Collision yacht's solo skipper 'foolish': MAIB

[Chrusty1]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

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do you really expect a couple of million quids worth of beam trawler to be titting about, because some pleasure sailor don't know what he was doing???

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Yes - if somebody's life was at risk.

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Well I sincerely hope it isn't your life that you put at risk, by making some daft decision. I even more sincerely hope that you don't cost somebody else their life, because of your attitude.

That said, I wish you well.

 

[Pye_End]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

I agree with your comments - as a yachtie the risk is always going to be with you as plastic boats will come off worse than steel giants. Having said that, the behaviour of ships using say the channel are generally much easier to cope with due to their relative consistancy in course and speed - unlike a fishing boat. You even find ships do give way - AIS show ship heading changes often well before you would expect. As a 'Jester' in coatal waters fishing boats are a problem due to their eractic behaviour - and even when they do not have gear down they often seem in a world of their own.

AIS is a benefit, but not everybody is transmitting. It is very useful for picking out shipping - doing the speeds they do and the size they are they are the risky are they creep up on you so fast. However, if you are yourself sailing at 10 knots I cannot see how anything other than radar will allow you to even cat nap. You will have sailed into your horizon in under 15 minutes, so it is not possible to keep a watch at this speed. You are then into the realms of things staying out of your way, or just plain riding your luck.

Like so many on this particular forum I have done several days/nights out singlehanded, and at the end of the second night saw a fishing boat heading slowly away from me, some distance away (1 to 2 miles probably). I was doing between 3 and 3.5 knots in a light breeze and perfect conditions. Head down for 15 minutes; got up and found fishing boat heading towards me about 200 yards away. It is a bit of a wake up call when this happens. Was it Chichester who said that it was the small mistakes that make you reflect on keeping the bigger mistakes from being made (or something like that).

Being in the dark doesn't help as it is difficult to judge how far off a set of lights you are.

I do not know about other people's sleeping experiences, but I found that napping make you feel fresh, as though you have had a good night's sleep, but are a couple of days of it you realise that your quality of thought (and even things like balance) are not as good as you think at the time.

Would be interesting to hear what other yachties do about watchkeeping when looking at speeds in excess of a MAB.

 

[Pye_End]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

So according to you:

Small boats give way to big boats. If small boat gets it wrong, then it is perfectly acceptable for big boat to collide with small boat, even if he can avoid the collision, because he is bigger and more expensive.

My post - yacht got it wrong - bigger boat, if he had been on the ball should have avoided a collision, so must take at least some blame.

And you say that I have a poor attitude to safety /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

You aren't GC1 by any chance?

 

[Chrusty1]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

No, all that is according to you.

Cheerio.

 

[PacketRat]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

So, Captain Birdseye is out there with his crew skidding around a heaving steel deck covered in slimy fish entrails and water, trying to operate heavy machinery and avoid falling overboard or having their limbs torn off by malevolent coils of rope, all in the honourable pursuit of earning a living, paying taxes and putting kippers in the Waitrose cabinets.
Now along comes the idle rich at high speed on autopilot having gone below to watch the footie - or whatever. There's a collision and yottie is shouting the odds about some antiquated rules that date back to the days when the sailing ship was king and fishermen paddled around in coracles.
It's a real puzzler, isn't it?

 

[PacketRat]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

Oh Pye End
Just a thought.
Some of the close encounters, especially the direct head on collision course variety, are down to concern and curiosity. I've certainly had fishing boats check me out when it seemed to them there was no one on board. On a coastal passage in a dinghy I once had a small helicopter make a considerable detour to fly directly overhead. Again in a dinghy, I've watched a ship pass by, make a huge full circle round me and pull up alongside to ask if I was OK. It was colossal. They even offered me a tow to the next harbour! I was convinced the partially submerged propeller was going to suck me in and mince me to pieces as they set off again. It's very nice of them, but it scares the living daylights out of me. That's a large part of the reason why I'm going for the AIS, GMDSS, CG66, name on the boat in the largest possible letters and so on. It's to try and avoid attention rather than gain it.
And thanks for relating your experiences with AIS. It's on my shopping list, and any practical information will be very valuable in making the most of it.
/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Robin.

 

[BlackPig]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

The only way you can solo sail and keep within the regs would be to do what Manray did in Tinkerbelle. Each night he put out the sea anchor and lit his anchor lamp. (until he went a bit bonkers,) and went to sleep.

Or is there another way
Graham

 

[Chrusty1]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

Well yes there is....Chichester himself used to hoist a couple of reds, to signal vessel not under command when he wanted to get his head down at night. Now I know there are those that will want to argue the toss about that,(colregs, blah-blah-blah), but it seems to me a common sense thing to do.

 

[Black Sheep]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

I beg to differ.

Firstly, I don't think being at anchor absolves you of responsibility for maintaining a proper look-out as per Rule 5. Certainly lying to a sea-anchor would not.

Secondly, as I've mentioned in another forum somewhere, I'm not convinced that extended singlehanding necessarily puts you in breach of colregs. Rule 5 talks about a "proper lookout". What does that actually mean? Does it mean that at every instant, someone's eyes are glued to the horizon? If so, we've all broken that rule every time we've looked at the chart or a wristwatch. Clearly, 8 hours sleep while crossing shipping lanes is not on, but between the two extremes, there is a degree of proportionality. Mid-ocean, a full horizon scan every 15 minutes, with an appropriate guard zone set on a decent radar sounds like a "proper lookout" in the sense of "appropriate", or "fit for purpose".

ps- envy you your login. Black Sheep was taken, hence Mouton Noir

 

[Chrusty1]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

Depends which ocean, bobbing up and down every 15 minutes in the Southern Ocean would seem a bit over the top to me, at least as long as you were not so far south as to be in amongst the ice. I think you are right though, proportionality and common sense, would seem to be the sensible route to go?

 

[BlackPig]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

I did ask the instructor at the Day Skipper course this on he said NO! you can do that.

 

[damo]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

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bobbing up and down every 15 minutes in the Southern Ocean

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That's a helluva long swell /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Noddy]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

This discussion seems to be degenerating into a petty argument about rules.

This is the Jester forum and that sort of thing is against the ... is not really in the right spirit.

 

[Chrusty1]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

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bobbing up and down every 15 minutes in the Southern Ocean

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That's a helluva long swell /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

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/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Chrusty1]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

Twas ever thus /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Sybarite]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

COLREGS

Rule 2

Responsibility

(a) Nothing in these Rules shall exonerate any vessel, or the owner, master, or crew thereof, from the consequences of any neglect to comply with these Rules or of the neglect of any precaution which may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen, or by the special circumstances of the case. <span style="color:red"> </span> <span style="color:blue"> </span> <span style="color:yellow"> </span>

 

[AuntyRinum]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

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...I admit to having little experience of offshore sailing, but would like to think I might have been awake long enough to ensure I was clear of any shipping before a kip.....

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Anybody with any sense would have stayed awake, but after 4 days of sleep deprivation even the most normally sensible sailor can make stupid decisions.
Lack of sleep can be a killer. I used to single hand a lot and, in retrospect, made some pretty daft decisions after 48 hours of broken sleep pattern.

 

[Superflid]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

Almost got the windvane ready now, so it shouldn't be too long before I start my own list of tiredness-induced cockups!

"You cannot make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope that they panic and give in."

That's the funniest sig I've seen in a long while. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Chrusty1]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

"Almost got the windvane ready now, so it shouldn't be too long before I start my own list of tiredness-induced cockups!"

Be afraid folks....................Be VERY afraid........ /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif


/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Superflid]

Re: Collision yacht\'s solo skipper \'foolish\': MAIB

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