Missing Cat

[Group9]

Originally Posted by dannc

Regarding SPOT batteries...

I was "texting" messages to a guy crossing the Atlantic last year and somehow, I can't remember exactly, I could see the battery status of his SPOT. Some of us who were texting the boat told the owner to check his battery status due to what we were seeing regarding his batteries. Maybe we were seeing some information in the texts we received from him? He was not always aware that his batteries were getting low.

Later,
Dan

I may be remembering wrong, but we used lithium batteries in our Spot II and I think I got over a year out of them.

[Duct Tape]

Durban - The public can help search for a missing South African catamaran crew through an online tool, their families said on Wednesday.

The families fear for the yachtsmen's safety, as they last made contact via satellite phone on January 18 and missed their estimated date of arrival.

The catamaran, Sunsail RC044-978 set out from Cape Town for a delivery trip to Phucket, Thailand, on December 14. The delivery was for US-based world maritime leisure business Tui Marine.

“The current 'Lost Catamaran & Crew At Sea' enables people all over the world to search satellite images that are loaded by Tomnod for this specific campaign,” the families said in a joint statement.

The aim of the campaign is to search for the Leopard 44 catamaran that was being delivered to Phuket, Thailand, by Anthony Murray, Reg Robertson and Jaryd Payne.

On the Tomnod website, www.tomnod,com, people are asked to tag objects as either ship or boat, life raft or “other” in images.

Tomnod is run by commercial satellite company DigitalGlobe.

“The crowd sourcing theory operates on the belief that untrained observers who pick the same target can be as accurate as an expert.

“Anyone with access to a computer and the internet can join the online search party.”

On February 12, Murray's family reported to the Maritime Rescue Co-Ordination Centre (MRCC) in Cape Town that the catamaran was overdue after it missed its expected arrival date 10 days before.

The yacht's Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) had not been activated.

If a signal from the EPIRB is detected then search and rescue will be activated, the extent of which is dependent on resources available in the area at the time.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority issued an urgent broadcast to shipping about the missing yacht, which remains in place until the end of the month when it will be reviewed.

Skipper Murray, 58, has over 25 years' experience at sea, including multiple international catamaran and yacht deliveries.

Robertson, 59, is also an experienced yachtsman and a member of the Royal Natal Yacht Club. Payne is 20 years old.

Sapa

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Group9

I may be remembering wrong, but we used lithium batteries in our Spot II and I think I got over a year out of them.

I don't know which SPOT was being used but it had to be recharged or the batteries replaced several times over a week or two. I was sending and receiving quite a few tests and I know I was not the only person sending/receiving. I would guestimate I was sending 20-30 texts a day and maybe receiving 10-15 each day.

The SPOT was awesome! The idea that we could communicate with someone in the middle of the ocean thousands of miles away. While the text length limit was a pain it was easy to work around though it took a bit of time to compose complicated messages. I was pretty impressed.

Later,
Dan

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Duct Tape

Durban - The public can help search for a missing South African catamaran crew through an online tool, their families said on Wednesday.

The families fear for the yachtsmen's safety, as they last made contact via satellite phone on January 18 and missed their estimated date of arrival.

The catamaran, Sunsail RC044-978 set out from Cape Town for a delivery trip to Phucket, Thailand, on December 14. The delivery was for US-based world maritime leisure business Tui Marine.

“The current 'Lost Catamaran & Crew At Sea' enables people all over the world to search satellite images that are loaded by Tomnod for this specific campaign,” the families said in a joint statement.

The aim of the campaign is to search for the Leopard 44 catamaran that was being delivered to Phuket, Thailand, by Anthony Murray, Reg Robertson and Jaryd Payne.

On the Tomnod website, www.tomnod,com, people are asked to tag objects as either ship or boat, life raft or “other” in images.

Tomnod is run by commercial satellite company DigitalGlobe.

“The crowd sourcing theory operates on the belief that untrained observers who pick the same target can be as accurate as an expert.

“Anyone with access to a computer and the internet can join the online search party.”

On February 12, Murray's family reported to the Maritime Rescue Co-Ordination Centre (MRCC) in Cape Town that the catamaran was overdue after it missed its expected arrival date 10 days before.

The yacht's Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) had not been activated.

If a signal from the EPIRB is detected then search and rescue will be activated, the extent of which is dependent on resources available in the area at the time.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority issued an urgent broadcast to shipping about the missing yacht, which remains in place until the end of the month when it will be reviewed.

Skipper Murray, 58, has over 25 years' experience at sea, including multiple international catamaran and yacht deliveries.

Robertson, 59, is also an experienced yachtsman and a member of the Royal Natal Yacht Club. Payne is 20 years old.

Sapa

I remember someone posting that the vessel was near Sumatra, based on the phone "position" stated by family. Given that spotting either the boat or wreckage would help the family come to grips with the situation, anybody on here now with the skills to post the weather in the area with the boat position highlighted, as was done for Rainmaker on its dismasting thread? Even posting the MSL's for the area since the last phone call might help give an idea where best to look.

Another question that comes to me is if they were castaway, would they have had a kind welcome ashore?

Ann

[clownfishsydney]

Just searched 500 km2 on that site. I notice that the search area is to the west and a bit south of Perth. Considering the last known location was said to be over 2,000 nm north north west of Perth, I would have thought that this was well outside the area to be searched, even considering drift. I base this on the drift of another yacht lost in the Indian in October which was refound a week ago.

I will do some more later today. Worth helping out via this. By the way, I tagged an object as a yacht, probably not one, just looked like a mast and single hull at an angle, most likely just caused by the waves.

[JPA Cate]

Good you, well done, clownfish/catalypso.

[Seaslug Caravan]

Hopefully they roll up safe and well under jury rig.

No business being out there during cyclone season.

Catamaran Quequeg learned that lesson a few years back.

The final voyage of Queequeg II | Soundings Online

[beneteau-500]

Having just seen this post is disturbing and going back through my logs at the same of the missing cataraman we where some 1874 NM ssw off broome from the 14th January we had winds of average wind speed of 38knts from the 9th of January up to 22nd of January with large wave height from 4 to 5 meters constantly from 12th to 16th at no stage did we here any distress calls in fact only saw 1 container ship on whole crossing any by the evening of the 22nd the wind finally dropped of to 17knts and sea calmed down by which time we where 1100nm of broome from here to broome the weather was fine and some 170 nm out WA our next sighting of any ships (iron ore ) . Now if they had headed nth nth East at this time of there last call then they would of head into the front of the typhoon that did start off Madagascar

[Group9]

Originally Posted by dannc

I don't know which SPOT was being used but it had to be recharged or the batteries replaced several times over a week or two. I was sending and receiving quite a few tests and I know I was not the only person sending/receiving. I would guestimate I was sending 20-30 texts a day and maybe receiving 10-15 each day.

The SPOT was awesome! The idea that we could communicate with someone in the middle of the ocean thousands of miles away. While the text length limit was a pain it was easy to work around though it took a bit of time to compose complicated messages. I was pretty impressed.

Later,
Dan

My model wouldn't do that. That's probably why my batteries lasted longer. We would just update our position once or twice a day on it.

But, being able to send and receive text messages from anywhere at low cost, would be worth going through a few batteries!

I've been thinking about upgrading to the DeLorme inReach or something close to it.

[onestepcsy37]

Originally Posted by Group9

We would just update our position once or twice a day on it.

We only turned it on once a day, for the benefit of family and friends. Two reasons; one, to let them know where we were and that we were ok, and two, to make them green with envy.

My daughters boss saw her looking at the satellite picture of where we were in the Exumas. Instead of admonishing her he asked if we would send some photos!

[GoingWalkabout]

Any updates on this missing boat?

[socaldmax]

I haven't seen any updates on the Leopard Yahoo groups, which is disheartening at this point. No news is not good news, unfortunately.

[GoingWalkabout]

Very sad.

[Muckle Flugga]

Originally Posted by Group9

We use a SPOT, too. The device and service costs so little, it's hard to understand why anyone who has anybody who might be concerned about them, doesn't use it.

I can see it being a real plus for a delivery captain, to be able to tell the owner, "Just give your e-mail and you will always know about where your boat and I are at".

Spotlocators are nice, but are not part of the GMDSS system and will not trigger any form of MRCC based search, though they will of course furnish useful background information PROVIDED that they are activated in covered areas. Large swathes of the deep oceans are not covered by the GlobalStar satellite systems on which Spot relies. The whole central Pacific is completely excluded, North and South, and most of the central Indian comprises an area where coverage would be iffy at best, and likely not functional in the central South Indian where it meets the Southern Ocean, where these unfortunates found themselves after divererting away from the first cyclone. Further, spotlocators are NOT designed to withstand immersion or more than momentary contact with saltwater. They should NOT be relied on as any kind of primary distress or tracking beacon, particularly in the deep central Oceanic areas. The several persons advising them for this use on these threads should be aware of this.

The Leopards are generally fine craft and very seaworthy for Cats, however, this particular model, of which I have seen a good number of sisterships in the Phuket area, where I am currently, does not strike me as a good Ocean boat with regards to taking on the kinds of seas thrown out by cyclones. There is a significant hardtop which overhangs both fore and aft, such that at least 50% or more of its area is essentially open to thrusting forces generated by wave action from below, as would occur in large boarding waves swamping either from the forward or after sectors. Also, there are very large portlights both fore and aft in the high, flat sectioned hulls. These I would suspect as being vulnerable to smashing hits from smooth faced fast moving storm waves. Further, the vessel has very large areas of fully vertical flat faced glass or plexi both aft AND forward, as it is catering really for the kinds of conditions usually found on the West side of the Isthmus of Kra, and certainly not SE of Madagascar in January! Such enormous flat surfaces with patio door style entrances, covered by massive hardtop overhangs is inviting, in my opinion, the complete removal of the whole of the central superstructure by a storm wave. I consider it likely that this occurred. I truly hope that the crew is simply in a disabled yacht and moving however slowly towards rescue. I offer no opinions as to that. But it seems to me plain that the above features made this craft singularly ill equipped to deal with cyclone generated seas.

[Tellus]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

I haven't seen any updates on the Leopard Yahoo groups, which is disheartening at this point. No news is not good news, unfortunately.

Yepp, only this one yet
Could crowd-sourcing project have found liferaft from missing South African yacht? - YBW

Very sad