Loss of "Outer Limits" in ARC Europe Collision

[rolandcavanagh]

Learned this from our friends on "Wild Goose":
May
19

Yacht Outer Limits - Abandoned Ship

We are devastated as our friends Outer Limits hit a whale and have abandoned their ship. I just happened to check our email in the middle of the night to learn this, and we were shocked. My last email was from Joost asking how we are doing and we plotted each other's positions. Outer Limits is the boat that we had been traveling together with from Hampton and we had become good friends. Joost is from the Netherlands - a great guy - really funny and a skilled solo sailor.

Journeys of Wild Goose

Latest News from World Cruising Club ARC Europe

Yacht Outer Limits - abandoned after whale strike. All crew OK

19/05/2012

At around 22:30UT on Friday 18 May, approximately 330nm northeast of Bermuda, the yacht Outer Limits struck a submerged object, believed to be a whale, and sustained damage to the hull causing significant water ingress. Whilst the yacht’s emergency pumps were able to contain the leaks, skipper Joost Gehrels, doubted that the boat could safety return to Bermuda and issued a MayDay to request immediate assistance. Using the yacht’s satellite telephone he also contacted RCC Bermuda.
Yikes...

[Hud3]

It's good that the crew is OK. I can't imagine what the skipper must feel watching his boat disappear over the horizon as the freighter steamed away after the rescue.

Thanks for posting the info.

[barnakiel]

Glad to hear the crew are OK. Can't believe it was a whale!

b.

[Ram]

Sad & Sorry to hear this- it’s never a routine passage when sailing at night, its imposable to see anything in the water, whether it be a whale, a tree or old hunk of boat drifting, even if you’re looking- of course it helps if there’s a full moon -I sailed in daylight within 50 feet of a sleeping whale and starteled it and me-- i thought it was a peace of wood laying on the surface , I was dragging a line and hoping to raise a Dolphin or something ANd it really moved when it woke up!

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by Ram

Sad & Sorry to hear this- it’s never a routine passage when sailing at night, its imposable to see anything in the water, whether it be a whale, a tree or old hunk of boat drifting, even if you’re looking- of course it helps if there’s a full moon -I sailed in daylight within 50 feet of a sleeping whale and starteled it and me-- i thought it was a peace of wood laying on the surface , I was dragging a line and hoping to raise a Dolphin or something ANd it really moved when it woke up!

What do you mean by "dragging a line and hoping to raise a Dolphin?"

[Target9000]

Originally Posted by cwyckham

What do you mean by "dragging a line and hoping to raise a Dolphin?"

Dolphin, the fish, like to hide under debris on the surface. He was trailing a fishing line and hoping to catch a fish from under what he thought was some debris.

[rodney_k]

Dolphin - East Coast/Atlantic
Dorado - West Coast/Mexico
Mahi-Mahi - Pacific/Hawaii

Same fish and the names are interchangable. Binomial name Coryphaena hippurus.

[Tony B]

Originally Posted by rodney_k

Dolphin - East Coast/Atlantic
Dorado - West Coast/Mexico
Mahi-Mahi - Pacific/Hawaii

Same fish and the names are interchangable. Binomial name Coryphaena hippurus.

Some of you might not be aware that the Dolphin he is referring to is a Dolphin Fish and not to be confused with the mamal. Totally different.

[barnakiel]

Coryphaena that is.

b.

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by Target9000

Dolphin, the fish, like to hide under debris on the surface. He was trailing a fishing line and hoping to catch a fish from under what he thought was some debris.

Aahhh! Thanks!

[Andrew Troup]

This incident troubles me a little. It seems to me that it would be helpful to know more about this chain of events.

I understand from a post by Don Street on another forum that the yacht took a further two days to sink after being abandoned, even (presumably) with no pumps running.

Assuming a displacement of 10 tonnes, and that it was dry when they left it, I make that a leakage rate of 45 gal/hr, probably less (because those are both conservative assumptions.)

That's 45 strokes per hour on a decent bilge pump. On one trip across the Pacific we routinely pumped water at four times that rate from the boat, by hand, with no hardship whatsoever.

This was not because we were even damaged, but because of a design issue with the drainage of the anchor locker (the drainage overboard was inadequate to keep up when going to windward, and seawater coming in through the lid when the bow dived through a wave would eventually fill the locker and drown the windlass motor; we chose to divert the drainage into the main bilge so we could keep it pumped out, thereby keeping weight out of the bow, and not ruining the motor.)


Given how close "Outer Limits" were (330 nm) to safety, and that they had another yacht standing by, I have to assume either that their vessel was disabled (rather than just leaking) to some dangerous degree not mentioned in any reports, or that the weather was highly unfavourable or threatening, so they couldn't be sure of making a safe transfer to the other yacht.

I know it's not currently fashionable to demonstrate self reliance, at least it seems that way sometimes on this forum, but I would at least like to see some sort of nod in that direction ... at least to the extent of an explanation of why self-rescue appears not to have been considered in this instance.

I can only hope seamanship issues were foremost in the decision.

If OTOH the answer includes words like "liability", "attorneys", "fine print", or "Loss Adjustors", - I'm not sure I want to know.

[barnakiel]

Yep. Big eye opener, if it did take another two days for the boat to sink. Two days is plenty of time to not only pump the bilge dry but also to seek solutions.

But since we do not know the full story we can only make armchair guesses.

b.

[ParidiseParrot]

Oh well that's what Insurance is for.
I don't blame him but that's why insurance is so high.
Sounds like a patch of cloth and epoxy might have done some good but I wasn't there so....

[Andrew Troup]

Originally Posted by ParidiseParrot

Oh well that's what Insurance is for.
I don't blame him but that's why insurance is so high.
Sounds like a patch of cloth and epoxy might have done some good but I wasn't there so....

Ha! You nearly had me there ... for a moment, I was almost taken in....

I thought
"Yikes, this is it, We've finally arrived at that nightmare future, where people are delegating everything important to faceless entities behind the scenes.
Navigation : no need to know; I pay a little box to know.
Seamanship: now measured by my ability to decipher policy fine print.
Adventure: something we watch on small screens.
(No need to lust for bigger adventures, when we can lust instead for ever-bigger screens.)
Resourcefulness: something lucky countries have temporarily, during the period it takes to extract it from the ground."

Thanks for injecting a bit of levity into an otherwise rather discouraging debate.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by Andrew Troup

Ha! You nearly had me there ... for a moment, I was almost taken in....

I thought
"Yikes, this is it, We've finally arrived at that nightmare future, where people are delegating everything important to faceless entities behind the scenes.
Navigation : no need to know; I pay a little box to know.
Seamanship: now measured by my ability to decipher policy fine print.
Adventure: something we watch on small screens.
(No need to lust for bigger adventures, when we can lust instead for ever-bigger screens.)
Resourcefulness: something lucky countries have temporarily, during the period it takes to extract it from the ground."

Thanks for injecting a bit of levity into an otherwise rather discouraging debate.

Man, I wish I thought you were kidding. I don't see the levity here.

A whale is more dramatic than an oil drum or a hatchcover.

I'm on my best behavior now, but I'm not abandoning a floating boat. I'm guessing this is much ado about wanting off the boat.

Just sayin.