Sailing around the world in a San Juan 24

[thomm225]

This story is so awesome I thought I should post it. It's on Sailing Anarchy. Some of the posters are so funny/hilarious.

One guy said though make fun of him all you want, but when you are 10 minutes from dying, you'll wish you had done what he did.


Sailing around the world in a San Juan 24 - Sailing Anarchy - Sailing Anarchy Forums

[Reefmagnet]

Makes all those blue water boat debates on here look silly, doesn't he?

Sent from my SGP521 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[ravinracin]

Rimas has been sitting in Pago Pago, Samoa for a long while, planning his next voyage. He seems quite content where he is. Best for him if he stays put IMHO. He is planning on sailing around Cape Horn next.

[Fog Bank]

A freind of mine bent over backwards to help Rimas in every way possible, up to and including towing him into the bay, and then towing him out of the bay. I have nothing positive to say about Rimas.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Fog Bank

A freind of mine bent over backwards to help Rimas in every way possible, up to and including towing him into the bay, and then towing him out of the bay. I have nothing positive to say about Rimas.

Indeed.
➥ Rimas Adrift
➥ Rimas Adrift | Sailing Fortuitous

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by GordMay

➥ Rimas Adrift | Sailing Fortuitous

First paragraph is a good summation though:

Right now, there's a guy bobbing around the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a 24' San Juan sailboat. He claims to be in the process of sailing solo around the world. Some have called him a hero—living the dream of so many cruisers and wannabe cruisers. Others have called him an idiot (or worse), lacking the skill, preparation, and the boat for such a voyage. He calls himself Rimas, and I'm way too deep into this train wreck to look away now.

[s/v Beth]

To go back to thomm....I will never wish to do what this guy is doing. I consider sailing a challenge to do as well as possible, and I consider my tool important and should be sharp. He turned down a bigger more seaworthy boat because he considers first circumnavigation with a San Juan 24 glorious.
Even if that were true, his refusal to learn to sail the boat just depresses me. Why waste your time going 1 knot around the world? There's too many good things to do for my short life.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

To go back to thomm....I will never wish to do what this guy is doing. I consider sailing a challenge to do as well as possible, and I consider my tool important and should be sharp. He turned down a bigger more seaworthy boat because he considers first circumnavigation with a San Juan 24 glorious.
Even if that were true, his refusal to learn to sail the boat just depresses me. Why waste your time going 1 knot around the world? There's too many good things to do for my short life.

Not sure what that has to do with me, I just thought the story and the posters on SA made for an interesting read.

[Reefmagnet]

Would it be far fetched to assume the guy has mental health issues?

[s/v Beth]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Not sure what that has to do with me, I just thought the story and the posters on SA made for an interesting read.

It does make for an interesting (and frustrating) read. I thought you were advocating doing what this guy had done. Sorry. I find his seamanship sloppy, but it is strangely compelling.

[NoQuarter79]

I read a little bit on that thread. I was just happy to know if a San Juan 24 can do it, then a 7.7 could do it as well. I would like to go into it a bit (or a lot) more prepared than he, but if it's what he wants to do, and he's happy doing it, I don't think he deserves all the heat that he gets, but that's the internet for ya'.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

It does make for an interesting (and frustrating) read. I thought you were advocating doing what this guy had done. Sorry. I find his seamanship sloppy, but it is strangely compelling.

Yep, that what gets us I'm thinking as this guy better describes from the link above (my earlier post)

Right now, there's a guy bobbing around the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a 24' San Juan sailboat. He claims to be in the process of sailing solo around the world. Some have called him a hero—living the dream of so many cruisers and wannabe cruisers. Others have called him an idiot (or worse), lacking the skill, preparation, and the boat for such a voyage. He calls himself Rimas, and I'm way too deep into this train wreck to look away now.

Btw there are like 8,000 post on the thread over on SA. I think the guy has crossed quite a bit of open water averaging at times between 25-50 miles a day!?

[denverd0n]

I have followed this a little bit. Sometimes I wonder if Rimas is another Donald Crowhurst (of sorts)--sitting safely somewhere, making up stories about where he is and where he has been, and all the while going nowhere.

[gfh]

Originally Posted by thomm225

First paragraph is a good summation though:

Right now, there's a guy bobbing around the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a 24' San Juan sailboat. He claims to be in the process of sailing solo around the world. Some have called him a hero—living the dream of so many cruisers and wannabe cruisers. Others have called him an idiot (or worse), lacking the skill, preparation, and the boat for such a voyage. He calls himself Rimas, and I'm way too deep into this train wreck to look away now.

Whoa...I wrote that.

Originally Posted by denverd0n

I have followed this a little bit. Sometimes I wonder if Rimas is another Donald Crowhurst (of sorts)--sitting safely somewhere, making up stories about where he is and where he has been, and all the while going nowhere.

I wondered the same thing for a long time, but the DeLorme track is the clincher for me. There's no realistic way that that could be faked. I mean, for 90% of the most recent leg it could have been a DeLorme in a plastic bottle, floating wherever the currents took it, but then there are the bits where you can see him trying to sail upwind into Pago Pago, matched up with frantic messages to his handlers. You can see the skip in the transmissions where he was being towed in, and then the concurrent Facebook feed of photos that are definitely in American Samoa (I've verified specific buildings in the background of his photos with other cruisers' blogs of the harbor, because I just needed to know...)

If it's a fake, it's a fake of such a monumental scale that it's still mesmerizing.

[s/v Beth]

Why are you guys so interested in this flotsam with ideas of grandeur? I mean I thought he was interesting if he really was poor and making a go of it because there was no other way. But he has been offered a better boat, sailing lessons etc and he refuses it all. I would rather follow someone I can relate to. I cannot understand someone who will not better himself because he is making history (in his own mind).