Missing yacht near Barbados..

[admiralslater]

This is a very sad story which a I came to on face book . I was on the fence about ais but after hearing this story I am ordering personal locator beacons and will get the ais connected . Regarding jack lines ,one of the advantages of Cats is the ability to make jacklines short enough not to fall overboard and still be able to work (please don’t start a war over this ). My wife’s number one concern is me going overboard. We will be practising mob this winter .
Good luck to the family

[BlackHeron]

Originally Posted by zeehag

guy i know just finished a circumnav last year or so at age 73 on a perry baba 40. he just ran off to sea again at age 74 and heading for so pacific, most likely. when you diss old folks, make sure you have met all of the old folks, as many are not as old as you think they are for the numbers.
"age aint nothin but a number."

A lot of them got old by not having done too much of the stupid stuff that gets young folk dead all too often. I'd rather trust an old salt with lots of experience than a younger guy with little experience and too few sea hours.

Ageism goes the other way around for me. IMHO there just aren't too many folks born after around 1985 or so who are worth two shakes of brown salt. I'll trust an old fart over any 30-something kid to take care of himself (or herself) any day of the week.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

... If a male makes it to age 25 his odds of living a long life really start to go up. .

Yep, basing anything on "total life expectancy" results in incorrect conclusion when looking at life expectancy of older people.

Here's interesting data:

https://www.superguide.com.au/boost-...expect-to-live

overall Life expectancy for a male is 80.
But for a 75 y.o. male it's 86.

[Eigenvector]

Originally Posted by StuM

Yep, basing anything on "total life expectancy" results in incorrect conclusion when looking at life expectancy of older people.

Here's interesting data:

https://www.superguide.com.au/boost-...expect-to-live

overall Life expectancy for a male is 80.
But for a 75 y.o. male it's 86.

To contribute to the thread drift on this:

Yep to all so far, it's all in how you look at the data. The longer you live, the longer you're projected to live. It's not a single bell curve but multiple bell curves when you look at the overall data.

It's a hard read but "SCALE" is a good book on a statistical look at biology. My biggest take away from this was: If you found a cure for cancer today (all cancer) it would only increase the life expectancy by 6 years.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by BandB

Then become the broader issues and I'm just going to highlight them, not debate them or get into lengthy discussion here. Perhaps topics for new threads.

Age and health. When to stop? Not just sailing, all activities. My grandfather was a danger on the roads, to himself and others, but wasn't ever going to voluntarily give up driving.

Rights and responsibilities to self and others. There's a lot of argument that one has the right to take whatever risks they want and die even on their own terms. That's fine but you're not the only one impacted. Could be innocent others, but more likely family and friends who are torn by guilt that they didn't stop you. If one is going that route, please discuss at length with spouses, children, others to let them understand you.

Out of respect for the family suffering this missing husband and father, I think it is a great idea to start a new thread.

If someone starts, please post link here, so we can keep this one focussed on any news.

[Navicula]

i will second that one

[katoema]

From Ken Gooding on Caribbean Navigator's FB page:

One of the ARC+ boats had a sighting of a piece of the gennaker. From MRCC as of Nov 29: "A piece of genaker belonging to the S/V "VAGANT" has been sighted on November 29th morning in position 14°18N - 055°41W. The man overboard we are searching is likely to be adrift in vicinity of this position. All ships in vicinity of this position are requested to keep a sharp look-out, to investigate every floating object in this area and to report any information by Isat Phone (+870 776 300 406) to Fort de France MRCC coordinating this case. "

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by Polux

This subject has been discussed on a big facebook group about sailing where the members are not so aged as the ones around here where a 60 year old guy is a young fellow.

The subject had to do with the increasing number of rescues that recently have to be made having as object old sailors. Some of them rescued more than one time.

This case is just one more to that list. The main concern had to do with rescues on sailing passing to be covered by an insurance. As you know that happens already (the mandatory insurance) for other activities where the risk of a rescue exists.

Nobody wants to pay for that insurance but if the number of cases continues to increase it will happen since it is not fair tax payers paying for that kind of stuff that does not concern the vast majority, that's the reason why other activities have already mandatory insurances.

If that is the case it would be very difficult for a 74 year old sailor to start a circumnavigation because he would find very difficult to be insured and even if he finds an insurance company that covers that risk, the insurance will be huge, proportional to the risk.

What a ridiculous bunch of nonsense. This is nothing more than you circling back to your original argument but with a different slant, hoping to rehabilitate yourself.

From an actuarial standpoint, the number of rescues of elderly cruisers, relative to the rest of the marine insurance claims paid out by marine insurers, is so small as to be literally less than a rounding error. It could triple and still be less than a rounding error.

You hear more about rescues of older cruisers because of the internet. It's just a bunch of anecdotal aggregation, nothing more.

[Sojourner]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

DAN did a study many years ago of diving accidents and discovered two broad trends. Accidents tended to occur in two groups: the very inexperienced and the very experienced.

The very inexperienced because they didnt know what they were doing and the very experienced because they were a bit too comfortable under water and did things they shouldnt.

I suspect sailing accidents follow that trend too.

Motorbikes have a similar curve... There is a huge rise in accidents of all kinds around the 4-5 year riding mark: The newbies are going carefully, the really experienced ones know what they're doing. That 4-5 year rider THINKS he or she knows it all, but defo does not. I got T-boned by a car right around the 3 year mark due to my own impatience and imprudence, so I'm speaking from experience for sure.

[robert sailor]

My view on getting old is that it's an attitude. Some people in their 40's are old and I think some people are born old. Some physically older people are mentally very young and some will stay that way until they die.
The difference between younger people and older people is not so much a physical thing as it is a mental thing. When your young, your hourglass is full on the topside and your dreams and attitude follow that pattern. Almost anything is possible and if you can dream it, you can plan it and then you can do it. We humans act out our thoughts. People that are old, at any age, quite dreaming and no longer see life as a great adventure...especially the ones who live next to a hospital. Sure we know theres not alot of sand left at the top of the glass anymore but we also know your time can run out at any age so dream dreams of adventure and then plan them and do them, it's not about your age, it's about your attitude.

[GTom]

Originally Posted by katoema

From Ken Gooding on Caribbean Navigator's FB page:

One of the ARC+ boats had a sighting of a piece of the gennaker. From MRCC as of Nov 29: "A piece of genaker belonging to the S/V "VAGANT" has been sighted on November 29th morning in position 14°18N - 055°41W. The man overboard we are searching is likely to be adrift in vicinity of this position. All ships in vicinity of this position are requested to keep a sharp look-out, to investigate every floating object in this area and to report any information by Isat Phone (+870 776 300 406) to Fort de France MRCC coordinating this case. "

Thank you for sharing!

Aga's post from Yesterday:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.p...92&pnref=story

Official SAR is called off now.

[katoema]

Originally Posted by GTom

Thank you for sharing!

That's what we are here for, to assist. As a very long standing member here and, am 70 next year, there are 'nets' that play an important part in times such as these.

Take Care All. Martin

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by GTom

Thank you for sharing!

Aga's post from Yesterday:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.p...92&pnref=story

Official SAR is called off now.

Expected, but sad. At least he went doing what he wanted (except for that last bit).

Gotta be tough on the family not having the closure of at least a body recovery though.

RIP

[picklesandjesse]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

My view on getting old is that it's an attitude. Some people in their 40's are old and I think some people are born old. Some physically older people are mentally very young and some will stay that way until they die.
The difference between younger people and older people is not so much a physical thing as it is a mental thing. When your young, your hourglass is full on the topside and your dreams and attitude follow that pattern. Almost anything is possible and if you can dream it, you can plan it and then you can do it. We humans act out our thoughts. People that are old, at any age, quite dreaming and no longer see life as a great adventure...especially the ones who live next to a hospital. Sure we know theres not alot of sand left at the top of the glass anymore but we also know your time can run out at any age so dream dreams of adventure and then plan them and do them, it's not about your age, it's about your attitude.

Good observation...... thanks

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

My view on getting old is that it's an attitude. Some people in their 40's are old and I think some people are born old. Some physically older people are mentally very young and some will stay that way until they die.
The difference between younger people and older people is not so much a physical thing as it is a mental thing. When your young, your hourglass is full on the topside and your dreams and attitude follow that pattern. Almost anything is possible and if you can dream it, you can plan it and then you can do it. We humans act out our thoughts. People that are old, at any age, quite dreaming and no longer see life as a great adventure...especially the ones who live next to a hospital. Sure we know theres not alot of sand left at the top of the glass anymore but we also know your time can run out at any age so dream dreams of adventure and then plan them and do them, it's not about your age, it's about your attitude.

Hey Robert, I think I read your age in a previous thread, if I'm right your a similar age to my parents. They've moved into a retirement village and do water aerobics for seniors a couple of times a week. You on the other hand are crossing oceans!
I'm planning on being like you (and the Cates ) when I grow up.