Abandoned at sea

[Celestialsailor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kmmicp-mSs

I do not know much about the story other than what was posted on youtube.


"While cruising to Bermuda from New Jersey, the cruise ship Celebrity Summit came across a sailboat apparently adrift. The ship began to circle the boat, and then an announcement came across the PA System "For Crew Only: Oscar, Oscar, Oscar." A few minutes later the Cruise Director came on the PA and announced we were stopping to assist as they believed at least one person was aboard. A rescue boat was lowered into the water and a crewmeber carefully boarded the boat. When he came out of the cabin he was holding a book or folder of some sort. Another announcement over the PA from our cruise director said there was no one aboard after all, but we were obligated to investigate and this would not impact our journey"

[StuM]

It happened in 2013
https://wavetrain.net/2013/07/10/aba...its-the-beach/

...
Meanwhile, over on Martha’s Vineyard, an abandoned Pearson 365 ketch, Running Free, washed up at Norton Point Beach last Friday. The boat belongs to Bill Heldenbrand, of St. Joseph, Missouri, who evacuated the vessel in May between Florida and Bermuda due to “high winds and huge seas.” He now reportedly plans to retrieve the boat and fix it up.
....
The very same boat was spotted adrift by the cruise ship Celebrity Summit back in mid-June while it was en route from New Jersey to Bermuda. A crewmember was put aboard to check for life-forms, then she was left to continue floating on her way to wherever.


https://vineyardgazette.com/news/201...e-norton-point

"The sailboat’s owner, Bill Heldenbrand of St. Joseph, Mo., told the Gazette Monday he was sailing alone from Green Cove Springs, Fla. in early May with the ultimate goal of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. His trip didn’t go as planned. Instead, after seven days at sea, the novice sailor encountered high winds and huge seas three-quarters of the way to Bermuda. Mr. Heldenbrand was rescued by a passing oil tanker and forced to abandon the sailboat. The tanker took him to Quebec City."

[Tetepare]

His trip didn’t go as planned. Instead, after seven days at sea, the novice sailor encountered high winds and huge seas three-quarters of the way to Bermuda.[/I] [I]Mr. Heldenbrand was rescued by a passing oil tanker and forced to abandon the sailboat.


Just do it! No need to learn to sail! No experience required!

[Orion Jim]

I sailed to Bermuda in June and spent three weeks there before returning to New England. While I was there two boats were abandoned by their skippers and were picked up by re-directed commercial vessels. In both cases the abandoned boats were left in seaworthy shape but the skippers were not up to singlehanded passages.
One was the 32 footer GINNY but I didn’t note the name of the second vessel in my log. It should be noted that the skipper was picked up by a tanker en route to Rotterdam. Most don’t realize that the rescue vessel just continues to their next port of call. This skipper had lots of time to consider his actions while crossing the Atlantic.

[redhead]

And a Pearson 365 is a very sturdy boat.

[bobnlesley]

Originally Posted by Tetepare

His trip didn’t go as planned. Instead, after seven days at sea, the novice sailor encountered high winds and huge seas three-quarters of the way to Bermuda.[/I] [I]Mr. Heldenbrand was rescued by a passing oil tanker and forced to abandon the sailboat.


Just do it! No need to learn to sail! No experience required!

Not trying to defend the casualty but don't agree with attacking him either; if like I, you weren't there, then you're not qualified to judge whether the Skipper was right or wrong.

I wouldn't advocate anyone setting off without learning to sail, but in many respects and for the overwhelming majority of the time, you perhaps need/use less 'sailing' ability to cross an ocean that you do for a tidal/coastal passage. As for 'experience'? Sailing across oceans is a different ball game to inshore sailing and nobody's 'experienced' until after their first one; it's not so much about sailing ability as of achieving the right mind-set and some people - novices and experienced sailors alike - just can't get into it and rarely get the chance to discover that in advance.
I've often felt that European sailors have a big advantage over our North American counterparts in that regard: As a European our first 'ocean' passage is likely to be an east to west Atlantic crossing, perhaps the easiest there is and with the Canary Islands as an easy bail out point after only 600M if you do discover that it's not for you - There used to be an awful lot of well fitted ocean boats for sale there, I suspect that's still the case? Whereas going west to east from North America's a whole lot tougher (and colder!) or the 'short hop' from the US to the Caribbean, which we found the hardest of them all; you want/need to be competent at 'sailing' before undertaking that one!

[goboatingnow]

The trouble for European sailors is getting to the canaries

[Wilyum]

I hope they scuttled it.

[marcjsmith]

looks like a good time to jump off the floating motel and acquire a new boat.

[davil]

this thread reminded me of a movie saw couple days ago in Amazon Prime

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4519006/


Made for TV movie (true story) about a capsized trimaran yacht and how it's crew survived for over 100 days.

should keep the trimaran sailors busy analyzing the events?

[davil]

Originally Posted by StuM

It happened in 2013
https://wavetrain.net/2013/07/10/aba...its-the-beach/

...
Meanwhile, over on Martha’s Vineyard, an abandoned Pearson 365 ketch, Running Free, washed up at Norton Point Beach last Friday. The boat belongs to Bill Heldenbrand, of St. Joseph, Missouri, who evacuated the vessel in May between Florida and Bermuda due to “high winds and huge seas.” He now reportedly plans to retrieve the boat and fix it up.
....
The very same boat was spotted adrift by the cruise ship Celebrity Summit back in mid-June while it was en route from New Jersey to Bermuda. A crewmember was put aboard to check for life-forms, then she was left to continue floating on her way to wherever.


https://vineyardgazette.com/news/201...e-norton-point

"The sailboat’s owner, Bill Heldenbrand of St. Joseph, Mo., told the Gazette Monday he was sailing alone from Green Cove Springs, Fla. in early May with the ultimate goal of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. His trip didn’t go as planned. Instead, after seven days at sea, the novice sailor encountered high winds and huge seas three-quarters of the way to Bermuda. Mr. Heldenbrand was rescued by a passing oil tanker and forced to abandon the sailboat. The tanker took him to Quebec City."

=========================
Not sure was the same time
left on May to Bermuda from Morehead City, and about 150 miles from Bermuda my weather guru (Jennifer Clark) advised me to turn back as Ana was developing very close to Bermuda, and my fuel was limited, so I turned back, as Ana started to influence the seas had a 24 hrs with wind and confused seas, heave to for 24 hrs., no reason to fight it, slept like a baby and then was home 4 days later, total of 8 days.
If it was the same time, will have been perhaps scare for a novice?
Took a pic of a catamaran going north, pitching and rolling, one frame could see the deck, next the bottom wild.
PS. can see the fuel will have been a problem as the storm passed, was calm for several days and will not be able to sail.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL012021_Ana.pdf

[Searles]

If you are forced to abandon your vsl at sea ,pay out all of your anchor and rode be it all chain or chain and rope over the bow fitting and make fast the best way you can ,this alone may save your vsl .⛵️⚓️

[NavyDave_andMe]

I was fascinated by this story, as Running Free is a sister ship to ours, as well as being a ketch. Terribly sad to see the ship abandoned and drifting with tattered sails in the posted video. Astonishing to me that the boat drifted 700 nm north to Martha's Vineyard.
So then I had to look up its captain and see if he ever got his boat or returned to sailing. This article gave some further background on his purchase of the boat from a DIY yard:

https://www.soundingsonline.com/news...e-going-to-die

And this article pointed at the vulnerability of a boat once it beaches:
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/201...-grounded-boat

Lo and behold, the captain's Facebook posts are public. The very next year (2014) he bought a sloop and as of 2016 he appeared to still be sailing. Quite a unique individual.

Too bad he decided to give up on Running Free after delays in towing it to Cape Cod gave looters the time to completely strip it. Seems like the boat deserved a nobler destiny.

--Cheryl

[Celestialsailor]

In my opinion, Bill Heldenbrand, the owner of Running Free, should have heeded the initial notice he received and immediately gone to his boat before it was stripped. Instead he ran a race...and for what? As mentioned earlier, it would have been a good idea to pay out all the ground tackle. It might have set in offshore making it easier to salvage and detour the illegal stripping.