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04-08-2012, 13:23
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 22
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Sleeping While Auto Pilot Is On
While sailing is it normal to set the autopilot and go down and sleep till morning or get what sleep you want?
I'm thinking if you are making a big blue crossing one may but while doing the islands ( caribbean ) you should have somebody on watch?
Anybody?
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04-08-2012, 13:32
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#2
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Marine Service Provider
Join Date: May 2007
Location: St. Simons Island, Ga.
Boat: Hunter Legend 37.5 1993
Posts: 240
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Re: Sleeping while auto pilot is on
You need to take a sailing course. It will answer all your questions.
__________________
Eat Well. Savor Life.
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04-08-2012, 13:39
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#3
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Senior Cruiser
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario - 48-29N x 89-20W
Boat: (Cruiser Living On Dirt)
Posts: 49,139
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Re: Sleeping while auto pilot is on
Many do. None should.
COLREGS: The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea
According to Rule 5*, all vessels are responsible for maintaining a proper look-out at all times; including single-handed crews, unmanned crafts, and recreational boats. The term look-out implies watching and listening so that he/she is aware of what is happening around the vessel.
* "... Rule 5 - Lookout
Every vessel must at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight (day shape or lights by eyes or visual aids)and hearing (sound signal or Marine VHF radio) as well as by all available means (e.g. Radar, ARPA, AIS, GMDSS...) in order to make a full assessment of the situation and risk of collision ..."
__________________
Gord May
"If you didn't have the time or money to do it right in the first place, when will you get the time/$ to fix it?"
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04-08-2012, 14:06
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#4
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Wash DC
Boat: PETERSON 44
Posts: 3,165
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The only time I have heard of a incident was that Australian girl who was asleep in a known channel. Ignore gotds pasted quotes. We sleep off shore. But we do not sleep like a 9 to 5 job. Really depends on where you are. Sailing up the Chester river I watch steer check charts. 300 miles off shore I my life becomes tiny segments of 15 minutes.. 9 to 5 means nothing. You start a life with a different cycle. Hope that helps.
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04-08-2012, 14:20
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#5
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: W Carib
Boat: Wildcat 35, Hobie 33
Posts: 13,480
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Re: Sleeping while auto pilot is on
Legally, as GordyMay points out, all vessels are required to keep watch. The legal precedent on Rule 5 is that "look-out" means human observation not just electronics etc. From a practical perspective, large commercial traffic can come over the horizon quite quickly so best to be watching for it.
Traditionally, the way this is done is to keep rotating watch schedules where one or more crew are "on-watch" while the others are "off-watch".
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04-08-2012, 14:21
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#6
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Southampton UK
Boat: Jaguar 22 mono called Arfur.
Posts: 1,220
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Re: Sleeping while auto pilot is on
Depends how much you want to wake up warm and dry.
__________________
Ex Prout 31 Sailor, Now it's a 22ft Jaguar called 'Arfur' here in sunny Southampton, UK.
A few places left in Quayside Marina and Kemps Marina.
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04-08-2012, 14:33
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Tampa Bay area, USA
Boat: Beneteau First 42
Posts: 3,961
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Re: Sleeping while auto pilot is on
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eleven
Depends how much you want to wake up warm and dry.
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Or at all...
__________________
"It is not so much for its beauty that the Sea makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from the waves, that so wonderfully renews a weary spirit."
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04-08-2012, 14:39
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#8
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One of Those
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Colorado
Boat: Catalac 12M (sold)
Posts: 3,218
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Re: Sleeping while auto pilot is on
Its not just other boat traffic. There are a number of situations that can develop with a boat and it's systems that are best handled immediately. Things like shackles, knots coming loose. Wires getting hot and smoking. Bilge pumps that start running continuously. Diesels that leak all their oil out.....approaching squalls can hit suddenly with violent gusts. Eventually something fails and the interval it takes to wake up and get up topside and assess the problem and come up with a response can cost valuable time. Whoever is on watch is supposed to catch a lot of these things in time before the drama starts.
Some days it wouldn't matter if you slept 8 hours straight. But how do you know which day that is?
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04-08-2012, 14:40
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#9
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Southampton UK
Boat: Jaguar 22 mono called Arfur.
Posts: 1,220
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Re: Sleeping while auto pilot is on
Most pirate victims report waking to find men in the cabin. There are better ways to wake up, but most include a possibilty of death.
In the wide ocean it's a reasonable risk, coastal or shipping lane it's stupidity.
I reserve the right to express an opinion.
__________________
Ex Prout 31 Sailor, Now it's a 22ft Jaguar called 'Arfur' here in sunny Southampton, UK.
A few places left in Quayside Marina and Kemps Marina.
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04-08-2012, 14:44
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#10
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portugal
Boat: Between boats at the moment aka Fender
Posts: 360
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Re: Sleeping while auto pilot is on
Quote:
Originally Posted by Canibul
Its not just other boat traffic. There are a number of situations that can develop with a boat and it's systems that are best handled immediately. Things like shackles, knots coming loose. Wires getting hot and smoking. Bilge pumps that start running continuously. Diesels that leak all their oil out.....approaching squalls can hit suddenly with violent gusts. Eventually something fails and the interval it takes to wake up and get up topside and assess the problem and come up with a response can cost valuable time. Whoever is on watch is supposed to catch a lot of these things in time before the drama starts.
Some days it wouldn't matter if you slept 8 hours straight. But how do you know which day that is?
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Just asking, but do you often have that much go wrong on one voyage?
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04-08-2012, 14:48
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#11
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Vancouver, BC
Boat: Union Polaris 36
Posts: 153
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Re: Sleeping while auto pilot is on
We take watches offshore, but for the most part we are not totally with it when on watch at night. Trust me when something goes wrong you wake up fast and at least you are not as sleep deprived.
You just get a sense too when things are starting to go wrong and you wake up. It's a pretty rhythmic sleep out there and anything that changes that is usually noticed.
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04-08-2012, 14:48
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#12
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One of Those
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Colorado
Boat: Catalac 12M (sold)
Posts: 3,218
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Re: Sleeping while auto pilot is on
You only need one to ruin your day. Hey it's a judgement call. Everybody sleeps at the same time, or not.
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04-08-2012, 14:50
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#13
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Wash DC
Boat: PETERSON 44
Posts: 3,165
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Rubbish. I'm not a known sailor with a following. So my experience solo is just rebel crap. Let's look at my favorites Webb chiles, Slocum Robert Manrey, Knox johnson, blondie, Roger Taylor etc... And then a few hundred without accolades. Yes we sail we ignore the likes of over documented Duffey crap and we sail. Yes you can.
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04-08-2012, 14:52
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#14
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Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Somewhere in Germany
Boat: OEM, proportional
Posts: 1,437
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Re: Sleeping while auto pilot is on
Quote:
The only time I have heard of a incident was that Australian girl who was asleep in a known channel.
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There are plenty more things that happen "out there", but don'T make the MSM "news". One blog I arrived at from this forum described how a sailor noticed a freighter come into harbour with a sailboat's mast caught on its anchor and a streak of paint on the hull. "Education of a Falcon" springs to mind with regard to the identity of that witness...help me out, someone.
I shudder to think how many "missing at sea" cases are because someone nodded off and got run down by a freigher....or smashed from below by a sub, like that Japanese trawler that got KO'd by some subsea hoon showing off for bigwigs. Not much one can do about the subs...perhaps a kind word or two as you scrape yourself off the deckhead , but I doubt it.
__________________
Ps 139:9-10 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
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04-08-2012, 14:57
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#15
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Winnipeg
Boat: None at this time
Posts: 8,462
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Re: Sleeping while auto pilot is on
Oh lord, another single hander thread. Maybe I should throw in an anchor...
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