Close encounter - with a submarine......

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West Coast

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Has anyone ever had an unexpected close encounter with a submarine?

The thought was triggered by an earlier question regarding a C Map symbol indicating possible areas of naval vessel activities. My charts of the Scottish west coast give me grave warnings that submarine activity may be ongoing and a good look out must be kept for them at all times - :rolleyes:

Like many of us, I have passed submarines on the surface, escorted by all the usual ribs etc. However, in the early 80's, we were sailing under spinnaker at a good rate of knots off the NE coast of Arran in the Clyde when a periscope emerged from the water only about 100 metres away , raised to a height of perhaps 3 metres:eek:

It was travelling much faster than us, and travelled approx parallel to our course for a few minutes, gaining on us, then turned, passed across our bows, well ahead of us, then to a reciprocal course for a minute or so, then disappeared.

We were travelling about 7 knots or so, so guess he was travelling perhaps 12knots.

We don't know for sure if he saw us, but he surely must have - in all the films they do a 360 degree sweep when putting up the scope?? So - guess he was playing with us!:D
 
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If you listen to the "Subfacts" VHF broadcast, for the West Coast of Scotland, you would think that there must be hundreds of subs charging around. In reality, we only have about 1½, but I still wouldn't want one too close.
 
Wot, like this guy?

ssn.jpg
 
West Coast said:
Like many of us, I have passed submarines on the surface, escorted by all the usual ribs etc. However, in the early 80's, we were sailing under spinnaker at a good rate of knots off the NE coast of Arran in the Clyde when a periscope emerged from the water only about 100 metres away , raised to a height of perhaps 3 metres:eek:

It was travelling much faster than us, and travelled approx parallel to our course for a few minutes, gaining on us, then turned, passed across our bows, well ahead of us, then to a reciprocal course for a minute or so, then disappeared.

We were travelling about 7 knots or so, so guess he was travelling perhaps 12knots.

We don't know for sure if he saw us, but he surely must have - in all the films they do a 360 degree sweep when putting up the scope?? So - guess he was playing with us!:D
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I am 400 miles away from my charts, but I was under the impression that submerged activities NORTH of Arran were forbidden, except in specified test areas like Loch Long? I stand to be corrected!

That patch north of Arran is plenty deep enough - my echo-sounder usually loses the bottom in that region!
 
my dad was followed for a while by a schnorkel off arran in the dead of night, then it overtook him, and then moved in ahead of him. going faster than the 3 - 4 knots he was doing tho. he had the engine on.

i had one maybe encounter, elecrocompass auto pilot on, in loch long, not far s of coulport, when boat did a 90 deg turn to port, then a 180 to stbd, then resumed its original course. all i can think of is a large lump of ferrous material under the boat. that wasn't there when i followed the exact track the next day. its deep enough there.
 
I had what I believe to have been a very close encounter about 3 years ago. Crossing from the Chenal du Four towards Plymouth at night the depth gauge went down to 4 metres for an hour or more. At one point it jumped back up to the usual 80+ for a few minutes then went back to 4, finally returning to normal a few miles south of the Eddystone.

I have heard that subs hide under the sonar or radar signature of yachts. I can think of no other explanation.
 
ASW

We used to have SOSUS to facilitate detection of non UK platforms in our/most areas. But there is also satellite and airborne detection using IR and MAD
But not forgetting Wake and Laser detection.
But if you are at all concerned regarding submarines in your area, then all you should have to do is run you engine, and within ninety seconds (ish) they will have detected, processed and plotted your position.
But a small yacht under sail in certain sea states is almost impossible to detect.
 
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Old Glow In The Deeps said:
What’s the range of the human ear (16hz to 16khz?), what is our transducers signal strength and at what frequency?
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Errr... i have not the foggiest.

But are you saying that with all those gazzillions of pounds of techno stuff and fancy listening bits and things that they cant actually hear a £50 depth sounder??



Comrades! I have found the imperialist week spot! We attack at dawn!
 
snowleopard said:
I had what I believe to have been a very close encounter about 3 years ago. Crossing from the Chenal du Four towards Plymouth at night the depth gauge went down to 4 metres for an hour or more. At one point it jumped back up to the usual 80+ for a few minutes then went back to 4, finally returning to normal a few miles south of the Eddystone.
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Some years ago on a night crossing from Guernsey to the Trieux river we saw a light a couple of hundred yards to starboard a mile or so south of the Roches Douvres. No hull was visible, so we thought it might be an escaped buoy, and altered course towards it. When just a few yards away, it was clearly not a buoy, just a rod with a light on top sticking out of the water.

Stunned for a few seconds, a possible explanation dawned: a submarine - with conning tower and rigging! We backed off a quickly as we could and resumed our passage.
 
snowleopard said:
I had what I believe to have been a very close encounter about 3 years ago. Crossing from the Chenal du Four towards Plymouth at night the depth gauge went down to 4 metres for an hour or more. At one point it jumped back up to the usual 80+ for a few minutes then went back to 4, finally returning to normal a few miles south of the Eddystone.

I have heard that subs hide under the sonar or radar signature of yachts. I can think of no other explanation.
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I’ve often had a reading of about 4 metres for several or many minutes at a time when I was expecting 50 metres plus – I’ve always assumed it was marine mammals, fish, seaweed or a sounder glitch.

I know next to nothing about submarines, but their conning towers are typically, what, some 6 metres high and it seems inconceivable to me that they would have managed to keep just the conning tower, rather than the hull, right under your depth sounder so consistently for so long. And if you were getting a 4-metre reading from the hull, then the conning tower would surely have been peeking over your transom!

Having said that, I seem to remember when the Solway Harvester was lost in the Irish Sea that the family and/or fishermen initially suggested that a submarine might have caused the sinking. This turned out not to be the case, but perhaps that wasn’t just idle speculation. Maybe submarines do have a reputation for dangerous pissing about, er, I mean dubious seamanship.
 
okapi69 said:
I’ve often had a reading of about 4 metres for several or many minutes at a time when I was expecting 50 metres plus – I’ve always assumed it was marine mammals, fish, seaweed or a sounder glitch.
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On ocean crossings once off the continental shelf my sounder flashes the last recorded depth. Occasionally that changes to something very shallow but the readings are momentary. A steady reading varying by less than a metre over a period of an hour or more certainly isn't fish. Any natural phenomenon that gave a reduced reading would be transient.

It has to be either a technical error or a sub.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way of communicating with them. Maybe in a steel boat one could tap out a message in morse on the hull. Something along the lines of '****** off'.
 
They might talk back yer-know.

snowleopard said:
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way of communicating with them. Maybe in a steel boat one could tap out a message in morse on the hull. Something along the lines of '****** off'.
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My initial guess/thoughts.
The signal strength would have to be considerable (+ lots ish of power) with the TX frequency being within the range of the human ear (and for a best guess somewhere in the middle).
All this with an obvious TX/RX function/option. ;)

Also a basic command of English, French, German and Dutch would help. Russian might also be helpful but it’s a hard one to learn…. so I’ve heard.
 
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