Yachting FAIL - Jessica Watson

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by mt gay rum

... She is alive and learned from her mistake and so has her team.. Look at what they have installed since then... This person is out there trying to accomplish something only a very few have done, and here you sit babbling about stupid ********...

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, mt gay rum.

For the record, I and most others here, are not in the habit of babbling stupid ********. My bull, in particular, is well informed & intelligent - even when (on rare occasion) wrong.

Exactly, what have they installed, since then?

[John A]

Originally Posted by sneuman

She cuts the halyard at the masthead. Now how does she work the top half of the main out and down the slot on the bottom half of the mast? Not saying it's impossible, but I would think it would be extremely difficult.

One way would be to take your knife and cut the sail away from the mast!
This is what I did with my jib when the collision with that Haitian Smugglar yanked my forestay and rollor furling in-two.

I agree with the recent post from the newbie mt gay rum.
Unless you were there, negitive judgement of her actions is macho BS. Or maybe egotistical rants.

[mt gay rum]

Thanks for the welcome!!

Lets get one thing straight !! I would never question any of the sailors on here at CF you all have forgotten more than most will ever know..But i just dont understand the bashing she is receiving without digging into what has been done about it since the accident...

Simple go on her blog and research what has been installed on her boat while in the shed being repaired...before she sets sail again..

Yes it was a mistake but They have learned from it and when you complete your research you will find this pink boat is overdone with equipment.. With double and triple back ups in some areas..

I for one like to read what someone has done to learn from there mistakes,, rather than show what i think I know and be the one to point a finger and say how you were wrong ,, this is probably the best thing that could of happen to them ,,

REMEMBER this is a kid and needs all of our support in everyway possiable... She's heading into a Lions Den and she has access to the internet would you want her to read your blog about self dought or to read something positive that might help her get through this ...THINK ABOUT IT.......................while you are at dock sipping a rum and coke..

[Lostmt]

Originally Posted by John A

I agree with the recent post from the newbie mt gay rum.
Unless you were there, negative judgment of her actions is macho BS. Or maybe egotistical rants.

It's great to see a young person do something besides video games and drugs. At least she has a set of b$$$ that most here only dream they could have.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by SvenG

I have only seem excerpts of the final report but a comment on this forum made me go take several looks at the post-crash pictures and it looks like she may have not had her sails raised at the time of impact.

If you look carefully it seems as if the sail part-way up the mast is actually a furled headsail. Likewise, it seems incredibly unlikely that she somehow got the main down (out of its track) after the mast was broken, yet it is flaked over the boom.



-Sven

There's always the possibility she was sailing under just the headsail.

Or she might have cut the webbing on the sail slugs to get the main down.

[Ocean Girl]

Its funny, the need to bash people who don't agree with you and who question what is being feed to them via the "Team". It seems that the "Team" has not been up front from the very beginning, so why get so bent out of shape for asking questions? This is a discussion forum..ie we discuss things. If this kid can handle the roaring forties, which the go jessica people seem to think she can, then she can handle pertinent and impertinent questions.

BTW- another scenario is that she attempted to lower the sail and then fled to the cabin when the rig started to come down (the report states the rig did not immediately drop). I also agree that she must be one tough cookie to have a collision and demasting and get right back out there, pretty impressive.

Erika

[SvenG]

If her father hadn't defamed the skipper of the Silver Yang with his now demonstrably false claims (per the preliminary report) and if her handlers weren't so obviously manipulating and spinning, then it probably wouldn't be an issue.

Don't mistake a huge, well funded PR machine for reality.

I was a huge fan of hers until the spin got too overwhelming. I still blame her parents and handlers for what is being done in her name and sympathize with her predicament.

I'll try to contact the AU authorities to find out if they know if she really was under sail or if that was just an unconfirmed claim.


-Sven

[Lostmt]

Yesterday doesn't matter and tomorrow will never come. What she needs right now is our encouragement to have a great safe sail. We seem to forget that she is out there alone with no crew to back her up.

[sneuman]

Originally Posted by mt gay rum

Thanks for the welcome!!

Lets get one thing straight !! I would never question any of the sailors on here at CF you all have forgotten more than most will ever know..But i just dont understand the bashing she is receiving without digging into what has been done about it since the accident...

Simple go on her blog and research what has been installed on her boat while in the shed being repaired...before she sets sail again..

Yes it was a mistake but They have learned from it and when you complete your research you will find this pink boat is overdone with equipment.. With double and triple back ups in some areas..

I for one like to read what someone has done to learn from there mistakes,, rather than show what i think I know and be the one to point a finger and say how you were wrong ,, this is probably the best thing that could of happen to them ,,

REMEMBER this is a kid and needs all of our support in everyway possiable... She's heading into a Lions Den and she has access to the internet would you want her to read your blog about self dought or to read something positive that might help her get through this ...THINK ABOUT IT.......................while you are at dock sipping a rum and coke..

Forgive us for speculating, but I too am suspicious after some of the father's statements.

For the record, a lot of the folks on CF have extensive offshore miles, and a lot of them have a lot more than I do. We're not all straight up wannabes, but most of us feel that we do learn something from these discussions. I know I do.

I actually did have the misfortune of having to cut away a rig in force 10 conditions. It was a wooden mast and broke near the gooseneck after a hard knockdown -- not at all like Jessica's situation.

Anyway, cutting away the sail slugs would have required her climbing the mast to the spreaders, no? In which case, without a halyard, she would have had to shimmy up. Not impossible, but we just don't know because there are virtually no details of her actions to secure the rig, at least not that I have seen.

I didn't realize that the rig didn't collapse immediately, so the hypothesis that she dropped the main first is plausible.

[SvenG]

Originally Posted by sneuman

the hypothesis that she dropped the main first is plausible.

Agree and that would show admirable presence of thought and good seamanship.



-Sven

[12,800ft]

Hi

Long time lurker (en route to the powered section actually), been following this case for quite some time as well, and SvenG does indeed raise a very interesting technical point.

The report itself contains some detailed photos along with collision vectors:

http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/739587/...008_prelim.pdf

About 3 minutes before the collision, Silver Yang's bridge watch keeper altered the ship’s heading by 10° to starboard and then almost immediately applied hard-tostarboard rudder about 30 seconds before the collision in an attempt to avoid Ella's
Pink Lady. However his efforts were unsuccessful and Ella's Pink Lady’s bow collided with Silver Yang’s port side mid section.

The collision woke Ella's Pink Lady’s skipper. She climbed out of the cabin, grabbed the tiller and tried to steer the yacht. She looked upwards and thought that is was likely that the yacht’s rigging would become entangled with the ship and dismast her vessel, so she returned to the cabin. A few seconds later, the mast came crashing down.

What perhaps stands out is that she immediately grabbed the tiller and tried to steer the yacht. Is this possible under sail? Or better under power?

Seems doubtful she had time to lower the sail when she looked up for the first time and made her determination to get under cover like that. More imporantly if the rigging did become entangled and the mast remained intact, could one if they had all the time in the world still lower the sail?

[Factor]

Goodness Me. The ATSB report says she was under sail.

But an internet forum examonation of photos after the event from half way round the world - concludes - no she wasn't.

I will lodge a complaint with the Prime Minister immediately

[SvenG]

Originally Posted by Factor

Goodness Me. The ATSB report says she was under sail.

Boy was she ever under sail !

The report says she was doing 7 kts in a 34 foot cruising sailboat at night while she was sleeping down below. That's not bad for a boat with a theoretical hull speed under 7 kts.



-Sven

[Ocean Girl]

Hey wait! what if the collision cut her hallyard and it dropped down on its own? she had to of seen some pretty nasty stuff aloft to make her dive down below. My neighbors cousin is friends with the butcher of the ATSB mailman, and he said that she had full batten main with a batcar system, so the main could drop pretty fast. Boy, they should pay us for all this investigative work

Godspeed Jessica, and Pink lady..take good care of your captain.
Erika

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by SvenG

........
Don't mistake a huge, well funded PR machine for reality.
..........

SvenG is right on the money for this observation.

Originally Posted by 12,800ft

.......
What perhaps stands out is that she immediately grabbed the tiller and tried to steer the yacht. Is this possible under sail? Or better under power?
.......

Yes it is possible under sail and I think if I had just being woken up by a collision, the first thing I would do is grab the tiller to try to steer the yacht. Possibly not the most rational move but certainly the most likely one.

Originally Posted by Factor

Goodness Me. The ATSB report says she was under sail....

Hey Factor, what is going on here here, this is the first post you have made on this thread that holds a slightly divergent view to mine, please be a good chap and don't let it happen again

OK the ATSB DOES state she was under sail, however it is only a preliminary report and as I understand it, they have only taken evidence from JW and so only have half the picture at best. I am not an investigator but I suspect they would only dig deeper if this claim was disputed.

Does it matter - legally it does but only if the parties involved are in a courtroom. My guess is the Pink Lady team would be happy to stay away from litigation, they have already received more press then they ever dreamed they could and don't need anyone looking too closely at any possible spin they have promoted.

The Silver Yang would also want to stay out of the courtroom, they would have nothing to gain except the cost of the paint to paint out the pink bits on their hull and might have something to lose.

Practically both parties have moved on so the legal aspects are rather mute.