Can a ship tow a sail boat?

[travellers4]

Yes. Wouldn't have believed it til we were towed, first ever successful night tow (according to AMSA). Family of 4 on aluminium 50’ mono. 8+metre seas, in excess of 67 knots. Bad weather.
Too rough to climb onto 185m ship.
Rescue took around 26 hours. Towed at 13kn. Samson post built strong, hull strong (ship hit us once after shooting lines and pulling us alongside). Nearly sucked into ship prop so ship cut us loose.
Tow line broke twice. Sailed into ships stern at 90 deg so hubby could catch huge line dragging from behind ship, with our small line/hook. That bit took several goes over many hours. No comms, no engine, no power. Broken foot, minor injuries.
Reason I say this? Never give up.

[skenn_ie]

The Folkboat "Jester" was lifted on board a ship after being knocked down and dismasted, skipper fractured vertebra and other injuries. Rope down forehatch and round mast support.
One thing that i like about mariners and aviators is that if someone is in trouble, nothing else matters. We operate in untamed environments.

[Mickeyrouse]

There are too stories of ship-towed boats being towed under, at which point the towing hawser parts. The boat, at this point already under water just keeps going- down.

[skenn_ie]

Make sure that you can release the line even when under tension.

[Mickeyrouse]

You may have noticed that tug boats mount a fire axe by the towing bits.

[skenn_ie]

Just hope you aren't in the way when the hawser goes flying.

[Enyar]

Does anyone have any videos or pictures of small 25-40' sailboats being towed above hull speed?

[slowlysailing]

Originally Posted by guyrj33

I'm not sure it that simple, I've had my 33' 12,500 lb sloop reporting 10-12 knots with a 40 knot tail wind going down the face of a smooth 20' roller.
Not an experience I want to repeat and I won't say my 6' draft fin keeled boat was planing, but it sure felt like she was surfing.

Would I want to try to tow her at 14 knots, no but if the choice was abandoning her I guess i'd try.

I reckon under sail, even surfing, the stresses involved are not like when being pulled along.
I agree with those who say most likely failure would be the fitting(s) used to hold the tow line. Might take a chunk of deck or whatever with it, but still. I guess it might get swamped first (which would add a huge resistance).

This video puzzles me...why bother trying to tow it? The ship's captain thought it might work?
And what of the now-drifting boat? Was it assumed it would self-scuttle because of the leak, and not become a hazard?

[aqfishing]

Originally Posted by skenn_ie

The Folkboat "Jester" was lifted on board a ship after being knocked down and dismasted, skipper fractured vertebra and other injuries. Rope down forehatch and round mast support.
One thing that i like about mariners and aviators is that if someone is in trouble, nothing else matters. We operate in untamed environments.

Can’t see too many aviators slowing down to tow another….

[team karst]

Originally Posted by aqfishing

Can’t see too many aviators slowing down to tow another….

I was doing a formation flight of two. A 182rg and an arrow. PBI to bahamas. My buddies gear would not retract on the piper. I had to slow to around 130. [emoji106]

[NYSail]

If the issue was only drinking water why didn’t they just ask for a fill up and sail on their way to a port? Boat looks fine and wasn’t sinking. And why did they leave port without enough drinking water in the first place?? Probably more to the story…..

[skipperpete]

I think it was established earlier that the loss of steering was the most significant event then after drifting for a few days near the equator, the drinking water became a crucial issue. I know the owner quite well and he has been travelling these waters for more than a few years under various distressing conditions and he’s never considered it necessary to to put out a distress call. The boat itself was quite well equipped, steel hulled and powered by a new yanmar engine and the only observation I’d make is that every vessel should have an emergency steering mechanism (tiller or external cables to the rudder blade) that is easy to setup and easy to use once its in place. I have no information regarding the flooding but I know for sure that the engine was at the lowest point in the hull so even a foot of water in the bilge would have reached the starter motor. I doubt that there’s much more to the story and he probably did the right thing by putting out a distress call….. and it was a folly to think that a merchant ship could have safely towed the unsteerable yacht to port at any speed over 6 knots especially considering the small time frame they had to setup any sort of directional stability aboard the yacht….( trailing warps or streaming the anchor chain off the stern).

[Uricanejack]

First point.
I have both a leagal and moral obligation to the safety of life at sea.
Second point
I always have and I will always respond as required.

Third point I am not obligated to save your vessel.

I am not obligated to endanger my vessel or crew even to save life. In fact my first obligation is to ensure my vessel passengers and crew safety. You can add environment to this as well.

Note I did not say cargoe.

Safety of life at sea trump’s cargo and charters money ect.

So if you and your little boat are in distress or may be in distress I am obligated to provide the assistance I can and will do so,

No I will not tow your boat. I doubt if it would be safe for you. It would not be safe for my crew and could potentially result in damage to your vessel and more importantly to me my vessel.

If you require a tow you are not in distress. You are in inconvenience. Call for commercial assistance.

If you call mayday. I will respond. I will consult with CG. I will offer to pick you up if I can do so safely.
I may have been tasked by rescue coordinator, AMVER ect.

If you decline my offer to pick you up.
I am no longer obligated.

I may stand by until other assistance arrives or you give up your attempt to save your vessel.
Depending upon your reasoning I will ask rescue coordinator to stand down.

I am a commercial vessel I am not going to divert or delay my vessel for your inconvenience.

Having said all the above.

Many Many years ago I did tow a small vessel.

Late one night on out last sailing of the day.
One of our company other vessels informed us they had passed close to a small unlit run about they thought they might have seen people on board and asked if we could investigate when we passed,

It was dark. Early fall. Clear probably going to get quite cold overnight. Light wind a bit of a swell weather not a problem apart from cold.

We had an approximate position not far from our regular route.
So we went to investigate.

We found a small run about approximately 18 to 20 ft of a type commonly used for sport fishing in the PNW.
No lights, no radio, broken down a couple of miles from shore. Drifting in the ebb.
Two adults, two kids. On board.

We spoke to them. Today I would probably deploy my FRC. At the time we did have a boat but it was a small traditional boat and very slow.

We are not equipped for salvage towing ect.
Earlier I in the day we would have stood by to. Or more more likely have given thier position to RCC and along with other passing commercial vessels checked on them periodically.

We would have. Provided radio communications until a better equipped vessel arrived.
The ETA for an assist vessel was a few hours. I cant recall exactly,

The only suitable line on board was the painter for our life boat .

We passed a line.

We towed the small boat in to the harbour we were heading for.
We released the tow close enough to a public dock for them to paddle in.

We ran at minimum speed. De clutched two of 4 engines. And had a crew member standby the tow line constantly JIK.
Particularly concerned if we had to slow or stop about line getting caught in screw.
Which might have sunk the small boat. Or.
If we parted the line it would be quite hazardous for anyone near by.

Why did we do it. Partly because transfer of people from a small boat at sea at night is not particularly easy or safe.
Partly because we were not going to leave a couple of kids out at sea in the cold. On a night we expect the temp to drop to near freezing.

We only had a few miles to go.

We were quite late. Some people may have been inconvenienced. Nobody complained.

CG RCC ect quite happy.
My boss was quite happy.

Our vessel a ferry, was considerable more manoeuvre able than most commercial vessels.
By the way I was not the Master at the time. I just agreed with him it was the best thing to do at the time.

The Master was Capt. Al Davidson he passed away quite a number of years ago.

[skipperpete]

Uricanejack, the captain of the MV Tampa honoured the same code when he picked up 433 refugees from a foundering wooden boat and quickly became the centre of a controversy that changed our attitude to that code forever. Australia refused the ship entry and sent 40 SAS heavily armed troops to make sure he complied in a drawn out confrontation which finally ended when the Australian Navy took the refugees on board and delivered some of them to NewZealand and the others to I know not where. From the moment that incident occurred, ships masters like yourself were highly unlikely to ever pick up survivors of a sinking or sunk vessel due to the very real possibility of ending their careers in commercial shipping. Would you pick up a hundred South Americans of unknown provenance on your way to a US port? How would your employer react to having his ship and cargo engaged in a Tampa like incident. Does your company have any standing orders for such a situation?

[chrisr]

this is a matter oft talk about in the industry. no-one admits doing it but we are well aware that many ships 'look the other way' where rescuing illegals is concerned

personally i don't believe this happens with more normal distress / emergency rescues

cheers,

ps : skipperpete, as i'm sure you will recall, the actual problem with the tampa situation was that the master choose not to take to rescued people to the nearest port, but instead continued on to australia