Finding abandoned boats

[JPA Cate]

Boatie's Yellowbrick sounds like it would work for tracking.

Stumble suggested on the thread about scuttling or not, that you leave contact details taped to the duckboards, in a clear baggie, and leave it unlocked, so that if someone does try to rescue it, less damage is done. He also suggested that you leave a radar reflector and all running lights on. Our boat relies on solar and wind for electricity, and I don't really know how long all the running lights would stay on, in winter, with predominantly overcast weather. Our anchor light, though, is a blue-white LED, light sensor activated, and I'm sure it could go on a long, long time.

Clearly, it is knowing the position in advance that is critical.

Ann

[RPZ]

And on the prevention side.

A good investment would be a redundent rudder system as one poster displayed in the thread by All went wrong.

If the transom is configured to accommodate it, and strong enough, a simple rudder mount at the ready and a stowed tiller rudder would work. A small investment to prevent the loss of an expensive boat.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by RPZ

And on the prevention side.

A good investment would be a redundent rudder system as one poster displayed in the thread by All went wrong.

If the transom is configured to accommodate it, and strong enough, a simple rudder mount at the ready and a stowed tiller rudder would work. A small investment to prevent the loss of an expensive boat.

I'm currently preparing my boat for my next trip. I'm in the process of mounting a Hydrovane ( which I already had) for exactly the reason you've stated. Its a self steering unit but one of the main reasons im a fan is its a second rudder. This has obviously been discussed before and not as common now on modern boats, but for me I get a little bit more piece of mind from it.

Sent from my vivo Y35 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Stumble]

So I just looked it up, the YellowBrick transponder consumes about 5ah every 12 months while sending position updates daily. Plug it into a house bank and even if the deep cycles aren't being recharged you are talking about years if not decades before it runs out of power. In reality the battery will likely self discharge before the Yellow Brick would come close to draining the battery.

A modern 12v LED anchor light (3nm range) draws 43.2w/day. A standard 100ah battery holds about 1.2kw of power. So running just this light the battery will last for roughly 27 days. Minus a little for depth of discharge, plus a little for the slow rate of draw.

Even with a couple of led lights on and the YB tracker running, almost any solar panel will have the batteries so full that overcharging is a more likely problem than draining it.

I certainly wouldn't claim that having one guarantees you will get your boat back, but there is a much better chance you will if you have one.

[RPZ]

Was talking to my buddy today about spare rudders, and he mentioned hydrovanes. I'd never heard of them before.

[RPZ]

Originally Posted by Stumble

So I just looked it up, the YellowBrick transponder consumes about 5ah every 12 months while sending position updates daily.... (Etc)....

A yellowbrick sounds like a no brainer to me. To recover any lost boat you need to know where it is. If you know where it is, if you have the means to get there and repair what's broke, that's about as sure as sure is going to get.