Merchant Bulker Rescues Four from Sailboat in Mid-Atlantic

[Boatyarddog]

Originally Posted by Barbaria

According to this article they lost propulsion and parts of the rudder.

Rije�ki kapetan spasio �etvero jedrili�ara i psića na olujnom sjevernom Atlantiku / Novi list

Seems to be a lot of “disabled” sailboats out on the ocean in 2020.

https://www.wkrg.com/northwest-flori...r-near-destin/


https://www.marinelink.com/news/two-...ailboat-474287

More interesting than the signal flag array... is how this thread resembles the SENATE Hearing, with judgements in lack of ANY Witnessess or ANY Documents.
We need to hear Witnesses Speak.
Not looking for a response.. Just Saying‼️🇺🇸
I'm sure They Had Good Reason to leave a seemingly solid boat.
SV Cloud Duster

[RobertoD]

Did they give the location data of the "rescue" anywhere? Someone (or more) are probably on their way for a very nice salvage

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by RobertoD

Did they give the location data of the "rescue" anywhere? Someone (or more) are probably on their way for a very nice salvage

It would be like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.

[fatherchronica]

In 1976 my wife and I went to Santa Cruz Island for a week to try to save our marriage. That God it failed. But I digress. Late in the night of July 4th we were awoken by many drunken sailors on 2 60 or 70 foot sailboats because the wind had come up pretty good and we had dragged our only undersized anchor securing our 26' converted Navy whaleboat and were now between them. We sailed far out and reanchored. In the morning we awoke to booms of one those boats keel as it pounded on the shelf in the surf due to Santa Ana winds blowing directly into the shore. The next day there was zero wind, but I was due back to work so we weighed anchor and I began sculling our huge rudder towards home. After we cleared the point obscuring California we saw a couple miles ahead a maybe 60', teak covered, I think Taiwanese, ketch rolling in the swell. An hour later we heard yelling coming from it. We could hear help occasionally so we steered towards it. When we got within hailing distance we were informed that a belt had broken on their engine. 2 women were desperate and 2 men were all" were okay no problem" I still had 3 or 4 belts from the defunct 50 year old Gray Marine on board and threw them as we sculled by. None fit, too bad. Another hour later a breeze came up and we hoisted all 4 sails and began sailing home. They were still wallowing in the swell when they disappeared from our view sometime later. I loved those big boats back. The Long Beach Boat Show would have 10 or so plus 50 footers out of the water inside the buildings back then.

[fatherchronica]

In 1976 my wife and I went to Santa Cruz Island for a week to try to save our marriage. That God it failed. But I digress. Late in the night of July 4th we were awoken by many drunken sailors on 2 60 or 70 foot sailboats because the wind had come up pretty good and we had dragged our only undersized anchor securing our 26' converted Navy whaleboat and were now between them. We sailed far out and reanchored. In the morning we awoke to booms of one those boats keel as it pounded on the shelf in the surf due to Santa Ana winds blowing directly into the shore. The next day there was zero wind, but I was due back to work so we weighed anchor and I began sculling our huge rudder towards home. After we cleared the point obscuring California we saw a couple miles ahead a maybe 60', teak covered, I think Taiwanese, ketch rolling in the swell. An hour later we heard yelling coming from it. We could hear help occasionally so we steered towards it. When we got within hailing distance we were informed that a belt had broken on their engine. 2 women were desperate and 2 men were all" were okay no problem" I still had 3 or 4 belts from the defunct 50 year old Gray Marine on board and threw them as we sculled by. None fit, too bad. Another hour later a breeze came up and we hoisted all 4 sails and began sailing home. They were still wallowing in the swell when they disappeared from our view sometime later. I loved those big boats back. The Long Beach Boat Show would have 10 or so plus 50 footers out of the water inside the buildings back then.

[arcticmonkey]

the sound you hear is my head banging the computer desk... jeez

[fatherchronica]

I spent the 60's at rock festivals and the next 50 years as a framing contractor who liked large caliber guns. So I hear very little ever.

[joelhemington]

Originally Posted by Michael Cobbe

If I was on that yacht I would have put the sails up, which we did when had engine failure. We stopped off a marina and called them on CH16 and a marina boat came out to tow us in.

Or they could have towed with the dink - there's got to more to this. As it stands, it's just ridiculous to abandon a nice boat like that over an engine failure - I'm thinking maybe the Bulldog was the captain.

[nortonscove]

Can't say what happened but it is their issue and they will have to answer for it. All else is speculative in nature.

[Brewgyver]

Originally Posted by joelhemington

Or they could have towed with the dink (snip)

The article reports the rescue was in mid-Atlantic...

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by CarlF

Conjecture, but I bet a kid was sick. The US sent a c130 and rerouted a Navy frigate to get the Kaufman baby off in mid Pacific. The baby’s fever had already gone down by the time it arrived. But the whole family got off and scuttled her. I believe Kaufman was ex-Coast guard. The boat was fine. Even with his experience, he didn’t feel it was safe to singlehand across the Pacific.

Maybe the kid was just one of those few that don’t get over seasickness in three days. Or maybe some emotional/mental breakdown. The parents may have felt it was a survival issue - and with dehydration they could be right. And stressed with worry - the engine packs up.

Once a sick kid is getting off, the parents are going too. What parent wouldn’t? Boats can be replaced like a house or a car. And the hired skipper wasn’t crazy enough to singlehand an ocean crossing — so he got off too.

This wasn’t a situation where SAR was asked to risk their lives in a non-emergency. The ship was nearby.

Maybe a shakedown crew with the whole family would have spotted the problem. Maybe not. I do hope they left AIS on to avoid a collision. When it drifts near shore someone salvor will tow it in.

I gotta set the record straight, here, Rebel Heart was NOT fine. An early HC, it had plywood decks which had been --as it eventuated--poorly repaired, had delaminated and the boat was leaking. Salt water got into things it damaged. Also, they were low on water. When a child has diarrhea, you use a lot more water, --gotta keep the kid hydrated., and also there's more diapers to deal with; even if you wash diapers in salt water, they still require fresh water rinsing.

Eric had been basically singlehanding while Charlotte did child care [2 young children] and life support. They didn't know what they didn't know. However, it is a cruelly inaccurate statement to say "the boat was fine." It definitely was not "fine", and was part of the problem. Whether it might have still made the Marquesas, I don't know, kinda doubt anyone does, for sure.

Ann

[billgewater]

Boat seems to be OK to me. Would not be surprised to see or hear that some enterprising soul has gone to salvage it!

[Mystic38]

yes... that is exactly what they could have done...

sheeesh

Originally Posted by joelhemington

Or they could have towed with the dink - there's got to more to this. As it stands, it's just ridiculous to abandon a nice boat like that over an engine failure - I'm thinking maybe the Bulldog was the captain.

towing 15 tons in 4m seas with a dinghy for a thousand miles.. of course!! they are so silly for not thinking of that

[CarinaPDX]

Originally Posted by Boatyarddog

I'm sure They Had Good Reason to leave a seemingly solid boat.

They may have, but this would not be the first time that people abandoned a serviceable boat.

We had an incident with a noob on CF that abandoned his boat 17 miles from harbor in Honduras (IIRC). He accidentally put a jug of water into the fuel tank and couldn't recover from that. He didn't have dry/canned provisions and he had to shut off the fridge so food was short. His chartplotter was unusable due to lack of electricity so he was afraid to close on land. But he had his radio so called for help and was taken off. He left the sails up and she sailed hundreds of miles to Mexico before wrecking on a reef. Ignorance, incompetence, and fear explain a lot sometimes.

When sailing from St. Johns to Bermuda in 1996 I received a call for help. There were two brothers, getting on in years but clearly not experienced, in a stout boat (a Westsail IIRC). Again, water was in the diesel and they were clueless how to proceed without wind. I tried to talk them through it but they weren't listening - they were too afraid to function. They ended up paying a fortune to a fishing boat to tow them for days into Bermuda. I saw them at the fuel dock: the haunting, beaten look on the man's face will be with me forever.

As Ann said, there were multiple issues with Rebel Heart. It is hard to sort them out as the Kaufman's were apparently not interested in coming back to CF and providing their full story and joining a discussion, despite being active participants prior to departure. Their few public interviews were more about countering the mommy-shaming nonsense that arose as a result of their experience. I think the bottom line is that they and their boat were not prepared for that passage; they were lucky to only have lost the boat.

I find it very discomforting that so many people think they can cross oceans with so little experience. Just buy a big boat and call yourself "Captain" - after all, the new "Captain" is as good a man as any, right? No need to apprentice, to crew for others, to actually learn about it first.

As for this incident, time may tell more but I would bet that a more competent crew could have brought her safely home. Crew fail the boat far more often than a boat fails the crew.

Greg

[Santiano]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Whether it might have still made the Marquesas, I don't know.

Marquesas? Atlantic? What gives?