Singlehanders might want to

[knottybuoyz]

check this out.

Remarkable footage found on a wrecked boat washed up on the West Coast of Ireland. Believed to be taken in the North Atlantic on record 2005.

YouTube - Dramatic footage of solo explorer in hurricane

He was rescued by a cargo ship after clinging to the keel for five hours. Here's what I found...

Some background on the voyage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/4166710.stm

The boat:
http://www.globalboatworks.com/5.html

The rescue:
http://www.yachting-world.com/auto/newsdesk/20050826152444ywnews.html

The whole story:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1582918,00.html

[ssullivan]

Very interesting link. You know what? I think this boat was too reliant on electric and electronic items. Did you see the guy freak when his electronics were out? I mean sure, being rolled would have sucked, but he was oddly freaked out by his electronics being down.

How many times did he get rolled? 4? Wow. Must have SUCKED, as he said.

This one is so much more interesting because we can see what happened. If he had a manual bilge pump in there, I think he could have made it all the way with the boat. It was surpisingly resiliant. Good argument for a small boat. I'd hate to see my behemoth roll... it's not set up for it right now. Stuff would be everywhere. Dorades would allow water in, etc...

Also, he didn't appear very seasick. He was doing well from that standpoint. Very surprised at that also.

Solo trips in bad weather seem horrible. Nobody to talk it out with. Your own mind is probably your worst enemy.

Did he mention that the "conquest" was over?

If I hear that right, we all know you can't conquer the sea. It will always win.

Give me a competent crew over a solo passage any day.

[dana-tenacity]

Dumb idea and poor choice of vesseleven though as Sean points out the vessel did better than the skipper

[Connemara]

Hmmm....14 foot boat, going west to east in hurricane season...he's lucky to be alive, I'd say.

Connemara

H O L Y CRAP!!
Sean, he said six times at one point. Like the shots standing on the bottom of the hull looking at the keel? Gotta give him credit for keeping it together. He seems to be taking care of the ship through all of that.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Can anyone - hand on heart - say that the adventure was any more likely to succeed with extra crew on board?

IMO this has as much to do with Sailing / Cruising as climbing Everest with no Oxygen has to do with Hill Walking. Not to say I don't take my hat off to someone willing to try this. 14 foot and powered by a Kite?? Each to their own I guess...........



I did enjoy the quote: all I had done was send a message to Angela: 'You can start worrying now, love'.

[ssullivan]

Kai Nui:
Yes, I heard 6 times as well, now. Missed that before. It is pretty impressive that he sets up a shot while he's out hanging onto the keel.

David:
I can safely say, hand on heart (and maybe in a different boat) that the adventure could have succeeded with crew to help him talk through it and gain back his confidence.. Did you all see the seas? Rough, but only just a smidge over the border of scary. Not terrifying. Not impossible on a well-founded vessel at all. Just a bit impossible on this 14ft one.

Not to anyone in particular:
Do you guys think it was a Force 10 blow, as he said at one point? Check out this link to see what the sea looks like during various force stages:

The Beaufort Scale of Wind Force


Note the lack of any type of blowing streaks of foam or fully breaking waves. They are rough, and near or at gale, but don't seem to be above that. I think his main issue was the shape of the waves and the multiple directions they are comming from. Probably a little constructive interference created a few that were just wrong for his very small craft to handle. On a normal boat, those seas weren't impossible. Have you guys been out in that kind of snot before? Uncomfortable, but not impossible - especially with a crew hand-steering to avoid knockdowns.

[dana-tenacity]

Had a long conversation once with a lot of very experienced sailors, we all agreed that any offshore cruising boat should come through 60 kn at sea unscathed. At 70 kn expect some gear damge, but survive. 80- 100 kn ( the statistical sample smple shrunk, hence the wider band) some one probably won't be coming home.

[ssullivan]

Agreed, Dana-tenacity. Regular old storms (fronts, thunderstorms, not hurricanes) often produce winds to the 40-50kt range. You are definitely going to experience that at one point or another if you are cruising full time. You might be at anchor (lucky) or you might be in the middle of a long passage. It *will* happen though.

Any boat you plan to be in for weeks at a time should be ready for this.

[rtbates]

Let's see .....North Atlantic....NO in a 14' boat....NO NO that gets it's only propulsion from a kite...NO NO NO I do believe he did set a record for the most rolls by a single boat, 9!! I wonder if he has a new appreciation for the ocean in general and the North Atlantic in particular. Some of those gung ho marine types just don't seem to get it....You don't mess with mother nature. What was his statement about concurring the North Atlantic again?

[senormechanico]

I agree it was no Force 10, more like Force 5, 6 at most. I've been offshore in lots worse stuff than what I saw in the video. It wasn't fun, but it also wasn't life threatening in a 35' boat. Heck, during winter storms I've seen waves that big in Puget Sound. We surfed them on the way home from Seattle to Whidbey Island. The worst thing that happened was our two cats peed on the settees.

Steve B.

[ssullivan]

Yup.

And for clairty, I found a link with sea state images associated with the Beaufort Scale:

Google Image Result for http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mkx/marine/bf10.jpg

Scroll to the bottom for the links and resulting photos. Force 12 looks rough in these shots!! Wow!

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by ssullivan

Yup.

And for clairty, I found a link with sea state images associated with the Beaufort Scale:

Google Image Result for http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mkx/marine/bf10.jpg

Scroll to the bottom for the links and resulting photos. Force 12 looks rough in these shots!! Wow!

Remind me never to go out in Force 12. But I agree that the sea state our marine pal was dealing with looked more like Force 8 or so than Force 10.

Connemara

[dana-tenacity]

Cool photos, brouhjt back lots of memories, but why did they stop at 64kn?