American yacht sticks on Swelly rock

[Danny Jo]

At about 1330 there was a yacht aground on the Swelly rock. Her sail number was preceded by "US", the last part of the name on her stern was "Fox" and she had something like "Cancercare" painted on her side. Presumably she had attempted a passage at low water slack (about 2 hours earlier) and had gone too close to the rock. When I saw her, she was starboard side on to the northeast going current, heeling about 20 degrees to port, with full sail up, filling from the port side. The RNLI inshore RIB was standing by. When I returned 3 hours later she was nowhere to be seen, so I take it she's made it to a safe haven. Does anyone know what became of her?

 

[misterg]

Seems like they're keeping us in suspense:

[ QUOTE ]

24th. June | 1:05 pm | Swellies

Holyhead Coastguard requested Beaumaris lifeboat launch to assist a 41' yacht with 5 persons aboard competing in the " Three Peaks Race " reported to be aground on Swellie Rock....
Full report later.

[/ QUOTE ]


Beaumaris Lifeboat page.

Andy

 

[misterg]

Sounds like "Beach Fox", apparently now renamed "Beached Fox" according to the latest race report. Appears to be back in the race, and up with the pack.

MAP should show where everyone is.

race web page
Race reports

Some interesting pictures of 30'+ yachts being rowed through the swellies in the photo gallery!

Andy

 

[savageseadog]

You wouldn't believe how many incidents there are in the swellies. Most of them seem to kept quiet.

 

[Danny Jo]

Beaumaris lifeboat managed two missions on the same outing:

24th. June 2:50 pm Off Plas Newydd.
Holyhead Coastguard requested that the Lifeboat after completing a service in the Swellies proceed to another 40' Yacht with 5 people aboard aground off the Old Faenol boat house opposite Plas Newydd. The lifeboat stood by this craft until she re-floated. There was no apparent damage and the yacht resumed her passage to Whitehaven as one of the competitors in the Three Peaks race. The Lifeboat then returned to station.


24th. June 1:05 pm Swellies
Holyhead Coastguard requested launch after receiving information that a vessel taking part in the Three peaks Race was aground on Swellie rock with the tide falling. This 41' yacht with 5 people aboard was aground for over 2 hours and was assisted by the lifeboat attaching a tow to prevent damage on re-floating. The Lifeboat was then tasked to another yacht in the same race.

 

[oughtoc]

When I was but a callow yoof, I used to sail that way from Port Dinorwic and from the Gazelle pub. Rumour was that no yacht was insured between the two bridges - any truth in that?

 

[claymore]

Do these reports suggest that the yachts had outside assistance and might therefore need to retire from the race?

 

[awol]

"Rule 2c. Outside Assistance: Competing yachts may not be propelled by any means involving another vessel, except its own tender; or any person who is not a member of the named crew. Nor may a yacht receive assistance except when in harbour. Prearranged outside navigational assistance is not permitted."

Bit of a bummer to get that far only to retire.

 

[Major Catastrophe]

We passed the Three Peaks yachts on the way out to Aber Menai yesterday morning. Most of the yachts off Dinorwic were all but becalmed, but further up the straits they had spinnakers/racing chutes out in very light wind.

We were wondering how they were going to 'shoot' the Swellies as it was an ebbing tide. Last year (dead calm) they went through on the flood so that they at least had the water to push them through. I believe some of the others 'touched' rocks.

 

[misterg]

[ QUOTE ]
We were wondering how they were going to 'shoot' the Swellies as it was an ebbing tide.

[/ QUOTE ]

Like this:

(c) SleepMonsters gallery

It seems Vlad The Impaler has a pretty unassailable lead now. (They left Whitehaven before anyone else had arrived). Still, there's 32 prizes to share between 30 entrants, so everyone's a winner /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Andy

 

[claymore]

In the old days when pansies were but pretty wee flowers and all the sheep were nervous, we used to sail into Ravenglass.

 

[Danny Jo]

[ QUOTE ]
Do these reports suggest that the yachts had outside assistance and might therefore need to retire from the race?

[/ QUOTE ] At least in the case of Beached Fox, they do. But there may be another reason for her to be disqualified - I wouldn't swear to it in a court of law, but I formed the opinion that she was using her engine in her attempts to get off the rock.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Different races have different regs - maybe the 3 Peaks has a rule covering outside assistance in the event of stranding.

 

[claymore]

Stop being so damned reasonable -<span style="color:red"> Protest </span>

 

[Major Catastrophe]

[/ QUOTE ]I wouldn't swear to it in a court of law, but I formed the opinion that she was using her engine in her attempts to get off the rock.

[/ QUOTE ]

Aren't the engines sealed before the race so that scrutineers can tell if they have been used?

 

[misterg]

I don't get the impression that it's that up-tight. There are places you can use the engine for propulsion (e.g. around Caernarfon), and I think it can be used pretty much anywhere for battery charging, etc. except the swellies for some reason. Seems to be decided "at the discretion of the committee".

Seems there was a lot of running aground:

[ QUOTE ]
RBS Road Runner were second to arrive, a fantastic sail as there are several much faster boats in the race. “We kept inshore to try and stay out of the worst weather,” said Neal Ricketts. He confirmed they’d passed Lightning Reflex and White Cloud stuck on a sand bank near Beaumaris (the exit to the Menai Strait). “We saw the Reflex go aground … then White Cloud followed them! Nunatak saw what was happening and they were quick to change course. Lighting Reflex tried to row off then raised a spinnaker, but it drove onto the bank even more and my guess was they’d be there for a few hours.”

[/ QUOTE ]

It may all be academic now - Beach Fox is showing up as stationary in Douglas, there's about nine teams going up/down Scafell Pike, and Vlad The Impaler is somewhere up around Portpatrick.

Quote from Greg Marsh (Skipper of VTI) about coming through the Swellies:

[ QUOTE ]
“I thought I was close last year, but Ric (Searle) took us much closer. As it’s my boat I’m a bit more conservative, so the fact it’s not Ric’s boat probably helped! When we were catching trees with the boom we knew it was as close as we could get and it was tense as we were watching for rocks all the time as well.”

[/ QUOTE ]

I think they've got until next Saturday to finish.

Andy