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

capnsensible said:
Naval Ships do not have fun putting the wind up yachtties.
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The RAF Tornados do though! :D

We had one use us as a turning mark and angled their turn around our mast while sailing from Wick to Lossiemouth.

As for Subs, I'd like to think they might be a bit cleverer than to let me spot them. After all I don't have any sub hunting equipment onboard, and if I can spot one, then I think the bloke in charge should be seeking another vocation in life, and maybe they aren't cut out to be in charge of a supposedly untraceable weapon of war
 
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That would be the little world that included 17 years in the Submarine Service, including some periscope watchkeeping, then?

There is an ex Submarine Captain, also a Yachtsman I know at the RNSA office at Haslar Marina. I am sure he would be happy to explain.

Genuine offer, not a word war!
 
I have decided that submarines clearly need a bit of cummupence following this thread, and am developing a simple rack system for the back of the boat which I will then employ to roll a string of improvised depth charges, made from empty fray bentos tins filled with bangers, off the stern every time that I sense something dodgy going on below my keel.

That should do the trick.
 
kingfisher said:
Ehm, they don't actually listen with their ears to their hulls. The most expensive part of the sub is the nose cone, which hosts the listening devices (basically a microphone, but of a quality you can't afford, even if you could buy it).
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And don't forget the towed array.

Commenting on other posts regarding 'the periscope', the new class of subs currently being built use video camera instead of a periscope. It was mentioned on the recent BBC programme, 'How to build a nuclear sub'.
 
capnsensible said:
That would be the little world that included 17 years in the Submarine Service, including some periscope watchkeeping, then?

There is an ex Submarine Captain, also a Yachtsman I know at the RNSA office at Haslar Marina. I am sure he would be happy to explain.

Genuine offer, not a word war!
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So ... the Captain and R-Ad that I know where talking out of their rear ends when they tell tails of using non-military craft to 'hide' behind ...

I'm not suggesting it is common practice - it's never happened to me...
 
Bizarrely that did not put them off when we had our weird sub encounter...

going to Fowey from Plymouth, (on a Thursday BTW)... and we were well out in open water... when suddenly the depth went to less than 10 meters.... which kinda freaked me out... so I did a 90 degree turn left..... 5 minutes later... same thing again... and again did a hard turn... and again 5 minutes later back.... so I ignored it.. but it was a bit freaky. Never happened since.
 
photodog said:
Bizarrely that did not put them off when we had our weird sub encounter...

going to Fowey from Plymouth, (on a Thursday BTW)... and we were well out in open water... when suddenly the depth went to less than 10 meters.... which kinda freaked me out... so I did a 90 degree turn left..... 5 minutes later... same thing again... and again did a hard turn... and again 5 minutes later back.... so I ignored it.. but it was a bit freaky. Never happened since.
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You should have played "Yellow Submarine" very loud on the cockpit stereo:D
 
Yellow Submarine

snooks said:
You should have played "Yellow Submarine" very loud on the cockpit stereo:D
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Now that isn't as daft an idea as you might think, except that instead of a cockpit speaker it is better to make some noise in the bilge. When sailing in an area I know to be activated for dived submarine operations, I put a CD player with some music on in the bilge.

Does it work? Of course it does!!! I've never been hit by a submarine, and have never seen a periscope!

Correction - I HAVE seen a periscope, if you count looking through one while on patrol - but that is another story!
 
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Our only encounter with a sub was on my first channel crossing. In the days of dead reckoning and DF, we spotted what looked to be rocks in the dawn sunlight where Alderney was supposed to be. Altering course to identify them from close by, we were greeted by a French submariner on the VHF demanding we should bear away immediately and identify ourselves. His main concern was that we weren't flying a French courtesy flag (it had been a long night and to be honest we didn't really know we were anywhere near France). He wasn't helpful when we asked him which way to Alderney.
 
bluemoongaffer said:
Our only encounter with a sub was on my first channel crossing. In the days of dead reckoning and DF, we spotted what looked to be rocks in the dawn sunlight where Alderney was supposed to be. Altering course to identify them from close by, we were greeted by a French submariner on the VHF demanding we should bear away immediately and identify ourselves. His main concern was that we weren't flying a French courtesy flag (it had been a long night and to be honest we didn't really know we were anywhere near France). He wasn't helpful when we asked him which way to Alderney.
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You should have asked him what the payload of the African swallow was.
 
A1Sailor said:
Now that isn't as daft an idea as you might think, except that instead of a cockpit speaker it is better to make some noise in the bilge. When sailing in an area I know to be activated for dived submarine operations, I put a CD player with some music on in the bilge.
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At the back of our Sadler 32 is a transom storage area, our cockpit speakers go into that, it acts as a bass box and goes under the cockpit next to the hull.

It was always my plan if the depth dropped to 20 metres while sailing around Scotland to play the Beatles, might have given someone a chuckle under the waves :D
 
Right, this ‘submarine showing up on our depth sounders’ thing. I thought most subs were coated with anti sonar stuf. Bit daft if it doesn’t stop them showing up on yachty equipment. Thinking about it, if the sonar waves are absorbed, then the display should show error or the last recorded depth, not the distance to the sub. Captinsensable, explanation?
 
capnsensible said:
Naval Ships do not have fun putting the wind up yachtties.
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If you care to dig through the archives on this forum you will read of a frigate diverting to approach a yacht in the Solent, outside the main channel and close enough for the crew of the yacht to see the officers on the bridge thought it was a great joke. There were questions about whether to report it to the port admiral.

There's a world of difference between what should happen and what really does happen.

And did you hear of the instructor at Dartmouth who taught a generation of young officers that in a TSS they had RoW over vessels crossing?
 
I think that the world of difference is between what is perceived and what really does happen....

I have not heard the 'rumour' about Dartmouth. But I have heard, on several occassions, Watchkeeping Officers getting an intense grilling about collision regulations by Sea Training Staff. They were very good!

Suspect that the echo sounder thing may be more of a temperature or salinity issue, see this on various sounders from time to time in areas clearly of no interest to dived submarine operations.

I will try to get some sort of real answer but don't hold your breath!! Especially when Escaping.
 
Had a response from an old shipmate, used to be a sonar technician. A yacht echo sounder could be detected on a particular sonar type, but it would have to be close and the sea state fairly calm.

Bit ambiguous, could be better resolved!
 
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