the Dana.

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 01/10/2008 : 06:49:18

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Dave Bristle
 People who've never seen an ocean storm can't imagine what it's like to be out there in 40' seas--and I mean really out there
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

You nailed that one Dave!

If only it were limited to 40' seas!

Paul

Edited by - on

Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2030 Posts

Response Posted - 01/10/2008 : 08:21:34

Doesn't sound like he had an EPIRB.....he was lucky, very lucky that he was spotted.
<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Sounds like the engine blew up which pierced a large hole on the hull.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Engines don't "blow up" like that....... I've driven truck engines past their death and the worst that happened was a piston blowing out the side.....doubt that would penetrate the hull....

BUT......you WILL get cooling water and/or siphoning exhaust water all over the place, and a LOT, FAST........ Closing the through hull and plugging the exhaust may have been more than he could muster at that point.

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 01/10/2008 : 08:50:30

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">If only it were limited to 40' seas!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Amen. The worst seas I've ever seen were in the Mediterranean in 1986. Our destroyer was rolling through 80°, taking green water over the bridge wings on a regular basis. Nobody was allowed on the weather decks, and anyone who wasn't on watch was confined to their racks, which really meant the deck in the berthing compartment unless your rack was athwart-ships instead of longitudinal (like mine and most others) . This was on a 437' x 40' Navy ship, I can't imagine what it'd be like in a small boat. There was an upside though, the chow lines were really short.

There were two ships of our class (Adams), a fast frigate that was about a hundred feet shorter than us, and a cruiser all running together during that storm. I watched the frigate from our mess decks for a while, and those guys should have been getting submarine pay. In the aftermath of the storm, a freighter that was taking on fuel behind us lost a guy over the side. We looked for him (along with a BUNCH of other ships) for two days. He was never found, the sea were still quite large, I'm not sure I can imagine a more lonely way to die.

While on a container ship in the English channel we took on our channel pilot in about 20' seas. As far as I'm concerned he made most of his money simply by being able to blithely step off of a 30' pilot boat cycling through a 40'+ range onto the boarding ladder that was sixty feet down the side of our ship. He took two waves that completely submerged him, and a couple more that got him to the waist before the pneumatically driven ladder could get him far enough up the side of the ship to be out of danger. He stepped over the rail, and shook our hands like it was something he did every day (and probably did).

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Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 01/10/2008 : 09:22:26

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by britinusa
 If only it were limited to 40' seas!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">I was being purposefully conservative. But I think even 40' is enough... Go outside--on the ground--look at a 2-story house, double it, and then imagine that's a wave with a peaked crest, followed by another one, and another... Then imagine your little Catalina...

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 01/10/2008 09:24:58

John Russell
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3444 Posts

Response Posted - 01/10/2008 : 09:30:17

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Dave Bristle
 <blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by britinusa
 If only it were limited to 40' seas!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">I was being purposefully conservative. But I think even 40' is enough... Go outside--on the ground--look at a 2-story house, double it, and then imagine that's a wave with a peaked crest, followed by another one, and another... Then imagine your little Catalina...
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Then imagine 60 knot winds, horizontal rain and total darkness........

Lake Erie looks better and better

Edited by - on

ilnadi
Captain

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452 Posts

Response Posted - 01/10/2008 : 12:31:22

(first, with apologies for pointing to other fora)
You don't even need to go out in the big pond, here's a guy missing in the ICW in NC ([url="http://www.sailnet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39701"]link[/url]) (warning, not ending happily

)<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Steve Blackburn
 On another Note that girl Heather in a 20' Flicka set out for a circumnavigation also had a hell of a time and came back after only 100 miles out. She also got caught in a big sudden storm and being sick like a dog had a real hard time. Very interesting and humbling to read here story: http://www.solo-sailor.com/ShipLog.htm<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> I read that one a while back and it sounded odd then and does now. It gets even odder [url="http://www.sailnet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38097"]here[/url] around post 70 and downright bizzare [url="http://forums.cruisingworld.com/showthread.php?t=1748"]here[/url] from the get go.

Edited by - ilnadi on 01/10/2008 12:35:21

Dave Bristle
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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 01/10/2008 : 14:16:09

Wow! Some read! Dr. Gene is a real head-case, and his daughter... wants to circumnavigate but doesn't want to (1) rub shoulders with anyone else doing it, (2) converse via SSB about weather and such with other sailors, (3) stay anywhere other than pristeen, guarded marinas..... Fortunately, other sailors will have a more charitable attitude when she needs it.

Maybe she's doing this to (1) prove something to her overbearing father, and (2) get away from him in the process--perhaps forever.

Edited by - on

John Russell
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3444 Posts

Response Posted - 01/10/2008 : 14:29:40

She should talk with Tania Aebi. Or, at least read very old issues of Cruising World with Tania's travelogue of her solo (mostly) circumnav at age 18.

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Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 01/10/2008 : 17:13:17

I've belatedly started reading some of the rest of her pretentiously titled website... For example, her description of her Flicka--a fine LITTLE boat, BTW... She begins by berating everything about modern boats, one of which the Flicka turns out to be. It's a plastic replica of something from the age she supposedly longs for, and as such arguably stronger, safer, more reliable, and certainly requires less work than her ideal. (Yes, I know all of the arguments for wooden hulls, but you've got to see the hull of a Flicka.)

I hope she makes her escape from all she disdains (everybody else leading meaningless, frenzied lives, going nowhere), and "finds herself" in the unforgiving world out there, with which she appears to be totally ill-prepared to deal. (Started sailing in 1/07, and is ready to conquer the oceans in a 20-footer, which she knows how to reef, but not when... encountered her first storm upon setting out to circumnavigate... goes below when seasick... apparently knows nothing about engines...)

Her father seems to be goading her into a what is likely to be a passage from this life, and her son, knowing less than she does, is mimicking the pompous "Doctor". So a bunch of us "aimless" people who she wants so desparately to leave behind are vicariously supporting her and cheering her on as she plays with the "dancing dolphins" (or sails off to her maker)...

Pullease. How about finding yourself with a bottle of rum and a reefer in the Bahamas.

Chief Curmudgeon

Edited by - on

redviking
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1771 Posts

Response Posted - 01/11/2008 : 08:16:21

"How about finding yourself with a bottle of rum and a reefer in the Bahamas."
Agreed. As a full time cruiser now I am amazed at the number of simply stupid people out here. Boats ill prepared, no experience, poor anchoring skills and equipment, crappy floating condos that have no business leaving a dock let alone doing an offshore passage. Yes, that's you BendyToys, Catalinas, Hunters, Irwins, etc.... I delivered a Pacific Seacraft 37 from Annapolis to maine this past summer and was reminded that even a supposedly bluewater boat ain't. No lee cloths, fuel filters inaccessable in an emergency, not enough hand holds, fuel tank in the bow, pounded hard in moderate seas, etc.... Money can buy you love in terms of living space, but not in terms of safety. For that you'll have to buy an old bluewater vessel and live without 3 cabins and 2 heads!

Sten

DPO Zephyr - '82 C25, FK, SR
SV Lysistrata - '73 C&C 39 - St. Augustine, FL

Edited by - on

Steve Blackburn
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
1091 Posts

Response Posted - 01/11/2008 : 23:22:59

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Oscar
 Doesn't sound like he had an EPIRB.....he was lucky, very lucky that he was spotted.
<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Sounds like the engine blew up which pierced a large hole on the hull.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Engines don't "blow up" like that....... I've driven truck engines past their death and the worst that happened was a piston blowing out the side.....doubt that would penetrate the hull....

BUT......you WILL get cooling water and/or siphoning exhaust water all over the place, and a LOT, FAST........ Closing the through hull and plugging the exhaust may have been more than he could muster at that point.

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Just to be clear when I said "sounds like the engine blew up" I meant that that is what I believe I heard the guy say in the video. Right?

Edited by - on

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