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PostPosted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 5:49 pm 
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Location: Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/25/us/mo ... a-missing/

Since we have talked about the cautious operation of small sailboats on open water recently I thought this might be sobering even though its a bit depressing.

One of the boats I saw being towed back looked like an 18 Ft Cat, several healthy, young people are still missing.

Seems odd that the storm was not recognised or perhaps heeded in this day of satellite weather watch.

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PostPosted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 6:48 pm 
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Location: South Florida
The Daulphin Island Race Storm with videos has been discussed on the WaterTribe forum: http://watertribe.org/forums/topic/we-are-not-the-only-event-having-a-bad-year

Another WaterTribe forum thread has a shorter discussion with videos: http://watertribe.org/forums/topic/dauphin-island-race

It was a very fast moving storm which caught even experienced sailors by surprise. It struck after most race competitors had finished the race. Any one missing now is presumed dead.

Keith

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PostPosted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 10:57 pm 
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Not much warning you can do if a small but powerful squall happens before weather-watch data gets through so always an element of risk in open water I guess whether you are in the race or not.

A reminder that Stuff Happens in nature and even experienced, well-equipped people in boats larger and heavier than ours can be swallowed by the unexpected tempest.

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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 5:46 am 
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I don't know about anyone else but I learned a great deal just watching some of those videos. I have of course never got into anything that bad, but have been caught out offshore in 30-35 mph winds and 5 ft chop a few times (sudden unforcast storms are pretty common in south Florida in the summer). With the sails furled on my TI if I got broadside to the waves I would have to hike out on the tramp to keep from capsizing. When I was broadside I felt on the most danger. So with my motor running and pedaling like crazy I would do my best to keep my bow pointed into the waves. However even with that the boat would stall in the water and I lost rudder control, and the boat continously tried to go sideways. That big sail boat in the video I'm pretty sure had engines, and they kept their stern to the wind, with the wind pushing the boat and assistance from their motor they were able to maintain rudder control and did an outstanding job keeping control of their boat. You hear one of the guys say 'it's not the wind that will get us it's the waves'. Which if you think about it this is probably true, with bare masts, it's much more likely the waves will capsize you if your broadside to them. At least around here most of the time that kind of weather is of short duration and if the wind is blowing toward shore I will turn stern to the wind, with motors running and pedaling like mad (of course hoping the boat will stay together) and ride the storm out maintaining rudder control to keep the boat pointed down wind. My wing jib has been tested to 30mph winds, so I may leave that out and just let it weathervane so it can help keep the boat straight, though if I have time I would likely furl the wing and take it down. I think the key point in this situation is to keep enough forward motion so your rudder continues to function (plus it's getting you closer to shore), hopefully the storm subsides before you reach the shore.
If the wind is blowing offshore, that might be a different situation not sure I want to be blown further off of Key West (next stop Cuba (lol)). I've been putting off getting a drift chute, but now I'm seeing it to be a mandatory piece of equipment. If it's an offshore wind I'm thinking if I throw the drift chute out either the bow or the stern, that will hopefully keep me pointed either into or away from the wind, then just hunker down and let it pass over hoping the boat stays together (which I think would be a huge if with the TI, even with my re-enforcements I don't think the boat is strong enough to survive something really big (like in that storm in the video).
Obviously on a TI getting into a similar situation your chance of survival is pretty slim so it's best to know the weather and if there is even a chance of getting caught offshore like that it best to just stay home. My TI is fun, but not worth risking my life. Just reading about all this makes me respect the sea even more, and watching that 40 ft sailboat go over in the video was humbling (especially with an 18 ft plastic boat (lol)). In the future I plan to be even more careful, don't want anything like that to happen to me.
Bob


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 8:53 am 
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Fyi... those that drowned were on larger monohull sailboats. Tossed into the water during capsizes and sinkings. I am not aware of any deaths related to the catamaran fleet.

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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 12:01 pm 
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fusioneng wrote:
......... it's best to know the weather and if there is even a chance of getting caught offshore like that it best to just stay home.


Yes, I saw one WT Poster stated that there was foreknowledge of danger and the comp was called off and then put on again.

I do know that in some of the Hang Gliding championships I have competed in that sometimes competitions were run in dangerous weather conditions.

Pilots took risks, and injuries, they normally would not because the Commercial Sponsor had a big investment and did not want the event cancelled.
So the pilots flew because no one wanted to be seen as the wimp who was too scared to participate.

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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 4:25 pm 
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I had an eye-widening experience once when racing a 25 foot quarter tonner keel boat. The wind began to howl, and we had reduced sail drastically, buit we were still able to slowly claw our way upwind. Airborne spray "bullets" really hurt my face, so I was steering by looking astern and keeping the wake straight. All of sudden one of the crew grabbed the tiller and swung over hard. I looked around and saw that we just avoided sailing into the fallen mast of a sistership just in front of us! Phew! I later found out that the local airport recorded 68mph.....

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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 4:29 pm 
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Holy crap after reading all this I might take up biking instead (lol)


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 6:21 pm 
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fusioneng wrote:
Holy crap after reading all this I might take up biking instead (lol)
Nah, don't get too worried Bob, on that day (for instance) after the strong gusts passed, we hunkered down into race mode, and sailed past quite a few faster yachts which had the crew all clustered together in "let's get warm" mode rather than race mode, so we cheerily waved as we went past. It turned out to be a very enjoyable day, despite a few moments of terror!

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