Sloop Dismasted North of NZ

[Eyeback]

A family of eight was rescued from its crippled yacht in the Pacific Ocean after the skipper sent an appeal for help using a radio aerial he made out of a fishing line. The 41 foot sloop Carenza had its rigging caught in the rudder and prop between Tonga and New Zealand.

French seamen rescue family from yacht north of NZ | NATIONAL News

[Ocean Girl]

Wow, thank God everybody was OK. Do you know what happend to the vessel?
Erika

[Free Lancer]

Family of eight rescued from stricken yacht in Pacific - Monsters and Critics_

Sounds like the vessel is ok, minus the fact it lost its mast.

[Charlie]

The French Scuttled it. They are good at doing that in NZ waters (Rainbow Warrior)

[Free Lancer]

why would they tho?

[Ocean Girl]

Free lancer,
Hazard, could sink another boat. My friend had his scuttled by the coast guard in the Gulf of Mexico. His boat was half sunk when they rescued him, he watched it get scuttled, very sad. But he understood the need to sink her. Maybe the weather did not allow towing...?
Erika

[Free Lancer]

Yeah, i get it now. Started thinking about it as i tidied up for Canada Day. It sucks, and is kinda sad.

[Knowazark]

I guess in weather and sea conditions that would result in a dismasting, cutting away rigging and clearing the prop and rudder would have been tricky.

From the reports, there was no issue with the structural integrity of the hull. If it were me in that situation I'd be fighting to have her towed, rather than scuttled ... but hey, I'm on shore not out there trying to deal with the situation.

Very sad.

[Cheechako]

or be motoring, but hard to tow with a rig entangled I'm sure!

[dana-tenacity]

This has occasioned an interesting discussion on when you should fire the epirb on this "other" website:

Crew.org.nz • View topic - A dismasted yacht is now a reason to be rescued via EPIRB?

Hope I'm allowed to do that.

[maxingout]

Losing a rig on a monohull sailboat in a storm with huge seas and strong winds must be terrifying especially when your kids are on board. The mast provides most of the roll moment of inertia to the boat and keeps it from rolling viscously from side to side. My Westsail 32 had rounded bilges and without a mast, riding out a storm in my Westsail would be like trying to survive in a washing machine in a spin cycle. The older round bilge cruising yachts can be awful without a mast to stabilize the motion.

Newer design modern yachts with flatter bilges won't have as much of a problem with rolling if the mast goes over the side. The relatively flat bottom gives them more initial stability even without the mast up there.

One of the things I like about my catamaran is that the roll moment of inertia of the hull is awesomely large even without a mast present. If the mast goes over the side, at least I won't have a problem with all the rolling. Plus, without the mast, I'll still have two engines to get me back to safe harbor.

Of course, if the catamaran flips over, I will have the largest and most expensive life raft in the world!