Urgent help needed to recover abandoned yacht NW Barbados

[Zamar]

FYI, it looks like the family has given up looking, both for their old boat and for a replacement, and returned home.

https://westerlyadventures.wordpress...broken-dreams/

[SV Bacchus]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Excellent question..
Alternatively one could set up a slow scuttle so that you and your rescuer are well over the horizon at the final 'Glug'.

But then what would we have to talk about? JK

One thing about it, you wouldn't have to wonder where she went!

[thruska]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Sorry, no radar here.

There sure was a radar on the abandoned boat, no? Many many nice buttons to push. One too many perhaps.

Was their AIS left on when abandoning? Were the lights on? Did the boat fly the signals showing she was not under control? I think there are such signals mentioned in the Colregs. I cannot see them in the video.

How far from the Caribbean they abandoned?

If the boat was not sinking, or sunk, it should not be abandoned. The crew can be transferred to another ship, then the skipper can keep on limping on. Or is Atlantic there, at this time, too dangerous for such an attempt?

I imagined the luck struck on the trade wind passage to the West Indies, in the good season. I must have misinterpreted the video. Sorry for that.

Try talking people into abandoning their cars on the road. The ones still on the road may disagree somewhat on how safe such a practice is.

b.

May i suggest b. , that you read the thread instead of quoting the vid and asking all the questions that have already been hashed over.
That may give you some background and a notably different perspective.
The vid is a synopsis of the incident , it hardly addresses all issues already discussed.
Thank you sir.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by thruska

Ok , so then, the question that needs asking is : In the same circumstances would you have ridden it out or scuttled Your boat? Can that even be answered?

Yes. A question got asked, an answer can be attempted. Ultimately, life verifies everything and I hope it will not hold me accountable for this post one day. Given how I sail, it may.

I believe I would keep on trying. The boat was not sinking. The owners actually believe the boat nearly made it on her own. The area is not dangerous at the time of the year when the accident happened (I understand it was during the regular passage season).

If I abandoned, I would have scuttled. Losing my own boat does not give me any extra rights to expose others to extra risks. Not all boats are strong crews with radars and continuous watch. There are solo sailors, there are rowers, there are people tired and asleep and there are rain squalls when you see nothing. We often criticize the amount of rubbish floating in the oceans only to turn 180 degrees five minutes later because that used to be our boat.

Different people make different decisions. That's about natural I think. I never bashed the owners for abandoning, I just said if I hit their abandoned boat, I would sue.

From the latter I was cured by people here rightly showing it could be very difficult to win the case. So my second thought is I would probably not be suing. I would just sail on and try to fix my damages if I were lucky to be still alive.

b.

[thruska]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Yes. A question got asked, an answer can be attempted. Ultimately, life verifies everything and I hope it will not hold me accountable for this post one day. Given how I sail, it may.

I believe I would keep on trying. The boat was not sinking. The owners actually believe the boat nearly made it on her own. The area is not dangerous at the time of the year when the accident happened (I understand it was during the regular passage season).

If I abandoned, I would have scuttled. Losing my own boat does not give me any extra rights to expose others to extra risks. Not all boats are strong crews with radars and continuous watch. There are solo sailors, there are rowers, there are people tired and asleep and there are rain squalls when you see nothing. We often criticize the amount of rubbish floating in the oceans only to turn 180 degrees five minutes later because that used to be our boat.

Different people make different decisions. That's about natural I think. I never bashed the owners for abandoning, I just said if I hit their abandoned boat, I would sue.

From the latter I was cured by people here rightly showing it could be very difficult to win the case. So my second thought is I would probably not be suing. I would just sail on and try to fix my damages if I were lucky to be still alive.

b.

Your points are valid b.
I coul not tell you now what I would do in real time under real circumstances
I cannot solo because of my present quality of vision (eyesight).
Therefore I even doubt if I would crew in in a boat prone to that circumstance or even be allowed to. So I may be just barking at the moon. In retrospect, I have other traits and skills that may be of value in such a passage, jury is still out on that.
Let's hope we never have to make the decisions this family had to make , if the fates allow.

[travellerw]

Originally Posted by Zamar

FYI, it looks like the family has given up looking, both for their old boat and for a replacement, and returned home.

https://westerlyadventures.wordpress...broken-dreams/

Sad, but inevitable.. I was lucky enough to enjoy and evening with them on one of our buddy boats. Good people..

Personally, I think the right path is for them to go back, build up, then come back out and kick ass! All the power to them and I'm guessing I will run into them again.

[skipmac]

Anyone remember the boat that drifted away from the Bahamas while the owner was ashore clearing customs? There was a thread on that one but can't seem to find it.

Did that one ever turn up?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Anyone remember the boat that drifted away from the Bahamas while the owner was ashore clearing customs? There was a thread on that one but can't seem to find it.

Did that one ever turn up?

Yeah I remember that one.. it demonstrated why I choose all chain on my boats..
I believe it was found aground a few days later..

[Jason Flare]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Anyone remember the boat that drifted away from the Bahamas while the owner was ashore clearing customs? There was a thread on that one but can't seem to find it.

Did that one ever turn up?

This was the thread I remember about a lost boat. I think it hasn't been found.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...es-158283.html

[barnakiel]

The original event, as well as the other boat loss mentioned just above, seem to make a strong point for an onboard tracker left on at all times.

This could be used not only to warn boats in the area but also ultimately, in some cases, to retrieving a boat: lost, abandoned or stolen.

b.

[Zamar]

Originally Posted by travellerw

Sad, but inevitable.. I was lucky enough to enjoy and evening with them on one of our buddy boats. Good people..

Personally, I think the right path is for them to go back, build up, then come back out and kick ass! All the power to them and I'm guessing I will run into them again.

That is cool you got to meet them. I think the same thing. Take some time to re-group, let the pain mellow a bit and do something even more bad ass in the future.

[Tasso]

Originally Posted by Zamar

... Take some time to re-group, let the pain mellow a bit and do something even more bad ass in the future.

Thank you for sharing the link to their blog. Pretty compelling story really...

I wouldn't want to second guess their decisions - as when you put young children in the mix - all decisions are about them...

I wish the family the best of luck. I'm sure they will seek out adventures again in the future.

[Alastair A]

Best wishes for all sailors that have saved themselves and more importantly, their families.
In the interim weeks of this long chain dialog at least 2 vessels have been abandoned / lost at similar distance off shore from east coast Australia.
Please be understanding everyone.
Best wishes for all. Alastair

[Scout 30]

If this forum was around a hundred years ago we'd be talking about how Slocum screwed up & what he should have done differently. Everybody wants to think that if you know enough & do the right thing this won't happen to you. Sometimes **** happens & no matter how much experience you have you can't win. The OP is probably more capable than anyone on this thread. He was a diver for the British Navy and has transatlantic experience. He tried everything he could think of including fabricating an emergency rudder & steering with drogues and when his family was rescued he stayed with the boat to try to save it while they sailed away. Only after a subsequent sail/rigging failure did he come to the realization that raising his children was more important than saving his boat. This was no small thing, as this boat represents everything that they have, their life savings & their home. Even if you don't have a drop of empathy the thought that he should destroy their home in the zillion to one chance that some idiot that doesn't look where he's going will sail right into it should be absurd.

[transmitterdan]

Yes, I agree. The odds of anyone hitting an abandoned boat are incalculably small. It is a pet peeve of mine that the world has lost the ability to comprehend the relative scale of things. The ratio of the size of the ocean to the size of a small sailing yacht is so large as to be mind boggling. Yet someone fears hitting it on pure random chance. Do they also buy lottery tickets where the winning odds are thousands of times better?

If you choose to solo sail in a boat making less than 10 knots STW the very least worry should be hitting another abandoned yacht. There are at least a hundred other worse things that could randomly happen before that.