Sailing Nightmare!

[Peters Wet]

This is a great youtube series i found yesterday, Makes one really think about solo sailing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annota...&v=kBixPDkrqTQ

[Julie Mor]

Though the video is four years old, I hadn't seen it. What I thought odd was when the 115' sailing vessel, Titan, that came into the picture after the collision, asked the owner of the boat initially in distress (Cha Cha) if he would be willing to pay for any chafe the tow rope may cause to their teak. The owner of Cha Cha said he had no ability to pay and then a pause in communication occurred.

Unfortunately for Drake of Paragon, he got stuck with a very large bill to repair the damage from the collision with Cha Cha, after towing her for 120 miles.

[ontherocks83]

Saw this video a while ago. Definitely makes you think about what you would do in that situation. Can you offer to only rescue the crew and not tow the ship? If they refuse rescue because they want their boat towed do you have to wait with them for another ship to show up? At what point do you call it quits?

[Group9]

Originally Posted by Peters Wet

This is a great youtube series i found yesterday, Makes one really think about solo sailing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annota...&v=kBixPDkrqTQ

Yeah, great video, but he sure seemed punch drunk a lot of the time.

I don't think he was getting much sleep.

[ontherocks83]

It's been a while since I watched all the videos but I remember thinking that it was odd that all of those things went wrong with the rescued boat. If I remember right they lost steering, sails damaged, engine dead. Don't know if there was ever any follow up with them. Be interesting to know if they had really bad luck or an un-seaworthy vessel

[Julie Mor]

Originally Posted by ontherocks83

Be interesting to know if they had really bad luck or an un-seaworthy vessel

They were on a 52' boat, heading for Bermuda, and told the owner of Titan they had no money to pay for any damage caused by their boat being towed. Don't know if they were truly broke but being broke can eventually lead to owning a boat that isn't seaworthy.

[Peters Wet]

I like the fact that Drake was so honest in the telling of his fear, he admitted mistakes and even after the fact, attributed getting through the storm to luck more so than skill. Cha cha to me displayed bad form in not sending over crew to help stand watches while under tow.

Sent from my Arc using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[brightontrader]

Just watched all 6.

I have single handed a few oceans and co incidently that stretch and videos made obvious to me a few things:

Luckily I had in mast (still do) so even when dispirited in heavy weather can reef without going out to mast. Indeed without even luffing up, in big seas thats pretty daunting in itself. (Thats why I love in mast!)

Personally I prefer to take everything down and lay ahull not lay out a drogue, hard to get in, but I guess if still making too much speed then have to, never had to.(42' nauticat cutter copy in steel.)

I used to get much more sleep, recipe for mistakes taking short naps. guard alarm, big ocean, steel boat.....He was so knackered you could tell....

Its really the mood you can get into that causes a lot of the things to go wrong. After a while in big seas I got to the point I didn't care anymore and let things happen. (more so if you have had a few beers) leaving too much up in a squall is classic....You just think, F it, it will all be over soon and the boat can take it, until too late.. Thats the alcohol sailing the boat (in my case to be brutally honest)

but the main thing is the credit I must give him, basically did what was right although, after a pretty hellish trip, to delay landfall, when it was probably all he could think of when the call came through.

Looking a Cha Cha though, still had mast so why were the sails so tattered, odd, had he just left them up too long, not been rolled..but he had lost his rudder..

I met Pascal in a french plastic 36 footer, 20 miles off FLores (Azores)later motoring with no mast, no rudder, nothing on deck, no guardrail and amazingly no keel even but a jury rudder, after falling off a very large wave 1500 miles away, he had diesel dropped to him by a couple of ships but would not abandon, the boat didn't even have attached internal bulkheads, they had, along with the lockers, detached from the shock...And he had virtually re built the fuel system to get the water and air out as had spent some time upside down. Pascal didn't even ask for a tow...We partied though in Flores for a week...and later he showed up on a Harley D in the UK to visit.. He now lives on a barge though, south of Paris, much calmer...