Sunk by a Whale : Survival Stories

[Group9]

Originally Posted by minaret

Ever seen a deer whistle on a car? Maybe a marine version is needed...

I've always wondered if a boat's sonar could confuse a whale or killer whale and make it run into you.

[mikereed100]

Originally Posted by minaret

Ever seen a deer whistle on a car? Maybe a marine version is needed...

Some fishery supply stores sell a little pinging chingadera for a little over $100 that is claimed to warn off whales, but I have no idea if it really works.

[Lofty01]

I have been told to turn motor on if ever attacked. This may decrease the chance of the whale thinking of the yacht as a food source.

[blazeit420]

storys like these make me question my own sanity of building a wooden boat, but i dream on, i remember seeing a steel ( i think ) boat being run overe by a oil tanker and just getting a dent, it probally would have broke the whales bones, wonder what a aluminum boat would have done?

[jipcho]

Some of these responses have made me scratch my head.
For example: Red bottom paint bothers the whales more than other colors. Well, that's certainly a very unscientific conclusion. After all, most people paint the bottom red, so that might account for the statistics.
Regarding sonar, forward seeking sonar didn't prevent a fellow cruiser from running onto a reef.
And steel hulls don't prevent steel hulled boats from sinking when the hit a large, hard object.
Conclusion: We're in the whale's territory. Whales, like weather, can and will cause problems for sailors.
Prepare properly and practice prudent seamanship. That's our best defense. Not blue bottom paint, turning off sonar or engines, or singing whale songs or praying to Neptune.

[a64pilot]

I believe the concern over Naval Sonar is it can be extremely powerful, our depth finders by comparison are extremely weak.
Some Sonar / chart plotters, you can hear when diving, sounds almost like a spark plug wire "snap" type of noise, very short duration, seems to be about 1 HZ.
Others, I've not heard at all, out of human hearing range, I assume

[ReMetau]

I'm thinking that I'll just run my engine every once in a while. It's a Yanmar so it should scare the whales away from me.

[Steadman Uhlich]

Today I came across a mention of a small sailboat (24ft) being struck by a whale, causing a dismasting. This just happened.

Colors?
NOTE: In this thread we have discussed how the color of a boat's hull may have influenced or prompted an attack by a whale. The boat mentioned in this account has gloss BLACK topsides and WHITE bottom and keel, somewhat similar to an Orca color scheme. The boat was attacked by a gray whale. I am posting a photo showing a real Orca from the bottom of the animal, as a way of showing how a whale in the water may see it from below.

Latitude 38 - 'Lectronic Latitude

"Around 2:30 Saturday afternoon during Santa Cruz YC's Fall Classic, the bow and forestay of Bill Erkelens' Moore 24 Eclipse — whose topsides are gloss black and bottom is white — was suddenly struck by a whale's tail with enough force to send the rig crashing down into the cockpit, leaving two of the four crew in the water. Fortunately, they were quickly retrieved by a YC crash boat, and suffered only minor injuries.

Sailmaker Dave Hodges was racing nearby aboard Banditos, and says the whale simply disappeared afterward. But he tells us that an abnormally large whale population has been congregating near Santa Cruz lately, especially in the kelp beds of Mitchell's Cove, and some have been known to battle with orcas in recent weeks. Speculation around the docks is that the whale that attacked Eclipse may have thought the sloop was an orca. "

[Steadman Uhlich]

A photo showing scale of a whale compared to a boat.

Photographed in coastal waters of Mexico (Pacific).

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by Steady Hand

Today I came across a mention of a small sailboat (24ft) being struck by a whale, causing a dismasting. This just happened.

Colors?
NOTE: In this thread we have discussed how the color of a boat's hull may have influenced or prompted an attack by a whale. The boat mentioned in this account has gloss BLACK topsides and WHITE bottom and keel, somewhat similar to an Orca color scheme. The boat was attacked by a gray whale. I am posting a photo showing a real Orca from the bottom of the animal, as a way of showing how a whale in the water may see it from below.

Latitude 38 - 'Lectronic Latitude

"Around 2:30 Saturday afternoon during Santa Cruz YC's Fall Classic, the bow and forestay of Bill Erkelens' Moore 24 Eclipse — whose topsides are gloss black and bottom is white — was suddenly struck by a whale's tail with enough force to send the rig crashing down into the cockpit, leaving two of the four crew in the water. Fortunately, they were quickly retrieved by a YC crash boat, and suffered only minor injuries.

Sailmaker Dave Hodges was racing nearby aboard Banditos, and says the whale simply disappeared afterward. But he tells us that an abnormally large whale population has been congregating near Santa Cruz lately, especially in the kelp beds of Mitchell's Cove, and some have been known to battle with orcas in recent weeks. Speculation around the docks is that the whale that attacked Eclipse may have thought the sloop was an orca. "

Actually, the whale which struck the Moore 24 was a humpback--the grey whales come through Santa Cruz in the spring, but the humpbacks have become frequent visitors in the summer and fall.

In the BBC/PBS series "Big Blue" about our local waters, there is footage of a group of humpbacks chasing off a pod of Orca's.

[Gradient]

I think the risk of hitting a whale is very small and unfortunately almost unpreventable. We had a lot of close encounters around the DR and ran the motor sometimes to make them more aware of us. Mostly though we try and get in the water when we see them (like the pair below) and have had some amazing encounters with Humpbacks, Bowhead and Beaked Whales. To my knowledge no one has been killed by a Killer Whale in the wild (only in captivity) and I would have no hesitation in getting into the water with some if I came across them (as my friends do in New Zealand).