Catamaran hits uncharted reef NW Australia

[CatNewBee]

Well, this is a sad story. It seems the cat is grounded and not really floating.

For catamarans having built-in buoyancy - look at Fountaine Pajot (e.g. Lucia 40), - sacrifice able, replaceable keels and built-in buoyancy foam structures in the bottom bow compartment and at stern. Looks quite stable on paper. Other cats have only watertight sections, that prevent sinking when hitting a container, but if the hull below is damaged in more sections, they will probably sink too (e.g. Lagoon 400: water-tight bow sections, watertight transom sections).

[Seaslug Caravan]

Originally Posted by KiwiKen

Well I hope this hazard to Navigation now gets charted.

Maybe oneday this area will get charted.

Take a look at a chart. It is well off the beaten track. Not much of the coastal areas are surveyed.

Very little commercial interest to justify the expense of surveys.

I for one hope that it remains uncharted. This is the attraction of these wilderness areas for me.

The lack of good charts certainly reduces the number of humans visiting, protecting many of the delicate first peoples heritage sites.

Take a look at the affect of the tourist hordes on the careening boab area to understand what can happen in a very short period of time.

[UpOnStands]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Well, this is a sad story. It seems the cat is grounded and not really floating.

Has that been definitely confirmed?

[arsenelupiga]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Well, this is a sad story. It seems the cat is grounded and not really floating.

For catamarans having built-in buoyancy - look at Fountaine Pajot (e.g. Lucia 40), - sacrifice able, replaceable keels and built-in buoyancy foam structures in the bottom bow compartment and at stern. Looks quite stable on paper. Other cats have only watertight sections, that prevent sinking when hitting a container, but if the hull below is damaged in more sections, they will probably sink too (e.g. Lagoon 400: water-tight bow sections, watertight transom sections).

you better test these claims regardless of the boat manufacturer. my L 400 also says it has watertight compartments. Wrong. On inspection, found couple of holes that compromise 2 compartments. I filled them in and tested and confident that now is true. Keel in L 400 is also sacrificial and provides extra buoyancy, based on factory claims, but I cant test it.

[smj]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Well, this is a sad story. It seems the cat is grounded and not really floating.



For catamarans having built-in buoyancy - look at Fountaine Pajot (e.g. Lucia 40), - sacrifice able, replaceable keels and built-in buoyancy foam structures in the bottom bow compartment and at stern. Looks quite stable on paper. Other cats have only watertight sections, that prevent sinking when hitting a container, but if the hull below is damaged in more sections, they will probably sink too (e.g. Lagoon 400: water-tight bow sections, watertight transom sections).

I may be wrong but I believe there are some pretty substantial tides here which means not always aground.

[smj]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Well, this is a sad story. It seems the cat is grounded and not really floating.



For catamarans having built-in buoyancy - look at Fountaine Pajot (e.g. Lucia 40), - sacrifice able, replaceable keels and built-in buoyancy foam structures in the bottom bow compartment and at stern. Looks quite stable on paper. Other cats have only watertight sections, that prevent sinking when hitting a container, but if the hull below is damaged in more sections, they will probably sink too (e.g. Lagoon 400: water-tight bow sections, watertight transom sections).

I may be wrong but I believe there are some pretty substantial tides here which means not always aground.

[Factor]

Originally Posted by Seaslug Caravan

Maybe oneday this area will get charted.

Take a look at a chart. It is well off the beaten track. Not much of the coastal areas are surveyed.

Where did this occur? My Australian Hydrographic Charts have reasonable detail for most of the Kimberly Coast

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Factor

Where did this occur? My Australian Hydrographic Charts have reasonable detail for most of the Kimberly Coast

Apparently in York Sound - In one of the unsurveyed areas.

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by arsenelupiga

you better test these claims regardless of the boat manufacturer. my L 400 also says it has watertight compartments. Wrong. On inspection, found couple of holes that compromise 2 compartments. I filled them in and tested and confident that now is true. Keel in L 400 is also sacrificial and provides extra buoyancy, based on factory claims, but I cant test it.

Well in a L400S2 there are 4 hoses - one from each "crash-box" (water tight compartments) to the bilge in the middle ending in ball-valves, that are usually open, so the compartments can drain any water to the bilge. In case of a crash you must just close the valves and the compartment / section should be watertight. In case this fails you can use a wooden cone as a plug to block the opening. The main issue is, that those vents seem to corrode easily because they will almost never be used in regular circumstances and Lagoon pick inappropriate materials for them (seems to be red brass ball valves, chromed). A plastic (PVC) valve would be more appropriate there, I think. At least they look corroded on the out side...

[Shrew]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

It seems the cat is grounded and not really floating.

Originally Posted by UpOnStands

Has that been definitely confirmed?

No, the second video taken the next day or two seems to indicate that they stemmed the ingress of water and remained floating. They were considering beaching her to see if they could do some repairs.

Amazing how cool and rational he appears to remain throughout this ordeal.

[CatNewBee]

This would be great if they can manage to beach her and try there to fix temporary the damages / seal up the crack, so they can sail or get towed to a marina for the repair.

[smj]

I believe this took place in August and they have already abandoned the boat.

[CatNewBee]

The Video was uploaded Nov. 9th...

[Drew13440]

Originally Posted by UpOnStands

Has that been definitely confirmed?

They hooked up the depth finder to a good battery in the video - it's showing 19+ meters of water...

[smj]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

The Video was uploaded Nov. 9th...

Copied from the other thread.

Re: Vloggers hit an uncharted rock/reef in the Kimberleys
We were contacted by the Caledonian Sky on 18th August to say they had Peter and Maggie on board and they were docking in Darwin soon. The grounding must have happened about a week prior to that as I believe they spent several days on the cabin roof waiting to be rescued. The area is replete with very large Saltwater crocodiles which are well known for attacking many Cruisers dinghy's.

It is somewhere on the eastern side of York Sound. I think they were heading for a location known as Rainforest Ravine.

We didn't get too much detail on location which is understandable while Peter was looking at salvage options. Our understanding is that they had originally intended to anchor near Cape Pond but that was not suitable and so decided to push on to another anchorage but strong tide against them left them short of daylight hours and trying to come into an anchorage at night.

I'm not passing any judgement on the decisions.
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