Floating Containers in the Ocean

[Brent Swain]

With the shape of a sailing hull and all surfaces at the bow being angles, it is impossible to collide with anything at anything but a ricochet angle. The only exception I can think of is the vertical plumb bow of the old rummrunners. The stem I reinforce with a 2 inch by half inch thick flatbar on edge.It has a good slope to it.
A 36 footer doesn't have the 60,000 tons of momentum of the Titanic. I did say "Boats under 45 feet."There is no comparison. Steel boats under 45 feet are far more grossly overbuilt for their weight than a ship like the Titanic could ever be.
My clients occasionally collide with rocks and things , because, unlike urban wannabe sailors and marina boats , they actually spend a lot of time going places .If you aint been aground you aint been around.
I'm sure if they were fair weather sailors who only cruise foir a couple of weeks in the summer and the odd weekend, then only when conditions were perfect, their risk of collisions would be drastically reduced.
Brent

[Ed Steele]

On a dark, gloomy and overcast night when you are alone on watch, it is easy to begin wondering about hitting something solid at 7 plus knots. We have crossed two oceans without seeing a floating container. What we have seen have been floating trees with trunks a meter or so in diameter and with entangling branches. We have seen timber pilings that would weigh hundreds of kilos and we have seen large steel commercial gas cylinders floating. We saw those in daylight and we missed most of them by chance. In only a few instances did we spot the obstacle in advance and take evasive action. At night we never saw any floating obstacles of course. The fact that we have not hit anything large enough to damage the hull, is a testament to size of the planet and the rarity of these hazards. Do we think they would have punched a hole in a fiberglass hull? You bet. How big of a hole? Don’t know.
At dusk, we wear lifejackets with harnesses and tethers regardless of the sea conditions. We test the manual and automatic bilge pumps before we leave any anchorage or mooring. We close our forward water-tight compartment door at sunset. Why just night precautions? We could have a collision day or night - but we are diurnal creatures. We believe that the chaos and confusion of a night collision would be much harder to contain if we had not already taken some simple precautions. So we tell ourselves there are lots of other hazards to sailing and to stare into the darkness ahead serves no useful purpose. We return to reading our paper-back novel “Adrift”.
Ed

[stuartcnz]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

That's hilarous. Tragic, but hilarious.
Of all the containers that get dropped into the water, most of them sink like a stone. I mean it's a big metal case, usually with really heavy stuff inside. But the outer case alone has to be well over a ton or two I'd think.

.

Try three to five tons empty.

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by Ed Steele

So we tell ourselves there are lots of other hazards to sailing and to stare into the darkness ahead serves no useful purpose. We return to reading our paper-back novel “Adrift”.
Ed

I agree completely with everything you wrote in your post, Ed, with one exception. Adrift, unfortunately (from the point of view of the author, Steven Callahan, at least) is very much non-fiction, not a novel. It is an excellent cautionary tale, however, and anyone considering sailing across oceans should read it.

TaoJones

[GordMay]

Steven Callahan's experiences, “Adrift” at sea, (76 days alone in a life raft) are a lesson in the single most important survival skill ~ determination.

[GordMay]

“Containers overboard: Do shipping containers sink?”
”...WHAT are the chances of a ship hitting a container lost on the high seas? Despite widespread fears about the danger to both small and large vessels from lost boxes, the answer appears to be: negligible. The number of containers lost overboard is said to be a tiny percentage of those transported, and of those that do go adrift, most inevitably sink within a short time...”
Goto:
Vero Marine - Containers overboard

“Four hundred degree compass explained” ~ by Jean-Pierre Borloz
”There has been talk for years about yachts hitting floating cargo containers lost from ships. There is no doubt that it is possible, and that if it occurred the results would probably lead to the loss of the yacht. Still, containers aren't the only things to run into at sea. Nor are they probably the most numerous large, hard objects out there...”
Goto:
Ocean Navigator Online - Four hundred degree compass explained

[Boracay]

With the exception of those containers from that ship in the English Channel I have never seen or heard of a container being washed up on shore.

This makes me suspect that containers might float, but only for a short time.

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by Boracay

This makes me suspect that containers might float, but only for a short time.

I think you're probably right, Boracay. It makes me think of the old Volkswagen commercial from the late 60's, IIRC, wherein an old VW Beetle, which had a reputation for being airtight, was set into the water of a deep tank. Sure enough, it floated . . . for awhile. At the end, as the Beetle slowly sank from view, the announcer said, "The Volkswagen. It definitely floats . . . but it doesn't float indefinitely!"

We can only hope that's also true for containers lost from cargo ships.

TaoJones

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by Boracay

With the exception of those containers from that ship in the English Channel I have never seen or heard of a container being washed up on shore.

This makes me suspect that containers might float, but only for a short time.

Punch 48°42'10.50"S 75°35'0.72"W into GoogleEarth - looks like they do wash ashore.

[Boracay]

Sorry, can't see a thing.

[Lodesman]

Zoom in to 500 ft or so.

[cnj]

I've never seen a container but I have seen large wooden pallets floating.

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

Punch 48°42'10.50"S 75°35'0.72"W into GoogleEarth - looks like they do wash ashore.

If that isn't a beached container (probably a 40'er), I don't know what it is. And if it is, then washing ashore there on the Chilean coast is the only reasonable explanation for how it came to be where it is.

Boracay, copy the coordinates from Lodesman's post above, then paste what you've copied into the search box at Google Earth, hit search and you will "fly" directly to those lat/lon coordinates. If necessary, zoom in until you see the long rectangular object stranded on the beach. It sure looks like a shipping container to me.

Good find, Lodesman!

Most likely, this went overboard in one of those legendary Cape Horn storms, and it may not have floated for very long before it was driven ashore. Still, it's worth pondering how long it was bobbing along offshore before beaching.

TaoJones

[venturing seagull]

Originally Posted by BambooSailor

Andy Copeland posted this relevant report on other thread:

Filling Beneteau's void spaces with 'high density foam' ??? Sounds as if the boat would be too heavy to sail.

The modern fabrication method of sticking an inner skin moulding to the (usually thin?) hull moulding worries me. How on earth do you find the leak? Once found can you get there to repair it?

I've seen solid laminated fibreglass boats where the holes have closed pretty tight after the impactor has been removed ..... others where a lot of laminate has punched out. Obviously different qualities of laminate.

I've also seen a Victoria 35? that was T-boned in the English Channel by a cargo ship and survived to return home under it's own steam. The owners were so impressed that they bought the boatyard I believe.

[Boracay]

... it's a 13 m container.