Zingaro is wrecked

[svGenesis]

Message from zingaro...

James and Kim have a Youtube channel and sent this message out last night.

At approximately 2:30am on December 23rd the starboard hull of Zingaro separated from the bridge deck and started tearing away from the boat.


We were approx. 40nm off the South coast of Hawaii's big island with 30kt winds and 20' seas.
Over the coarse of the next two hours we managed to wrap Spectra lines around the boat and take them to the winches, but with the big seas the lines were parting and cutting into the boat.


The cost guard was notified approx. 4:45am, and they offered a helicopter rescue, which we hesitantly declined. The CG cutter Oliver Berry was briefed and scheduled to depart at 13:00 to assist and possibly transfer us to the boat. Due to sea state the ETA to cover the 170nm was 10pm-3am.


The order was given to 'prepare to abandon ship', and we packed up everything we could (including our water maker) into three bags.


At approximately 9:30pm the cutter arrived (they themselves lost an engine and had many sick crew members from motoring at 23kts into the huge seas) By that time we were able to start the port engine and motor into the Lee of the island, thereby reducing the sea state significantly.
During our scary repair phase, we snapped off the stbd strut and bent the prop shaft 75 deg, so the stbd engine was lost.


Upon the Oliver Berry's arrival it was decided that the sea state was still too high to attempt a tow, and we would continue motoring through the night until it could be reassessed at first light. During the night, the CG transferred 15 gallons of diesel to us via their tender. A bit dangerous in itself. Glow sticks were tied to the jugs in case they were to fall into the water.


We managed to limp in to the Honokohau fuel dock with the CG escort. They were wonderful, and said they were watching our episodes on the way down to us. They told us we were very professional in the way we handled it, and we were actually calming THEM down during our hourly reports over VHF.


Kim and i are proud to say we saved the boat. We worked together like a week old machine, with no time for anything but action. We thought for SURE we would be abandoning Zingaro, so for Her to be in the marina safe... I'm very proud. We never called mayday and didn't pop the EPIRB. We did what we needed to do in a crisis. That said, we learned a bit, and we'll go over that too.

We owe most of the success to the USCG. Without them we would have been in a whole lot more trouble. Everything they did was on point and professional. I couldn't have been more impressed.

Unfortunately the boat is in horrible shape. We will talk more of our plans in the Livestream Sunday.

[LoudMusic]

That definitely had me nervous, but according to their YouTube "about" page ...

Description
Half hilarious, mostly entertaining, s/v Zingaro is a young couple sailing around the world on a home-built catamaran with a shoe-string budget. We’ve sailed over 25,000 miles and definitely had more than 99 problems.

Not really the way I'd want to cross oceans, but looks like they were mostly successful, until they weren't.

[Geekatlrg]

Best wishes for James & Kim I have been following the story for a couple years. The 1984 Crowther catamaran was ready to be retired before his journey even started every episode, I was amazed they made it but they put 20k miles on it.

[carlosproa]

They will find a way, I am sure of that

[Group9]

We've been following them, too. Sad to hear this, but I imagine these two will come back stronger than ever. They definitely got the stuff.

[Franziska]

Wow. That's really sad news.

Still I'm pretty sure they find a way to get her back together.

I really feel for them, especially as my project Lady Rover floats on many lines along the same principles, despite we haven't got that far yet and have no YouTube channel.

I love their approach that one can achieve big things on a small budget if only the desire is big enough.

Kim and James, if you read this I wish you all the luck in the world, glad you managed to limp into port as well as being save.

Hugs from Germany, Franziska

[Sunsetslim]

Hello CF,

25,000nm after purchasing Zingaro here on Cruisers Forum (incl. Easter Island, Pitcairn, & Kiribati) our boat has sustained catastrophic damage on our sail from Fanning Island-Hawaii.

You can see more photos on our public Patreon post:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/32684351

We are having a patron-only live stream tomorrow for anyone who wants to help us out a bit, we're going to explain everything and weigh out options together as a group.

We will be posting the footage from this night publicly at a later date, along with a lessons learned article.

Big thanks to the Honolulu USCG, and specifically, the crew of the Cutter Oliver Berry for taking her out in some horrible weather to come to our aid.

-James & Kimmi

[Sunsetslim]

Thank you so much Franziska. The outpouring of love we've recieved is overwhelming. We won't let this stop us...

[kev_rm]

Sounds like a job well done by the captain and crew.

[Red Herring]

Oh man, I started another post, but does anyone know if Lock Crowther is still active?

[smj]

Originally Posted by Geekatlrg

Best wishes for James & Kim I have been following the story for a couple years. The 1984 Crowther catamaran was ready to be retired before his journey even started every episode, I was amazed they made it but they put 20k miles on it.

We had a contract on the boat about 2 years before they purchased and it was in very good shape

[OutOfControl]

Originally Posted by Red Herring

Oh man, I started another post, but does anyone know if Lock Crowther is still active?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_Crowther

[Dsanduril]

In the photos in the other thread Red Herring started it appears that one of the crossbeams failed at the head door. This is unfortunately a known weak spot in several similar designs because it cuts down the depth of the beam a location with high moment. A little rot, or some hard weather, or some weak construction and over time the beam weakens and then fails. Only supposition from one photo, will be interesting what they find as they take things apart.

[Red Herring]

Originally Posted by OutOfControl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_Crowther

Ya. I remembered after I posted.

[Franziska]

Dang, those images look bad and I would never want to have to experience that on my boat.

Especially not at see reasonably offshore. They cab be really proud that they made it and Zingaro is still afloat.

So lucky it did not happen further offshore and that the next months are hurricane free.

Next big step, get her out without killing her, than the dream team can start the open heart surgery. Hopefully she can be saved. Cool boat.