Recovering from a capsize...

[Joli]

Kanani, you are absolutely right that if you are in the NE quadrant of the storm you want to beat out on starboard as quickly as possible but I believe they were south of the center, hence you broad reach out on starboard.

Originally Posted by Kanani

Just so you know......never run down wind in a hurricane or any other tightly wrapped low pressure system. It will extend the length of time that you spend in the low and it may even suck you farther in towards the center (remember, the wind blows towards the center of a low). If your vessel is traveling at 10kts, it could very well be traveling at the same speed as the weather system. In that case, entering the eye wall would be likely and it would also likely be catostrophic.

It's best to sail to weather, away from the eye as long as possible, then go to a para-anchor.

We sat out a cyclone (southern hemisphere hurricane) behind our para-anchor, in the Tasman Sea. We lost our anemometer in a 70kt gust. I have no idea of the height of the seas. They are impossible to estimate from the deck of a small vessel so I don't go there. It suffices to say that the seas were large and breaking. We never had one wave break past the parachute or near our boat. We sat it out in relative comfort.

[Kanani]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Geez, I hate to ever have to agree with the Beverly Hills Kid but boy-oh-boy waves like that need to be constantly expected: 50% abovce the mean and a touch steeper to keep in the same frequency. Doesn't matter if your popping out for a lee or if they are another ships wash, or just mother nature being a tad weird, you need to be ready for a splash around the ankles.
Also agree with kanani that its quite a larg boat going direct into the swell. see when he pulls back to a wide shot? I reckon that boats well over 100 tons. A bigger boat is going to hate a short sea, directly into it, than a yacht at 30 to 45 degrees.

Agree with Rebel: thats why you are clipped on always on the foredeck at sea. I dont wear a harness in the cockpit during the day, but do at night or up the pointy bit



Mark

My point on the remark, "That was no freak wave" was referring to the fact that it was VERY predictable. If you watch the video again, you will see those sharp seas building about 40 seconds before the dunking. It was clearly evident that they were going to get it, at least 20 seconds before it happened. This was plenty of time to have the crew take cover. If there was any injury, the skipper was clearly responsible as he made no attempt to warn the crew. It occurs to me that he was more fixed on making fun of the crew member than watching the sea-state and looking out for the crew's wellfare. It really annoys me when a skipper doesn't take his job seriously. He's extremely lucky that those guys weren't washed over-board.

It seems that they were trying to secure a hatch because he knew this stuff was coming and possibly already took one over the bow. The prudent thing to have done, would have been to turn down-wind for a few minutes, to get this problem under control. It seems that the hatch (or a little time) was more valuable than the crew.