51 Foot Danish Sloop goes Down Halfway to Polynesia

[chrisr]

as an ex mono hull owner and now catamaran convert, i am acutely aware of the difficulty of keeping 5-10mt of lead afloat

it's a pity there is no safe way to eg jettison this deadweight when in a sinking condition

but it does highlight the greater survival-ability of the catamaran...cannot recall one ever being sunk by a whale !. perhaps this is partially offset by having 2 hulls to hit instead of one, but even if one hull floods the other is going to make a better liferaft

cheers,

[c.K.]

Originally Posted by carstenb

The 51 foot Danish Sloop Lulu, apparently hit either 1 or two whales halfway between Galapagos and Marquesas. The boat sustained so much damage and had water ingress that was unstoppable. The 8 man crew took to their liferaft and Lulu sank. Towing their dinghy, they set off their EPIRB and made several Mayday calls on their IN-Reach and Sat phone.
The crew was picked up within 24 hours by a large fishing trawler and later transferred to a Mærsk freighter that was headed for Tahiti

All crew safe, no further details are available now.

one may wonder what that vessel was made of
years and years ago there was a family with kids that sailed from newzealand back to England and they were sunk by a sperm-whale; a harrowing 2 month drift in a small dingy followed; they all made it back to safety the mother nurse played a big role in that survival story

[Messing About]

Read this years ago and highly recommend. Their boat sank after striking a sperm whale. She had a small calendar (like a day timer) they penned their thoughts to, which later became the book. Definitely empowers a cruiser with survival instincts.

https://www.amazon.com/Staying-Alive.../dp/0679504583

[jordanbigel]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

I'm not convinced the performance penalty of a skeg is worthwhile. You can make a pretty darn strong spade rudder. And knowing that nothing is unbreakable, it's important with any rudder design (skeg or spade) to know that breaking the rudder won't compromise the watertight integrity of the boat. One failure (the rudder) should remain as 1 failure (loss of steering).

To hell with performance, I want to live (and I want to be comfortable doing it). I could care less about being slow in light air, and while I am sure you are right a strong spade rudder is possible, I'll never believe that a boat half the weight of mine is going to be as comfortable in heavy seas, or as survivable in a collision.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by carstenb

Yes it is a reminder that what we do is not without an element of danger. Here all crew are safe, a testament to a skipper who insured his safery equipment was up to date, adequate, and in working order

We have sailed surrounded byflocks of whales numerous times also at night and every time I simply hope they know we are there

"Flocks" of whales? I bet THAT was a sight lol

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by carstenb

Well I suppose it is possible to build an "unsinkable boat" - did someone mention the Titanic?

Any boat is a compromise. You want it to be "unsinkable" - ti will cost $$$$$$ and be heavy and slow.

Creating watertight bulkheads does add expense, but it does not add any significant weight. It just requires some care in construction.

[catsketcher]

It is not that hard to make proper watertight compartments. My catamaran has full height compartments 1.8m and 3.6m from the bows. I like them a lot as they have deck storage to half height and no water ever enters the rest of the boat from a leaky hatch. Great safety and the boat works well because of them.

At the aft end I have a watertight compartment 1.8 metres from the stern. I really like having watertight compartments because it allows me to have wet areas and storage areas that are fully sealed from the accomodation.

In monos, one could easily put the rudder behind a full height watertight compartment under or aft of the cockpit. If done well it would cause very little inconvenience at a large improvement in safety if rudders are damaged. If included during construction there is very little extra cost - my boat is pretty inexpensive for its type so full bulkheads are not pricey.

[Don C L]

The Peterson 44 that sank has a skeg (which is what was damaged apparently,) and I suppose you could add a watertight bulkhead behind the engine. You'd just need to add another stuffing box in the bulkhead.

I wonder how close these boats were to the location of the sinking of the Essex in 1820?

[Muaddib1116]

What type of boat was this Danish Sloop?

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by c.K.

one may wonder what that vessel was made of
years and years ago there was a family with kids that sailed from newzealand back to England and they were sunk by a sperm-whale; a harrowing 2 month drift in a small dingy followed; they all made it back to safety the mother nurse played a big role in that survival story

I read their book decades ago. They had two dingys, a hard and an inflatable. The glue on the inflatable gave way after a couple of weeks but they managed to use the tube as a buoyancy and stability improvement on the hard dingy. Must have been crowded bit they survived.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by Muaddib1116

What type of boat was this Danish Sloop?

From the photo I saw it looked like a newish Beneteau 51

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by flightlead404

"Flocks" of whales? I bet THAT was a sight lol

Ah yes, Properly I should have called them a herd, pod or even a gam of whales. But, it can be difficult to be erudite while thinking in one language and writing in another

My bad, I was thinking in Danish and writing in American.

A gam of whales is called a "Flok" in Danish and "Flok" translates as "Flock"

I stand corrected and enjoined from a repeat performance

[neilpride]

Building spade rudder immensely strong in many cases is counterproductive.

And since it is a weak point on many boats, especially production boats, the only solution would be as some have said to hermetically separate the hull from the stern. Something that many builders are not going to do because they don't give a Poo if you hit a whale.

In any case, running out of rudder in the middle of the Pacific in many cases is pulling the trigger.

If the Danish are sailing a Beneteau , I am surprised given the culture of that country in strong boats.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by neilpride

Building spade rudder immensely strong in many cases is counterproductive.

And since it is a weak point on many boats, especially production boats, the only solution would be as some have said to hermetically separate the hull from the stern. Something that many builders are not going to do because they don't give a Poo if you hit a whale.

In any case, running out of rudder in the middle of the Pacific in many cases is pulling the trigger.

If the Danish are sailing a Beneteau , I am surprised given the culture of that country in strong boats.

Lots of danes are blue water cruising on benes or jranneau ( look at us 40k+ in a jeanneau)

[rslifkin]

The KP44 rudder incident definitely points out that a skeg isn't necessarily enough to make an appendage like a rudder unbreakable. I'm not convinced you can build an indestructible rudder within reasonable means (just one that's strong enough). And it'll be harder to design for the failure case with a skeg. With a spade rudder, as long as you reinforce the area around the rudder post so the post snaps at or below the hull before the hull fails or tears out the rudder tube inside (and the hull is strong enough to avoid getting the rudder pushed through it), then after the failure, you're left with a clean, pluggable hole in the boat. Design a standpipe around that to prevent flooding while you go down and plug the hole, and now a broken rudder is down to a boat disabling event, not a boat losing event.