Three Men Survive a Week on Capsized Catamaran

[Aussiesuede]

Three Texas boaters missing for a week were reunited with their families early Sunday after they were found alive, sitting on top of their capsized catamaran 180 miles from land. The three were reported missing Aug. 22 after they left Matagorda, about 90 miles southwest of Houston, on a fishing trip and never returned. They stayed with the boat for almost eight days.

3 Texas boaters missing for a week rescued at sea - Yahoo! News

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/6593206.html

[Reality Check]

Capsized is the most stable position for a Catamaran.

[Ram]

Originally Posted by Reality Check

Capsized is the most stable position for a Catamaran.

And sitting upright on the bottom is the most stable position for a monohull - I have both so I know!

[twowheel]

I'd like to know what in the world were they thinking being out so far for an overnighter on a 23' Sea Chaser!?! Not what I would consider to be a blue water boat.

[Hud3]

Originally Posted by Reality Check

Capsized is the most stable position for a Catamaran.

That's true of many power boats.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by Reality Check

Capsized is the most stable position for a Catamaran.

Lucky it's a survivable position then. I've never heard of anyone surviving a week on a sunken monohull.

[fareweather]

I've never heard of anyone surviving a week on a sunken monohull.

Why is it that most monohullers don't seem to grasp this basic concept

[eskfreedom]

You guys are turning a survival thread into a mono vs cat thread. I my self love ALL boats... cats, mono's, motor, fishing, little, big, mega, fast, slow and pretty much anything that floats...including inner-tubes. So lets get back to the point and discuss how bad-ass these guys are for surviving eight days on an overturned boat at sea.

[eskfreedom]

And then they declined medical attention....These guys are BAMFers!!

[clockwork orange]

I seem to remember a similar situation off the gulf coast of Florida earlier this year involving an NFL player so it got a lot of press,these guys were not as sucsessful hanging on to the upturned monohull fishing boat and only one guy survived,seems like an upside down cat is superior to an upside down mono, neither of them sunk though.
Steve.

[Lostmt]

Last Sunday the wife and I were out sailing in Matagorda Bay when the CG report came in that a catamaran was over due. We see these types of boats out in the gulf all the time even when we were 60 miles out in a 36' sport fishing boat. I can not figure out what goes through their minds. The Gulf of Mexico will kick your butt if you are not careful. And even then it can turn on a dime like it did to us. We had quite a ride back in that night. Gulf was smooth and the winds were calm but around midnight the winds picked up and we had 8 to 10' swells. The swells keep getting bigger by 0300 we were powering up the swells and coming off them at 14.5kts.

I would like to know how they survived for 8 days sitting on the hull. There has to be more to the story. You aren't going to live 8 days without water. The one on CNN looked to be in great shape.

[Sandyh]

Why didn't they set off their EPIRB?

G'day

[Mule]

Originally Posted by Lostmt

Last Sunday the wife and I were out sailing in Matagorda Bay when the CG report came in that a catamaran was over due. We see these types of boats out in the gulf all the time even when we were 60 miles out in a 36' sport fishing boat. I can not figure out what goes through their minds. The Gulf of Mexico will kick your butt if you are not careful. And even then it can turn on a dime like it did to us. We had quite a ride back in that night. Gulf was smooth and the winds were calm but around midnight the winds picked up and we had 8 to 10' swells. The swells keep getting bigger by 0300 we were powering up the swells and coming off them at 14.5kts.

I would like to know how they survived for 8 days sitting on the hull. There has to be more to the story. You aren't going to live 8 days without water. The one on CNN looked to be in great shape.

What you did not mention about the Gulf is that it is a small bathtub. The 8-10ft swells are generally very tight, crest to crest there is not enough room between them to recover before going into another.

I was out 72 miles from Freeport a few years ago and we went through 10-12's in a 26 foot Sea Cat with twin Honda 115 (as I recall) and it was a wild, wet, tiring ride. The boat was like a cork, and I cannot think of any comparable boat I would rather have been in but still it was a bitch.

[Lostmt]

True Mule the gulf is like a washing machine. If they went out the big jetties here in Port O'Connor (Matagorda Bay) and went 180 miles out they would have been in 1800 fathom water. As far as the EPIRB they didn't have one or lost it when the boat capsized. I'm sure I'll hear a lot of different stories here this coming week.

I've seen both Hall and Phillips here in Port O'Connor. Don't know them. Maybe now some of these guys that take small boats out in the gulf will think twice now.

[Sandyh]

So, is this a sailing boat or a power cat? Seems to me it's posted in the wrong place?

G'day