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soverel · 03-04-2015, 07:06

Reported missing on Jan 28 but search not undertaken by uscg until Feb 8 seems strange. They checked financial records first. No plan on file.

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Magic1st · 03-04-2015, 07:29

Listen to the interview, MarkJ's 3rd post. Knocked down 3x, he cut rigging away. Rudder broken. Broken shoulder, no mast, no rudder, and full of water. Cold... Doesn't sound like much fun...

jeepbluetj · 03-04-2015, 07:31

There was a bit on this on the Today show this AM. He said he rolled 3 times. Lost the rig. Did not loose the keel. He said it felt like a lot longer than 66 days, I can believe that.

Glad they found him.

Polux · 03-04-2015, 07:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

Ahh, but was he a licensed boater?

No, if he had one he would have learned about the importance of having an EPIRB

6 moths before sailing out to Hatteras for fishing this was revealing about his knowledge about sailing (posted on this forum):

"What's the best way to arrange the sails?
Sometimes I had to put a lot of pressure on the rudder to keep the boat from drifting towards shore.

Sometimes I had the jib set so that it would stop the boat from putting too turning too hard towards either shore! That was golden.

Sometimes when I adjusted the jib, the boat wanted to turn more towards starboard, or port.

I'm still not sure how to detect exactly when an accidental jybe is going to take place. Those things are freaking scary! esp. w/ a wooden boom.

Sometimes, the only way I can go forward is w/ the engine, & then both sails are flapping wildly, but being single-handed, sometimes I just have to let them flap.

I still get turned around into a 360 sometimes too.

Learning to sail is fun, but, I got a lot to learn."

If a licence needed to be offshore Hatteras cape would imply training and sailing competence on a sailboat, sure it would have probably helped him.

contrail · 03-04-2015, 07:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by tho52mas

wow...got on aftyer 7 years....was in Cleveland when a storm came up. I was out but made it back to the dock just as it hit. Went through a racing fleet to do it (they turned in to me!! I has about 6 skippers...all sailboat owners, onboard and asked what to do..law says racers have right of way...but they turned in to me and the sky was BLACK) anyway after the storm passed they towed in 5 boats, all sunk but floating, with one upside down. We waved to them and they ignored us. The point is these were all 30'ers, some 27...with fixed keels...and one was flipped over, and barely out of the water. So I suspect that the water volume probably equalizes or surpasses the keel weight which will not allow it to upright itself.

The law does NOT say racers have the right of way!

Island Time O25 · 03-04-2015, 07:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polux

No, if he had one he would have learned about the importance of having an EPIRB

6 moths before sailing out to Hatteras for fishing this was revealing about his knowledge about sailing (posted on this forum):

"What's the best way to arrange the sails?
Sometimes I had to put a lot of pressure on the rudder to keep the boat from drifting towards shore.

Sometimes I had the jib set so that it would stop the boat from putting too turning too hard towards either shore! That was golden.

Sometimes when I adjusted the jib, the boat wanted to turn more towards starboard, or port.

I'm still not sure how to detect exactly when an accidental jybe is going to take place. Those things are freaking scary! esp. w/ a wooden boom.

Sometimes, the only way I can go forward is w/ the engine, & then both sails are flapping wildly, but being single-handed, sometimes I just have to let them flap.

I still get turned around into a 360 sometimes too.

Learning to sail is fun, but, I got a lot to learn."

If a licence needed to be offshore Hatteras cape would imply training and sailing competence on a sailboat, sure it would have probably helped him.

How do you license common sense?

BTW, not to digress bust still IMO it's relevant. In most states to get a driver's license one just needs to show up and 1st pass some kind of written test and then a driving test. No requirement (at least where I live) to take any kind of theoretical or hands on course, etc. Except if one wants to get a lower insurance rate one would take some driver's ed course just for that. And just as we see from daily reports of crashes, gridlock, road rage, etc. having a license is no guarantee of having common sense. Nor a requirement to have a license is a guarantee of having one (see California stats on unlicensed/unregistered/uninsured operators, supposedly up to 30% of all cars on the road there).

I think this guy either with or w/o a boating license would still get himself in that situation regardless. And the lack of such license did not prevent him from being one tough dude to survive 66 days. Nor would a license make his survival any easier or sooner. We wish it would but deep down we all know it wouldn't.

FamilyVan · 03-04-2015, 08:05

Well, if he wasn't an experienced seaman when he left, he sure as heck is now.

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Polux · 03-04-2015, 08:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by FamilyVan

Well, if he wasn't an experienced seaman when he left, he sure as heck is now.

Probably he can exchange some sailing lessons for survival lessons

DeepFrz · 03-04-2015, 08:31

Just watched a video on The Guardian web site. The voice over makes it sound like the ship he was picked up by disabled. People are going to wonder about a ship that size being missing for 2 months. They said he diverted his ship to go fishing....

category4jay · 03-04-2015, 08:34

Wow. Seems like one big comedy of errors leading up to what could have been and probably should have been a very sad ending. Glad he made it!

Cheechako · 03-04-2015, 08:41

"any boat will work... just go!"

AZUS · 03-04-2015, 08:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by td0tz

Capsized for 200 days? Muat've been a cat. By the laws of physics, a mono would have righted.

Or, by the laws of physics, a mono would have sunk!

Ukeluthier · 03-04-2015, 08:54

Two years ago I sold a big blue-water cutter that had been sorely neglected while my late wife and I battled her progressive multiple sclerosis for 12 years. I sold the boat at a near-salvage price as a "project boat" with a ton of caveats in the listing as to its poor condition. The new owner (who lives on the opposite coast) told me he planned to refit the boat in a DIY yard and sail her to the Caribbean.

Despite having told the new owner that it would be very unwise to leave the dock -- even to motor her to a nearby repair yard -- without an escort boat, he nevertheless proceeded to motor away singlehanded. He got about a quarter mile before going aground (none of the instrumentation -- including the depth sounder -- still worked; the VHF radio didn't either). He managed to get her unstuck -- overheating the engine in the process -- and came back to the dock. The next day he tried again by himself and managed to make it to the boatyard this time. Never did find out if he managed the refit.

I can relate to Kevin84's frustrations. It can be downright scary selling an unseaworthy boat to a new owner who displays stubbornness and an abject lack of common sense.