Coast Guard Rescues 5 from Sailboat off of Yaquina Bay, Oregon

[jenders]

I agree that the video does not appear to show the sea-state or wind conditions the CG refers to. Those were the exact conditions off Oregon when we came down the coast en-route to Baja 5 years ago. It was a bit gnarly, but I never worried since the boat was solid and we had a fine crew aboard. We even lost our autopilot and had to hand steer for 18 hours until reaching Newport. I wonder what sort of "disabled" condition caused this skipper to call the CG. Btw, crossing that bar is not fun, especially in heavy fog. I don't blame them for wanting help.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I was never a surfer, I’ve always thought the backside, wonder where I got that?
Then there is this to explain why they are overestimated
https://www.boatingmag.com/how-to/me...g-wave-height/

It doesn't matter, 5, 10, 15, 20

The boat is fine.

I've been there, on that coast, in those conditions. Everyone on the boat (not my boat) was cold, tired, and seasick and ready to quit, except me. Me too almost.

Without me they'd have called for help.

So until we hear differently, this is the same case.

[Nicholson58]

Rolls pretty tolerable where they are but probably breaking badly over the bars. Bad situation. I prefer the eastern Caribbean.

[Rowglide]

Lets take guesses at the boat type...
Ketch rig
Approx 50'
Long bowsprit
canoe stern
No spreaders on mizzen?
Westsail 42?... nope wrong cabin trunk
Hans Christian 43?... Mizzen looks too far back, no spreaders...
The elusive Hans Christian 38T ketch?

Anyone?

[jmorrison146]

The video shows CG Depot Bay MLB keeping the sailboat in tow while a Yaquina Bay MLB receives the people. This happened two miles off Yaquina Bay well into the event. The big stuff was apparently earlier and well offshore. If the CG coxswain (likely Surfman qualified) reported 10-20', I'm not going to second guess him/her.

[Capt. Mike Maurice]

The original call for help was before daybreak. The video is from late afternoon. A lot of calming can happen in 12 hours. In a sea state of 10' waves there is a one chance in 4000 of a wave 30 feet high. The leading edge of that storm would have the most chaotic wave action, most likely lots of 20' stuff. The video looks like about 10'. I think the Coast Guard provided the suits.

About 55 years ago at the Columbia River entrance the CG ordered me to take some people off a powerboat that was taking on water. I though better of it and asked the operator if he wanted to be taken off. He declined and I informed the CG to that effect. It being "very" rough, there was more danger from someone being crushed or killed from taking them off than waiting for the boat to sink and picking them out of the water.

This is the middle of October and the chances of a 100 knot blow on this coast are about 50/50. The storm that caused all this was the remnants of a super typhoon that hit Japan the week before.
Which begs the question, what is it that people don't understand about big, bad storms on the NW Pacific Coast?

I run this coast all year round, but we don't get caught out in big blows and at 300 plus trips I can tell you it doesn't pay to take chances.
At 8 am this morning the wind was blowing 40 knots in the Strait of Juan De Fuca. The forecast was for half that this morning and 25-35 this afternoon. The forecast is a fairy tale for children. Be a little scared, always, be alive and unhurt.

One last item. Rescues that are done in daylight are a lot safer than those done in the dark. There is plenty of dark this time of year. Safer for the rescuers, in case you hadn't thought about it. I have had CG friends killed doing night stuff. It pays to keep that in mind if you are procrastinating about asking for help.

[Apollo366]

Thank you Capt Mike for clearing it all up.

Also Thank You for being a rescuer.

[Dsanduril]

There's a waverider bouy (Station 46229 - UMPQUA OFFSHORE, OR (139)) at 43.772 N 124.549 W, the general area and about 20 miles offshore.

It reports wave heights of about 4-5 meters (13-16') for the time period Oct 17 to Oct 19. The wave data shows swell at 3-4m/15 seconds and wind waves 2-3m/9-10 seconds.

Sounds uncomfortable.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

There's a waverider bouy (Station 46229 - UMPQUA OFFSHORE, OR (139)) at 43.772 N 124.549 W, the general area and about 20 miles offshore.

It reports wave heights of about 4-5 meters (13-16') for the time period Oct 17 to Oct 19. The wave data shows swell at 3-4m/15 seconds and wind waves 2-3m/9-10 seconds.

Sounds uncomfortable.

Nice pull on the wave data, but the article shows they were rescued Oct 16. The wave height in those charts is "significant wave height" the average of the highest 1/3 of all the waves, so by definition reads higher than "average wave height." For the period that SWH is in the 3.3-3.6m range, or 11-12 ft.

[Kudos]

What I know. The boat is a Westsail 43. A guy posted a survey on this boat, on another website where I had posted the event. A few years ago he was going to buy it. Shortly after the ordeal, all the bars were closed by Captains of the Port's, as conditions were to hazardous for even the USCG to perform rescues. Yaquina bay bar was firing with breaking waves, 22-24 feet.

From my many years of commercial fishing and sailing experience, and this area of the Pacific Northwest is my stomping grounds. In my opinion of what happened, the crew might have been inexperienced, tired, exhausted and seasick. Wasn't making any headway and wanted off the ocean. With the weather forecasting the storm to get worse in the hours to come, that was probably pretty scary. I personally wouldn't have been out there in the first place. I believe the USCG chopper probably got the survival suits to the crew and maybe even a rescue swimmer. The boat was north of Yaquina bay as Depoe bay was the first to respond. Getting the crew off the boat was the safest way to ensure their safety. And honestly I have friends that have been towed in, they said they got beat half to death. They don't take it easy, and crossing a rough bar, hammer down is the way you have to do it in order to give the towed boat it's best chance of surviving. This is no place not to take seriously, if you don't respect it, it'll kill you. Last winter, we lost a 45 footish commercial troller on the yaquina bar, lost all on board. Also we lost another sailboat 180 miles off the Washington coast, coast guard chopper saved them after a wave rolled the 40+ sailboat coming from Hawaii. Hell the last week of August, I was out, with a window of several days of great weather forecasted. 5-6 foot swell and winds 5-15. The first evening, right after dark, we got hit with 25-30 knot winds and shortly after it became a 6 foot westerly swell, with 6 foot wind waves at 4 seconds out of the south. Uncomfortable to say the least. I always tell people and follow this advise myself, if there are any doubts, don't go. They were out there, the USCG did the fantastic job they always do, and everyone is safe including the boat.

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

Nice pull on the wave data, but the article shows they were rescued Oct 16. The wave height in those charts is "significant wave height" the average of the highest 1/3 of all the waves, so by definition reads higher than "average wave height." For the period that SWH is in the 3.3-3.6m range, or 11-12 ft.

The data from the 16th shows a benign condition at midnight (PDT) becoming 2.5 to 3m wind waves at steep to very steep at about the time of the first call 0530 PDT 1230 UTC. And that's on top of a 2.5m swell. Still sounds uncomfortable.

Even if it is significant vs. average the data does support a 10-20' estimate. Maybe it was closer to 10', but that's still in the range. Not saying it's abandon ship weather, but the sea state did take a significant turn for the worse about the time the call came in. What it was like further inshore when they took them off the boat, .....

[Capt. Mike Maurice]

In the end we didn't rescue anybody. The boat did not sink, nobody went in the water. In other words, "sometimes" doing nothing is the best answer. And was in that case.

[Capt. Mike Maurice]

By the way, average wave height can kill you almost without warning. Example: Yaquina Bay entrance about 20 years ago. Average wave height about 9-10 feet. Half across the entrance, east of the last green buoy, encountered 3 breakers about 20 feet high, no warning. And Yaquina is generally a pretty safe entrance. Come to think, how about the 9' breaker taken broadside at Crescent City, just outside the breakwater. And CC is considered to be "absolutely" safe. No warning then...

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

. And that's on top of a 2.5m swell. Still sounds uncomfortable.

Wave height measured by buoys is combined wave/swell vertical movement.

Even if it is significant vs. average the data does support a 10-20' estimate. Maybe it was closer to 10', but that's still in the range.

That was the point - the closer to 10' jives with our fellow forumites' assessments of the wave height apparent in the video. I'm not a fan of bigging up wave data. Riding over a monster wave, then riding several small waves - is not the same as going from monster wave to monster wave to monster wave. Not saying it wasn't uncomfortable, and certainly not Monday-morning quarterbacking the skipper's decision to abandon; just pedantic when it comes to describing sea-state.

[GordMay]

As an aside:
At any given moment, all sorts of objects are drifting in the ocean, a surprising number of them Americans.
The U.S. Coast Guard plucks 10 people a day out of the ocean, on average. Another three die before they’re found.
Which is to say that 13 Americans, every day, need to be hauled out of the water, or off some crippled sailboat, or whatever.