Reflections on Seamanship

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Quote from Ann Cate

" I think we need to define "good seamanship", because there's more to it than navigation and pilotage. To me, it is a lot about considering what might go wrong, and preventing it from happening."

Hi Ann, I think you just gave us a very good definition!

Yes, that's a great definition Ann. Kind of a variation on Murphy's Law. That's how I look at everything, if anything can break or fail, it probably will...and if I can hit my head on it, fall on it, or get jabbed by it, I probably will!

[JPA Cate]

Adequate spares. Very important. Plus bits and pieces to create repairs for the unexpected. Plus, the smaller the boat, the less you can carry, so what are the most essential?

I'm afraid I can only begin such a list:
spare alternator drive belt for engine, at least one
spare water pump impeller (or a whole new spare to swap on)
tools for above job (I had a tool box for working on my car, back when people worked on their own cars, and i brought it to the boat.)

enough oil for an oil change (have had an unexpected loss of engine oil, twice over the years) and a new filter, if you've room; rags, or paper towels to clean up the mess; trash bags to contain dirty old oil filter, and cleanup rags. Waterless hand cleaner if you've room, and a nail brush.

If it's an electric motor for something, it may have brushes, which wear out, so you want spare brushes for those items.

O rings, you need spares for, too, a selection of sizes.

Spare line and also shackles or soft shackles. We had a main sheet shackle break one time; also have had a boom break. You need to be able to deal with those kinds of incidents. *

I'm sure the usual suspects can think of many more.

Ann

*We tend to re-purpose lines as they age, but one time we found, in a trash bin, about 50 ft of 1/2" polyester double braid! It had a diesel spill on it. We washed it and put it to work, on our old tow generator, for years.

[CassidyNZ]

^^^

To a minimalist spares inventory, I would add a selection of appropriately sized stainless hose clamps.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Quote from Ann Cate

" I think we need to define "good seamanship", because there's more to it than navigation and pilotage. To me, it is a lot about considering what might go wrong, and preventing it from happening."

Hi Ann, I think you just gave us a very good definition!

I've just now read that PwC report for the first time.

I think it is pretty easy to imagine the scenario that led up to that incident and to identify, in my mind at least, a single key mistake made on board, primarily by the skipper, that resulted in the wreck and cost them the boat and two lives, including his own.

This was a great race boat with a solid, experienced crew doing what they had been doing together for years: ocean racing on a familiar boat in a familiar area, rounding a known island at night in only moderately rough weather. Nothing new here, and nothing they all hadn't handled many times before. No big deal.

The skipper was on the helm and confident as they approached the island. The crew was thinking about the next leg, and their position in the race and preparing on deck for that run north.

I am sure no one had the slightest doubt that Andrew Short would steer them around the island and then call for the kite.

But the error had already been made. When the bowman was injured the navigator, Matt Pearce, being one of the most experienced sailors on the boat, had gone forward to perform the duties of bowman.

That left no dedicated navigator on the job as they approached the island for the rounding. Andrew Short was steering and doing what navigation he felt was needed but a full time navigator and extra pair of eyes would have been essential. Yes, there was GPS degradation due to the positions of the visible satellites. The position of the boat could have been off by 100 meters or more. But it was lack of of a navigator at this critical moment which caused, in my view, the wreck. (And that is partially caused by the relaxed organization of the crew, which was the style in which the boat was normally operated)

PwC hit the island about 260 meters south of what I'd have considered a safe rounding point. Even with degraded GPS they would have seen that they were well south of that safe rounding point. Even if the GPS position was off by 100 meters, they would have still cleared the rocks on the north side by 60 meters. Rapidly shoaling water would also have put a navigator on full alert. He would have been shouting, "Can anyone see the Island?"

I don't fault Andrew Short for steering that boat onto the island; that is a mistake and anyone could make that mistake. But I fault him for not telling Pearce, "Get back here and talk me around this island!"

I have not raced around Flinders Island but I have raced around a good many other similar marks, in the dark, on shitty nights. That is the time for a navigator, a good one, to be on the job.

Over and above all other measures of good seamanship, I think this is the one that could have saved them.

[wingssail]

Now I'll tell you how we on Wings nearly made a similar critical navigation error.

Approaching Opua in New Zealand, around 2:00AM after an extremely rough and tiring crossing from Fiji we were about 14 miles out and following a compass heading from a GPS waypoint I had established into the channel to Opua. (This was before we had a chart plotter.)

We were in radio contact with Des of Russell Radio and he gave us a his preferred leading waypoint, which we also put into the GPS, and a heading to follow.

Now we were busy shaking out a reef in the main but following our course, by compass.

Judy (navigator) went below to double check the chart and found that the course we were taking from the waypoint to the channel took us across land! I said it did not, she was using the wrong leading waypoint. We spent time arguing about this before we plotted the position on the chart and did indeed find that we were on a dangerous heading from our waypoint.

Des had provided a course from his waypoint, we were following that course from our waypoint.

Now, with chart plotters we would not make that mistake, but back then, it was easy to do.

[Jim Cate]

I have not raced around Flinders Island but I have raced around a good many other similar marks, in the dark, on shitty nights. That is the time for a navigator, a good one, to be on the job.

Fred, I reckon that the navigator was not really needed at that point. Rather a good lookout would have sufficed... no great skill needed, just a good set of eyeballs looking around the genoa which obstructed the view of the island.

And FWIW, I'd not personally ever set a course around a rocky island so close that a 100 meter error in a GPS position would put me on the bricks. The mindset that pushes such limits was a factor in the loss of the vessel Low Speed Chase in the Farallones race a few years back. That accident wasn't due to GPS issues but rather failing to consider that big seas could break further out than the average position that they had observed. Had they given a bit more margin, the accident would not have occurred... just as this one could have played out.

Jim

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Fred, I reckon that the navigator was not really needed at that point. Rather a good lookout would have sufficed... no great skill needed, just a good set of eyeballs looking around the genoa which obstructed the view of the island.

Except that the island they hit would have been visible on the windward side, not so much around the genoa on the leeward side, but yeah, eyeballs were needed. On my boat, or an any boat I command, there is a navigator. I make sure he (she) knows their responsibility, and always they have lived up to it. We've hit no islands.

And FWIW, I'd not personally ever set a course around a rocky island so close that a 100 meter error in a GPS position would put me on the bricks. The mindset that pushes such limits was a factor in the loss of the vessel Low Speed Chase in the Farallones race a few years back. That accident wasn't due to GPS issues but rather failing to consider that big seas could break further out than the average position that they had observed. Had they given a bit more margin, the accident would not have occurred... just as this one could have played out.

In this case, by my reckoning, the safe water waypoint was 260meters from their point of impact which was 30 meters from the end of the island and probably another 30 meters from the end of the reefs. So a 100 meter error would still have had them 100 meters from the point of impact and probably, by looking at the charts of that island, at least 90 meters clear of running aground, not counting any off shore breaking swells.

The problem here, I assume, is that they did not have a waypoint set at a safe rounding position, they were depending solely on eyeball and judgement.

Fred

Jim

How close to round a mark which is an island is always a judgement call. Round too wide and you lose time, Round too close and...boom! I've actually been just outside of a boat which went BOOM ten meters inside of me. They got over the rock, but the winch pawls broke and the winch unwound backwards and broke a guy's arm in five places as he pulled out from the spinning handle. It hurt their speed for the next 10 miles and we beat them.

[Jim Cate]

Except that the island they hit would have been visible on the windward side, not so much around the genoa on the leeward side,

Didn't the report say he was steering from the leeward wheel? And occasionally jumping up to the windward side so he could see forward? If he could indeed see the island himself, why did they hit it?

Jim

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Didn't the report say he was steering from the leeward wheel? And occasionally jumping up to the windward side so he could see forward? If he could indeed see the island himself, why did they hit it?

Jim

What I read is that mostly he was steering from the port side, which was windward, and the chartplotter was next to the starboard helm. I think that the low profile of that end of the island combined with the lights of Port Kembla made seeing the island very difficult.

Rounding an unlit island like that at high speed on that night was a highly dangerous thing to be doing, probably the most dangerous thing one could do. I stand my my view that he needed help.

But hey, Monday morning quarterbacking is a bit easier than being there, isn't it?

[Jim Cate]

But hey, Monday morning quarterbacking is a bit easier than being there, isn't it?

For sure, Fred, but then we have both kinda been there and done that ourselves (to some degree or another) so some thoughtful commentary is surely allowed. I'm not trying to second guess, for we were not there on that boat in that night, but suggesting that a more conservative plan would have eliminated the issue of GPS error isn't a bad thought to pass along to the CF readers.

I did several single hand races around the Farallones years ago (long before GPS) and I sure as hell didn't try to cut the corner! And despite the slight loss of time due to conservative courses, I managed to do pretty well in them.

And FWIW and on another subject, I'm sure glad that I did my racing in the good ole days. The bureaucracy that is involved nowadays would have been WAY more than I could bear.

Jim