Responded to a mayday. Vessel lost.

[skipperpete]

I’m wondering if this boat is new enough to have common rail engines, the loss of plant might not be caused by a simple fuel problem, maybe as suggested upthread, the batteries were submerged and the engine computers ceased to function. I’m interested to know what really went on to cripple the boat in so many ways. No DC, no Ais, no engines and it would seem, no sail? I’d need to think very carefully before broadcasting a mayday call from a virtually unsinkable catamaran with a broken porthole and a standing mast and sails, I’d being leaning more to a Pan call ......until the situation became untenable....... but then again, I’m currently sitting in a comfortable chair with a cold beverage in a marina so it’s easy to theorize. I,m glad the crew was safely rescued.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

Or they could stuff a cushion into the hole.

True, but that might ruin the cushion...

[flyingw]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Good luck to them, I’m pretty sure the insurance will not cover it when they read this kind if info and see these pictures. They don’t even sail, just motor.

Again, if you can’t prevent water ingress from a porthole then you have no business being out there. Go camping.

Don't tell them that. The campgrounds are overflowing with these idiots now.

[Scorpius]

Originally Posted by fox9988

11/18/2023 event. They did have a patch over the hole when I arrived on scene. Their AIS was coming and going, that’s why I assumed electrical problems. They stated the engine was inoperable.
Our guess was, boat was full of water before they realized there was a problem.
I never set foot on the boat.

The boat is still upright, trim, and there's bottom paint showing. There's not much water in her.

My guess is that there was somebody on that boat that really wasn't enjoying themselves, quite possibly didn't want to be there in the first place, and when they had engine and electrical problems DEMANDED that they call the Coast Guard. It wouldn't be the first time. He or she just wanted to get off the boat and didn't care how or how much it cost (loss of boat).

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by flyingw

Don't tell them that. The campgrounds are overflowing with these idiots now.

They may have previously been campers who got tired of the dirt.
After all, cruising is a lot like camping without the dirt.

[BobHorn]

We were bringing our new to us Whitby 42 home to Galveston from Florida we we ran into a tropical depression maybe 30 nm from Galveston and at night. An occasional wave breaking over the bimini. One of them got past my wife and got the drive belt for the wheel pilot wet. Being for the moment out of control I notified the CG of the problem so they might be able to warn any traffic in the area. They asked if we needed help and I told them no, I had the AP working again. Shortly thereafter a CG helo showed up and wanted to know if we wanted to abandon ship. The answer was a definite NO, we just bought the damn boat and weren't about to abandon it and an even better reason for the NO, there was no way we were going to abandon a floating boat and jump into those waves. We obviously survived but my wife swore she will never again go out into the Gulf.
It seems there have been several instance lately of crew abandoning a boat and it later shows up intact on some beach. Don't understand it.
Bob

[Shanachie]

I suppose these types of stories are as old as modern sailing.


But my recollection is that during the 1970s and '80s, when most sailboats were cramped and relatively primitive, the people who bought them were more into adventure.


These days, many of the newer sailboats are dock queens. Showers, generators, 24/7 AC and heat, TV and Internet, king-sized beds, etc. The people who buy them are more into comfort and status than adventure.


Several years ago, we went on a 500-mile coastal trip with a couple of boats, including a 42-footer whose owners had chartered a few times before taking the plunge.


Admittedly, we had rough weather for the Gulf of Mexico. Lots of 20- to 25-knot days, with seas often 4 to 6 feet but occasionally reaching 8 to 10 feet on the beam.


Most of these were daytime legs, anchoring in protected harbors for the night.



The worst weather unexpectedly came on a 140-mile overnight on the way back home. Because of the angle of the wind and waves, we had to keep sailing and go a long way before angling toward shore.



Well, when we got back home, the couple put up the for sale sign. They sold the 42-footer, bought a small powerboat and took up tennis.


I thought it was one of the great sails of my life.

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by rdempsey

I was taught you don't abandon the boat until you have to step UP to the life raft.

Relevance? That quip, which sounds so cute, is generally meant to imply that a life raft is less secure than most any boat in most any condition. Of course, it reflects a clueless understanding of just how dangerous the inside of a foundering boat can be to the people trying to live inside -- the boat may well come through the storm in good condition, but with a crew of mangled bodies inside. But that quip makes the speaker sound so.... astute.


In this case, it's completely irrelevant. Getting off a (supposedly) doomed ship to get onto a rescue helicopter is something you do when the 'chopper is there -- you don't tell him to hang around for a few hours until the gunnel is under water. And it's far easier to do that transfer when the doomed ship is still a relatively secure platform, than in the final seconds of going under.

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by HeinSdL

make sure you have an 2000+gph pump onboard with large exit hose, tucked away in a dry locker somewhere easily accessible. As I do.

I have yet to act on this, but I often think that a good piece of DC gear is a 1HP 120V sump pump, around $100. Good for 3000GPH at 10 feet of head. Sure, it requires your inverter to be running -- but if your inverter IS running, it can move a LOT of water! Any DC pump that large is north of 50A, which won't last long if you don't have a good battery and/or engine running anyway -- in other words, if your inverter is trashed, you are probably on a short track already.
Of course, a nice big gasoline engine powered trash pump would be awesome -- the Navy's old P-250 comes to mind.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by sailingharry

I have yet to act on this, but I often think that a good piece of DC gear is a 1HP 120V sump pump, around $100. Good for 3000GPH at 10 feet of head. Sure, it requires your inverter to be running -- but if your inverter IS running, it can move a LOT of water! Any DC pump that large is north of 50A, which won't last long if you don't have a good battery and/or engine running anyway -- in other words, if your inverter is trashed, you are probably on a short track already.
Of course, a nice big gasoline engine powered trash pump would be awesome -- the Navy's old P-250 comes to mind.

They are soooo handy!

I have a 1/4hp, 2000 GPH de watering pump aboard and have had them aboard for decades. I also use it for my anchor wash down. Very nice thing to have aboard for emergencies or just general use.

[Jeff F]

Here's their story: A couple and their dog were weeks into a sailing trip. Then the engine died.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...lboat-florida/

[BlueH2Obound]

Originally Posted by Jeff F

Here's their story: A couple and their dog were weeks into a sailing trip. Then the engine died.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...lboat-florida/

Yeah . . . .not going to sign up for a "free" account when after I put in my e-mail, it asks for my credit card info!

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by BlueH2Obound

Yeah . . . .not going to sign up for a "free" account when after I put in my e-mail, it asks for my credit card info!

If you are using Firefox, you can toggle "reader view." It's the far right of the address bar, right beside the star. It looks like a sheet of paper. It serves the page up with no features, and often defeats the paywall (for sure on this link it works).

[skipperpete]

Boats washed ashore intact is becoming increasingly common, there was a report recently of an abandoned catamaran that washed ashore in Spain. The delivery skipper had died on board some months earlier and the corpse was removed by the coastguard..... who spray painted a message on the hull and left her to drift. Finally she was found high and dry and the authorities dredged a path with excavators to get er off the beach to a haulout.
That earlier post with the video of the cat capsizing in mountainous seas was disturbing knowing that there were still people aboard. It ain’t all beer and skittles with the helicopter extraction, a catamaran called “Rush” broke in a storm off the NSW coast and a rescue helicopter arrived and tried to do the first lift in absolutely huge seas but the cable went under the wreckage and the guy was killed, they cut the cable and left. The remaining survivors were picked up by a Japanese ship in an amazing display of seamanship, they dropped cargo nets over the side, created a lee and drifted beam on to the seas to the floaters. THAT was a mayday!

[Sailor 99]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

it seems to me that many of the modern cruisers did not "come up" the slow way. They have not commenced to learn seamanship and built on it for years.

Ann

Yup. My wife and I learned to sail on a race boat over a 3 or 4 yr period. That might not sound like a long time but we were primary crew and went out 3 days a week on that boat.

That boat never returned to the dock till the race was over and we raced in conditions that were just this side of ridiculous.

The basics of reefing sails, changing sails, fixing broken things, staying on board, sailing into big wind and waves while still making way and keeping the boat going, these were practiced all the time.

We then raced our own boat for 8 yrs in the same conditions we learned on. My wife and I got hit by a 25-30 knot line squall once with a full main and a huge genoa on a furler. I bet it did not take us 90 second to have all the sails down. We owe that to racing.

I always laugh when I see so called racers trying to point 27 degrees into a 20-25 knot head wind, and 6-7 ft seas, and wondering why they are not going anywhere. They usually figured it out when we passed them. No situational awareness.

Most cruisers do not ever learn to race and they don't go out on those days when it is 20/25knots so they never learn any of this stuff. They they abandon perfectly good boats because it has a window out 3 ft above the water.

Unfortunately I have a very good friend that is about to head off and he has never developed the skills and dismisses any suggestion that he should better prepare.

Hopefully he does okay but I think he watches too much of the YouTube skippers and thinks every day is another day in paradise.

Step up to the life raft, if you don't have a life raft, you don't jump in, you float away from the boat in your survival suit as the decks come awash.