Yacht Sinks Off Western Australia Coast

[AussieGeoff]

13 Metre yacht sinks of coast of W. A. 59 year old owner rescued from dinghy after activating EPIRB.

Yachtsman rescued off coast of Western Australia after vessel sinks | News.com.au

AussieGeoff

[TassieBloke]

Doesn't look too bad up Dampier way...

[IslandHopper]

My brother lives there and says the weather is fine and has been for a week or so, it will be interesting to find out what happened......

[rubyjean]

He said that he struck a container. Bad luck...........Michael...

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by rubyjean

He said that he struck a container. Bad luck...........Michael...

Mr Drabble told ABC radio this morning he was not sure how the yacht struck trouble.

“I don’t think it was a whale, I was in 45 to 50 metres of water at the time,” he said. “I’m surmising it was a container but it’s very hard to tell, I didn’t have time to look around in the water.”

Mr Drabble abandoned the yacht when it began to sink and jumped into his tender.
Yachtsman, 59, safe after rescue - The West Australian

Maybe he needed some http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...uct-69354.html

[alan_za]

Another one off the coast of South Africa. Same story, hit a container.

Sad to see her go - Daily News | Opinion | IOL.co.za

Pics of the boat going down.

[Cormorant]

That story about Wizard going down is interesting. They said they hit the container (or whatever it was) in the pitch black, and the water was waist-high in the cabin within minutes, so they couldn't get any personal items. But the pictures of the boat finally going down were taken in full daylight. So it must have taken hours to actually fill. Can anyone shed light on this?

[alan_za]

Originally Posted by Cormorant

That story about Wizard going down is interesting. They said they hit the container (or whatever it was) in the pitch black, and the water was waist-high in the cabin within minutes, so they couldn't get any personal items. But the pictures of the boat finally going down were taken in full daylight. So it must have taken hours to actually fill. Can anyone shed light on this?

Boats have been known to sink to the decks and then wallow for quite awhile, I remember this happened to Steve Callahan who was able to actually dive back into his boat and retrieve supplies.

[swagman]

I'd love to know how he got a text message off when reported to be 85 miles offshore!

Re actually sinking - many years back we went to stand by a 30 foot plywood yacht that opened a plank at night off Fremantle but got off some flares as she began to sink.

The yacht had settled just about with her gunnels at water level, and with the crew standing on deck and water sometimes up to their knees, actually continued under sail whilst semi submerged with us and two other competitors sailing alongside.

Once the sea rescue craft arrived we were allowed to resume racing.

They put a high volume pump on board and towed her back to Fremantle!

John

[AussieGeoff]

This is becoming more and more frequent. You can't see the darn things, if you hit one it's pretty much given it will sink the boat. I'm thinking forward looking sonar might be rapidly approaching the 'essential if you don't want to sink without warning' category.

Radar usually doesn't help as they seem to float either mostly submerged or even completely submerged just below the surface.

Maybe the container manufacturers should make them so they fall apart or definitely sink to the bottom if they fall into the water. They seem to be the modern equivalent of a mine for small vessels and it's perhaps getting frequent enough something constructive needs to be done about it.

In these days of litigation, I'm wondering if someone, somewhere has sued for this, say, an insurance company that just payed out on a $100,000 boat that went down after hitting a $1,500 container that fell off some rusty bulk carrier.


AussieGeoff

[HappySeagull]

...steel boats-the only way to go?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by AussieGeoff

This is becoming more and more frequent. You can't see the darn things, if you hit one it's pretty much given it will sink the boat. I'm thinking forward looking sonar might be rapidly approaching the 'essential if you don't want to sink without warning' category.

Radar usually doesn't help as they seem to float either mostly submerged or even completely submerged just below the surface.

Maybe the container manufacturers should make them so they fall apart or definitely sink to the bottom if they fall into the water. They seem to be the modern equivalent of a mine for small vessels and it's perhaps getting frequent enough something constructive needs to be done about it.

In these days of litigation, I'm wondering if someone, somewhere has sued for this, say, an insurance company that just payed out on a $100,000 boat that went down after hitting a $1,500 container that fell off some rusty bulk carrier.


AussieGeoff

Well if you see it after you've hit it... one jump off and get the container number... without it I doubt a claim will go anywhere...
With it there's loadsa options...
Just your word without relevent proof is worthless...

[sdowney717]

too bad he did not have a 1/8 inch coating of Dragon Shield Polyurea.

Blast & Ballistic Mitigation - Dragonshield Polyurea - YouTube

Stops bullets, high explosive blasts, whales and would keep the water out

[AussieGeoff]

Originally Posted by HappySeagull

...steel boats-the only way to go?

Steel is not invulnerable, ask the Captains of the Titanic and the Andrea Doria.

Steel yachts can get their keels torn off in a close encounter with a shipping container, so the boat not only sinks, but often turns over and sinks inverted.

Depending on the circumstances, this might be as bad or possibly worse than being just holed. I imagine a steel hull might go down very fast in such circumstances, loss of the keel would probably leave a hole into the hull and if she rolled over (likely) it would fill from the deck up to the keel, probably quite fast. Those below might well have little chance of getting out in such a circumstance.

Ferro boats might do a little better, since the keel is integral, but it's still highly likely to knock a huge hole in the hull, in an area that is probably not easy to get to in a hurry. I don't think it's an experiment I would like to conduct. Any takers?

Perhaps it's time to consider a collision bulkhead and a forepeak packed with foam or something in the most likely point of impact.

That forward looking sonar is looking more and more attractive.

AussieGeoff

[msponer]

Originally Posted by AussieGeoff

That forward looking sonar is looking more and more attractive.

Would it actually work? I thought the forward range is quite short in deep water, so that at 5-6 knots you'd only have a few seconds warning?