Missing yacht off the Brazilian coast

[El Pinguino]

It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this...

'The Brazilian Navy has announced that it will resume the search for the Argentine sailboat that went missing 40 days ago near Río Grande shores after the relatives of the missing crew provided satellite imagery that points to what could be the location of the “Tunante II” ship that remains adrift since August 26.'

Brazil resumes search for missing sailboat after new satellite data - BuenosAiresHerald.com

I must say it does look like a yacht.......

[weavis]

Heres hoping.

Shame to have all this technology and just use it for killing people.

[DumnMad]

Brilliant if it is the yacht.
They tried to find Nina this way - no luck, but most thought she sunk suddenly before they could set off their beacon etc.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by weavis

Heres hoping.



Shame to have all this technology and just use it for killing people.

Your kidding, right? You think this was a Military satellite that they somehow got time on to use to search for a boat?

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by DumnMad

Brilliant if it is the yacht.
They tried to find Nina this way - no luck, but most thought she sunk suddenly before they could set off their beacon etc.

Yes, I think it was pretty clear what happened to Nina. Not sure if this Argentinean boat had an epirb or not but that bit of water off the coast of southern Brazil can be more than a little bit nasty.

[MarkJ]

If it was a military satillite it could see down the hatch.

Its a better time of year and location than Nina. Also remember MH370 sat photos early on all looked like plane bots but when over flown were nothing or not found.

Good luck to them.

[El Pinguino]

It would be interesting to know if they discovered the raft using the satellite info.. Navy confirms Argentine sailboat remains found - BuenosAiresHerald.com

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

If it was a military satillite it could see down the hatch.

Its a better time of year and location than Nina. Also remember MH370 sat photos early on all looked like plane bots but when over flown were nothing or not found.

Good luck to them.

Well... That eliminates a lot of activities waiting for help then...

[DumnMad]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

It would be interesting to know if they discovered the raft using the satellite info.. Navy confirms Argentine sailboat remains found - BuenosAiresHerald.com

Yes, and whether the life raft was empty.

[El Pinguino]

Yes, it would appear that its empty, sadly I think they are long dead.

I find it interesting that having resumed the search after such a long period of time that they actually found the raft... I would have expected it to be half way to Africa by now.... maybe the satpic info was accurate.

[MarkJ]

Its tough down there and I dont think epirb response is very good. Remember that tall ship, ummmm Constellation?? They were days adrift after epirb activation. And do we know if this boat had epirb?

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

....do we know if this boat had epirb?

I think it did.... by memory they advised the world at large that they were in trouble when they got into trouble.... it wasn't a case of a search being mounted after they had been posted missing.

Chilean SAR is absolutely excellent.... I didn't think the Argentines would be much chop but they got a good rap on CF from the skipper of a yacht that was lost offshore from Rio Gallegos last austral summer(?) .

Brazil??? they seem to be a bit so so.... seems to take them a bit of time to get their assets sorted....

[svlamorocha]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Its tough down there and I dont think epirb response is very good. Remember that tall ship, ummmm Constellation?? They were days adrift after epirb activation. And do we know if this boat had epirb?

My Argentine sources say the boat did not have EPIRB. It did have a satphone, which was used to send a distress message to family members. It is unclear whether that message included position info. The phone was used several times over several hours and then it did not work anymore. It is unclear whether the phone stopped working because it got wet or it ran out of battery.

IM not so HO this case gives us lessons that are applicable for offshore sailors anywhere.

1)Sat phones do not replace EPIRBs because the latter send all the required info and no more, they are waterproof and there is no way to misuse the battery capacity by sending unnecessary info instead of saving it to keep sending position updates for longer.

2) Waterproof (or waterproofED) VHF radios that do not rely exclusively on a masthead antenna are critical once you have rescue assets within a couple dozen miles. Within hours of their distress call these guys were found by a cargo ship that could not make VHF contact with them and ended up losing visual contact with them and then moved on. Speculation is that they lost VHF transmission ability when they lost the mast or when things got wet later on. IMHO a waterproof handheld VHF would most likely have saved their lives because it is much easier to spot a ship from a yacht than the other way around and that same ship would not have moved on had they heard the voice of those sailors on channel 16.

Charlie




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[svlamorocha]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Yes, it would appear that its empty, sadly I think they are long dead.

I find it interesting that having resumed the search after such a long period of time that they actually found the raft... I would have expected it to be half way to Africa by now.... maybe the satpic info was accurate.

I am told the ID of one of the sailors (not the owner/skipper) was found in the raft. I believe it is reasonable to assume that this ID was not packed into the raft before leaving Buenos Aires (easy for an owner because down there they use Chinese rafts packed locally to order with whatever food, etc is requested by the owner), hence the raft was boarded after it was inflated at sea.

I understand that the raft was seriously damaged, half submerged. I wonder if the investigation will find evidence of damage by the rig of the boat (as when raft is launched/inflated with mast and rig still on the water next to the boat).

Charlie

[svlamorocha]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

I find it interesting that having resumed the search after such a long period of time that they actually found the raft... I would have expected it to be half way to Africa

Can you please explain to me why would the raft have drifted East? I confess I do not understand that.

I have done the whole trip (whole Brazilian coast in fact) twice. We always sailed close to the coast and the current was always parallel to the coast except where it changed direction (as where currents collide with each other or the coast). I bet there could be a difference between surface and subsurface currents that explains what you are saying. Can you please elaborate for my education?



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