Urgent help needed to recover abandoned yacht NW Barbados

[RPZ]

Originally Posted by Sandero

Well yeah it does... I find it hard to believe that this young fella made money to buy and equip a 53' yacht and sail off with his family from working... Sure he may have been a whiz with a high paying position... or something any made a small fortune and decided to give it a go while they were young. And that makes sense.

Or maybe he inherited money and put it all into his round the world dream and the catastrophe put a mega dent in that plan.

Maybe his rich uncle lent him the money and said no more fella.

I think sailors who work at this dream for years understand the hurdle of financial resource, technical knowledge/experience as something which you don't see in young people. I have only read about a few who do it and they probably have some sort of pay for view subscriber site to keep the operating cash going. I really don't know.

I do know that there are many 30 something guys who would love to take off on a 53' boat and sail the world. Even 40 somethings or 50 somethings.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Maybe they sold their house. That is quite common.

Inquiring minds? Its none if my business how someone had the money to buy a boat. If they suffered a catastrophe, and I decide to lend a hand, or donate some money to help them out, I still don't know, or care, how they bought it.

[Prairie Chicken]

Sandero, to me, it just doesn't matter. I have known young upstarts who really did make a great deal of money before they were 30. I've also known a couple who scrimped & saved, retired in their mid '40's, moved to France & bought themselves a boutique farm. I can imagine some people may inherit some & put it together with their own savings to school their children in the real world while they cruise.

Short of criminal activities, or having inherited all their money and that rich relative has cut them off--neither of which I see any evidence of--I simply don't care how they came by sufficient funds to set off to cruise the world.

Perhaps I just don't have an inquiring mind but overall, I'm not prepared to fault the guy because he had the funds to live his dream. Let's not discriminate against those who have (or in this case, had) money. It's all relative.

[nigel1]

Far as I know, the "young fella" in question is an ex Royal Navy Clearance Diver. Thats a job dicking about with explosives, mines etc underwater, and for not much money.
They have had a tough break, they're being positive, and deserve support, even if that support is just good wishes.

[MondayNever]

Originally Posted by Sandero

Well yeah it does... I find it hard to believe that this young fella made money to buy and equip a 53' yacht and sail off with his family from working... Sure he may have been a whiz with a high paying position... or something any made a small fortune and decided to give it a go while they were young. And that makes sense.

Or maybe he inherited money and put it all into his round the world dream and the catastrophe put a mega dent in that plan.

Maybe his rich uncle lent him the money and said no more fella.

I think sailors who work at this dream for years understand the hurdle of financial resource, technical knowledge/experience as something which you don't see in young people. I have only read about a few who do it and they probably have some sort of pay for view subscriber site to keep the operating cash going. I really don't know.

I do know that there are many 30 something guys who would love to take off on a 53' boat and sail the world. Even 40 somethings or 50 somethings.

Inquiring minds want to know.

I am going to jump in now in defense of James.

I hope he will not mind me saying, but this trip was not the product of an inheritance, lottery ticket, rich uncle, or even a "high paying whiz" position. Just hard work and saving.

My wife and I just finished doing the same thing and many people made of a lot of assumptions about the source of our finances as well.

Also, I want to make it clear that the Coombes' did not ask for the GoFundMe campaign. I set it up on their behalf because I have an idea of how expensive all this is. They've been dealt a bad hand and Cat and I wanted to be able to help them directly and give other sympathetic folks the same opportunity. Totally fine if you and others don't want to donate, but if the idea of it rubs you the wrong way, please direct your ire at me rather than Coombes's.

All the best,
Will

[meatservo]

Originally Posted by MondayNever

I am going to jump in now in defense of James.

I hope he will not mind me saying, but this trip was not the product of an inheritance, lottery ticket, rich uncle, or even a "high paying whiz" position. Just hard work and saving.

My wife and I just finished doing the same thing and many people made of a lot of assumptions about the source of our finances as well.

Also, I want to make it clear that the Coombes' did not ask for the GoFundMe campaign. I set it up on their behalf because I have an idea of how expensive all this is. They've been dealt a bad hand and Cat and I wanted to be able to help them directly and give other sympathetic folks the same opportunity. Totally fine if you and others don't want to donate, but if the idea of it rubs you the wrong way, please direct your ire at me rather than Coombes's.

All the best,
Will

Dude,

You guys absolutely ROCK!

God Bless...


meatservo

[RPZ]

Originally Posted by meatservo

Dude,

You guys absolutely ROCK!

God Bless...


meatservo

Seconded

[Van Der Beek]

Originally Posted by meatservo

Dude,

You guys absolutely ROCK!

God Bless...


meatservo

I can only concur with previous poster(s)

Was a very nice thing to do for this family, hats off.

[stevensuf]

To those going on about insurance,go get some quotes for an atlantic crossing, very few providers and enormous premiums, many like myself, chose to go uninsured and accept the risk, 5-10% of boat value.

[RPZ]

Few takers and enormous premiums equals a high attrition rate. Be interesting to see some stats; how many yachts under say 60 feet in length crossed the Atlantic in 2015. How many made it but incurred significant damage (dismasted, collisions with floating objects, rudders etc). How many were lost or abandoned.

[cards26]

After re-reading the article, I see the Daily Mail has edited that part about the boat ownership. Sorry, but maybe he can clear it up for us.

[Sailing Soon]

Originally Posted by MondayNever

I am going to jump in now in defense of James.

I hope he will not mind me saying, but this trip was not the product of an inheritance, lottery ticket, rich uncle, or even a "high paying whiz" position. Just hard work and saving.

My wife and I just finished doing the same thing and many people made of a lot of assumptions about the source of our finances as well.

Also, I want to make it clear that the Coombes' did not ask for the GoFundMe campaign. I set it up on their behalf because I have an idea of how expensive all this is. They've been dealt a bad hand and Cat and I wanted to be able to help them directly and give other sympathetic folks the same opportunity. Totally fine if you and others don't want to donate, but if the idea of it rubs you the wrong way, please direct your ire at me rather than Coombes's.

All the best,
Will

Nice work Will!

[Ndavies]

Thank you for sharing your story.....also see the YouTube video - which is excellent (by Monday Never).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8bfj2Mx65k

I really hope that someone can help you recover the boat, and hopefully the "go fund me" assistance from the sailing community will help with expenses for this and your family. Great job by Monday Never and Tilly Mint!

Neil

[catsketcher]

Hello AWW - commiserations on your loss.

If it is of any help I was part of a crew that lost our rudder in a Hobart Race a long time ago. We hit a sunfish and the rudder post snapped like a carrot. We also found it virtually impossible to steer the boat using the steering oar technique.

The problem as I see it is that we read about putting plywood onto the spinnaker pole and put this away as a good method to use. I think it may work on directionally stable boats that need fine trimming but I found it useless for a 30ft half tonner with 6 racing crew on board. We only had to make 50 miles and we barely did that before a cold front came through.

In the end we turned the spinnaker pole almost vertical (along the backstay) and twisted the pole to turn rather than using it sweep fashion. Even with drogues and a good racing crew only 3 of us could steer the thing within 45 degrees of a course.

I applaud your determination but do not fault your attempts. The ability of any design to steer without a rudder is hard to quantify and hard to test before the event.

Then again you had kids on board. I couldn't even head offshore with my kids on board - I just kept on drifting up and down Australia's east coast, within 100 miles of our shores. The presence of children in this situation would have reduced me to a stressed out wreck. Those who have sailed with our small children on board will understand that your decisions were made under almost unimaginable strain

You did well.

Phil Thompson

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by catsketcher

Hello AWW - commiserations on your loss.

If it is of any help I was part of a crew that lost our rudder in a Hobart Race a long time ago. We hit a sunfish and the rudder post snapped like a carrot. We also found it virtually impossible to steer the boat using the steering oar technique.

The problem as I see it is that we read about putting plywood onto the spinnaker pole and put this away as a good method to use. I think it may work on directionally stable boats that need fine trimming but I found it useless for a 30ft half tonner with 6 racing crew on board. We only had to make 50 miles and we barely did that before a cold front came through.

In the end we turned the spinnaker pole almost vertical (along the backstay) and twisted the pole to turn rather than using it sweep fashion. Even with drogues and a good racing crew only 3 of us could steer the thing within 45 degrees of a course.

I applaud your determination but do not fault your attempts. The ability of any design to steer without a rudder is hard to quantify and hard to test before the event.

Then again you had kids on board. I couldn't even head offshore with my kids on board - I just kept on drifting up and down Australia's east coast, within 100 miles of our shores. The presence of children in this situation would have reduced me to a stressed out wreck. Those who have sailed with our small children on board will understand that your decisions were made under almost unimaginable strain

You did well.

Phil Thompson

Good post

[250224]

[offtopic] It's nice to read a friendly discussion about a go fund me. Critics, clarification, opinions but all in a well mannered way. The cruisersforum has learnt something since the last (tow) incident. Really nice to see. - Hope the boat can be recovered!