UK yacht Cheeki Rafiki missing in mid-Atlantic

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Is that the keel or rudder sticking up?

That's the rudder.. seems the keel bolts failed.. one of the negative factors one has to live with on a fin keeler..

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by boatman61

That's the rudder.. seems the keel bolts failed.. one of the negative factors one has to live with on a fin keeler..

That could be where the leak was coming from then.
And then when it snapped the boat could have quickly inverted.
Not nice.

All that could have been done, before it fell off, would be to drop the sails and motor, or drift till the weather subsided.

[tonywatson58]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Is that the keel or rudder sticking up?

Rudder I think - keel has a bulb?

FIRST 40.7 (BENETEAU) sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com

[zboss]

Is this the boat?

CHEEKI RAFIKI - Sailing Vessel: current position and details | MMSI 235052271, Callsign MQBQ3 | Registered in United Kingdom - AIS Marine Traffic

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by zboss

Is this the boat?

CHEEKI RAFIKI - Sailing Vessel: current position and details | MMSI 235052271, Callsign MQBQ3 | Registered in United Kingdom - AIS Marine Traffic

Sure looks like her by the pic's posted on FB.. and a Bene First.. last recorded AIS position Carib last month..

[europaflyer]

"When conducting extended searches, the U.S. Coast Guard uses a survivability model that takes into account weather conditions, emergency equipment, and the anticipated condition of the people for whom we are searching. Based on the extreme conditions at sea, but assuming best-case emergency equipment, the estimated survival time past the time of distress was approximately 20 hours. Crews searched for 53 hours."

Survival time in a life raft is only 20 hours? Who knew.

What utter rot. There's no possible reason to call off a search for a crew with PLBs activated and possible abandonment to liferaft after so short a time.

[plato-gb]

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/

There are a load of vessels out there.

[CarlF]

Rescues are risky to the rescuers. The death of the CG rescue swimmer during the "Perfect Storm" is an example.

It is one thing to ask rescuers to risk their lives when it is known that there are lives to be saved. Another when that likelihood is vanishingly small -- as in this case.

The boat was located. No one could be alive in the hull pictured.

The ship did not see a liferaft (and I'm sure there was a concerted air search in that location). Someone in a liferaft could operate a PLB with homing signal whose batteries were still within the 24 hour life since the capsize. Or flares. Or a handheld VHF. All of which would have been on the raft.

A swimmer would not survive long in those cold waters without a survival suit. The boats owners would have informed the CG if there were survival suits aboard (seems unlikely for a 40ft racing boat).

A boat that loses it's keel rolls instantly. There would be no time to get a liferaft or survival suits out. Most likely the liferaft was in the cabin. If not, perhaps tied behind the mast. It would have been inaccessible in either place once the boat rolled in large waves. They would not have pre-deployed the life raft and towed it while trying to get to the Azores as they had radioed).

Some crew apprarently ended up in the water and were able to activate their PLB's - thus the two signals. The EPIRB is likely in its bracket inside the over turned boat. The fact that an EPIRB has a 48 hour battery doesn't do much good if it's inside the boat.

We don't know that this is what happened but it fits the evidence and reasonable behavior for a highly experienced crew.

The tragic question is how did a fairly new production boat - that was presumably expertly maintained for the stresses of racing - lose its keel in open water?

[hoppy]

Here is a close up of the photo. There is not much of the hull out of the water and it seems to me to be unsurvivable. If they survived I think they will be in a liferaft.

By comparison I have attached a photo of Tony Bullimore's upturned boat.

[tonywatson58]

Originally Posted by zboss

Is this the boat?

CHEEKI RAFIKI - Sailing Vessel: current position and details | MMSI 235052271, Callsign MQBQ3 | Registered in United Kingdom - AIS Marine Traffic

looks like her (sail no. seems right) but in some photos she has blue antifouling?

[tonywatson58]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Here is a close up of the photo. There is not much of the hull out of the water and it seems to me to be unsurvivable. If they survived I think they will be in a liferaft.

By comparison I have attached a photo of Tony Bullimore's upturned boat.

good point, if she was leaking before and then the keel bolts failed she might not have much air buoyancy...or the air would soon leak out...but without her keel would she have still stayed afloat?

[boatman61]

Take a look at the old footage of Bullimores hull.. remember his was a bigger boat and not so flat bottomed... also it takes a fair bit of air to hold a boat up on the surface.. and no way would it be floating at deck level..

Ahhh.. Hoppy.. you posted some pics while I was typing

[DeepFrz]

The tragic question is how did a fairly new production boat - that was presumably expertly maintained for the stresses of racing - lose its keel in open water?

Its a Beneteau? Hey, somebody had to say it.

[europaflyer]

Considering the enormous effort which has been and is being directed towards searching for 237 dead people in the Pacific, spending a few more days searching for four possibly live ones doesn't seem unreasonable. I see no evidence that they were not able to deploy the liferaft, although it would undoubtedly have been very difficult.

[MarkJ]

The life raft is in a cupboard by the stern, isnt it?

Photo of another First 40.7