Coast Guard rescues sailor in Gulf of Alaska storm

[argonauta1]

Originally Posted by capn_billl

USCG?

Generally taxpayers, if you were found at fault, or negligent you could be fined, depending on degree of fault the fines could be substantial.

But for circumstances beyond your control or unforeseen mechanical failure generally nothing.

My understanding too. International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) come under national areas of responsibility such as Sitka. Down south a few hundred miles, Victoria Canada would have responded to the emergency. Areas are designated.

To quote: The 1979 Convention, adopted at a Conference in Hamburg, was aimed at developing an international SAR plan, so that, no matter where an accident occurs, the rescue of persons in distress at sea will be co-ordinated by a SAR organization and, when necessary, by co-operation between neighbouring SAR organizations. Un quote

[StuartWeibel]

Originally Posted by tennis4789

Could/should the captain have done something different?

Newbie questions. Are most boat incidents avoidable? What's top 3 causes?

I read some time back that the single largest categorization of boating accidents by the CG is not alcohol, as might be expected, but "Imprudent behavior due to lack of knowledge." Alcohol is almost certainly a major contributor, as in most of life's mishaps, but the range of failure modes in marine operations is so great that it is very easy to fall in this hole. When I look at my own catalog of mishaps over the dozen years of my experience with Ripple, all but two of them were avoidable: some egregious, eye-rolling bad judgments, most far more subtle, but assignable to judgment faults on the part of the skipper.

One of the primary satisfactions of being a mariner is the development of judgment and self-reliance in the face of an indifferent and sometimes daunting environment. I'm a lot safer than I was a decade ago, in no small part for having learned some hard lessons.

[davil]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

Charging for rescues is one of those things that naively sounds like a good idea until you actually think about it for a couple minutes. It's hard enough for us to get people to call us when they start to get in trouble and can be easily rescued. Generally people wait until too long to call the Coast Guard, and in my experience that means we had to go out late at when the storm was much worst than 6 hours earlier when they first knew they were in trouble. Make people pay for rescue and they aren't going to call until the very worst conditions when the rescues are exponentially harder to pull off.

Make no mistake, the "make them pay for rescues" idea accomplishes absolutely nothing except putting rescue crews in greater danger. It's a dangerous idea masquerading as some kind of personal responsibility morality play.

===========================================
THANK YOU SO MUCH
for your timely comment.
Makes me sick the never ending ... we the taxpayers and all sort of nonsense!!
thank you again.

[jackdale]

Many rescues are coordinated by AMVER - https://www.amver.com/

In 2012 AMVER coordinated a medevac to a container ship for one of my crew when we were half way between Hawaii and Vancouver.

https://www.amver.com/Content/Docs/P...ss_release.pdf

https://youtu.be/NBn7drXizb0

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by tennis4789

Thanks. Call early. No charge.

Another question where is uscg able to help? Puerto Rico? Sailing to Hawaii? Mediterranean? Or call someone else in Mediterranean?

When should this guy have called? What are the signs/rules of thumb to make the call? Or just call CG & ask their advice?

One uncle is a pilot & one of his sayings is there are old pilots & bold pilots. But no old bold pilots.

Would the coast guard help get his boat to safety? Fix his boat issue? Or rescue him only?

It's like reefing, if you are starting to think about if you should or not, than you should. At the very least they'll put you on a comms schedule and if you don't call in they'll start an active search. That's often the course of action when you want to say "hey, things are going south, I don't want to be rescued yet, but I want to let you know that I'm worried". They might also have an asset already in the air or in the area stop by to check on you, and might keep it in mind when deciding what other uses they'll put on their assets, i.e. if they have someone who they know might get in trouble later that night they'll put off a routine patrol that evening so the aircrew has their full flight time available if they need it later. You definitely won't get advice over the radio on seamanship, it would frankly be malpractice to do so without being familiar with your boat, your skills, and the on-scene conditions. But they will drop you a dewatering pump, for example, if you ask for one because you're taking on water and you're afraid your bilge pumps can't keep up. If a surface asset is able to reach you they might also try to help set up pumps or engage in a tow if it's safe to do so (and there's no commercial salvage available). That's always up to them, often it isn't safe to do so and we've lost people who were below rigging up pumps when the boat capsized recently enough that it's still institutionalized not to take undo risks just for property.

[genaea]

As with many others on this thread, a HUGE thank you to the US Coast Guard and all they do to help mariners in distress, often at their own peril.

We are very fortunate to have them looking after us.

[merrydolphin]

A good friend of mine was a commercial fisherman in this area. He had a steel 77 ft vessel and said that he had lost many friends out there in lesser ( not steel) boats.

[Nord Sal]

The Coast Guard's video of the rescue wouldn't work for me when I originally made this post.


It's working now: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/81755...VdhjZKCeBY4-EU


The boat appears to be Cat Ketch rigged.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by merrydolphin

A good friend of mine was a commercial fisherman in this area. He had a steel 77 ft vessel and said that he had lost many friends out there in lesser ( not steel) boats.

No, his big advantage is it’s 77 feet not that’s it’s steel.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by tennis4789

Thanks. Call early. No charge.



Another question where is uscg able to help? Puerto Rico? Sailing to Hawaii? Mediterranean? Or call someone else in Mediterranean?



When should this guy have called? What are the signs/rules of thumb to make the call? Or just call CG & ask their advice?



One uncle is a pilot & one of his sayings is there are old pilots & bold pilots. But no old bold pilots.



Would the coast guard help get his boat to safety? Fix his boat issue? Or rescue him only?

If you form an opinion you might need help , always call, after that it’s the rescue services decision as to how to react.

Newspapers and armchair sailors love to harp on about people being rescued under seemingly trivial conditions. But every rescue agency would prefer to help some one alive then end up fishing a body from the water.

Dave
( former rnli station chairman )

[JAFO]

Originally Posted by OldManMirage

The boat definitely looks like a Freedom 40. They are reputed to be very good boats, but I am unclear of their ocean abilities.

I'd say it's not a Freedom 40. They only have a single mast.

The reports state that it was a 33 footer. And in the video it's clearly a cat ketch with no apparent booms. That would make it very likely to be a Freedom 33, which is a cat ketch with wishbone booms.

In which case, there's a very good chance it's a lifting centreboard boat (though some Freedom 33s did come with a fixed keel), so no, it's not the kind of boat I'd want to try crossing oceans in.

[Nord Sal]

Originally Posted by JAFO

I'd say it's not a Freedom 40. They only have a single mast.

The reports state that it was a 33 footer. And in the video it's clearly a cat ketch with no apparent booms. That would make it very likely to be a Freedom 33, which is a cat ketch with wishbone booms.

In which case, there's a very good chance it's a lifting centreboard boat (though some Freedom 33s did come with a fixed keel), so no, it's not the kind of boat I'd want to try crossing oceans in.

I think you are correct and I think this is the boat: https://www.popyachts.com/ketch-sail...-alaska-189982

It says it sold in March 2021 which is consistent with the story.

If you look at the exterior photo, the vessel's name starts with the letter 'A', like Ananda. The color scheme also matches the boat in the rescue video.

I also have to believe there probably weren't many cat ketches in Seward.

Ad says it was the centerboard version of the Freedom 33.