Exciting times off Cowes today

Its sort of heartening to read so many experienced sailors clipping or having near misses with buoys, I don't feel as guilty now.

Going up the Needles channel on the flood and on a broad reach I had a friend on the helm. He was reasonably experienced (in open sea) and knew enough to keep the Bridge cardinal on the starboard side. However, I wasn't really paying attention and he was getting quite close to the cardinal as he didn't appreciate how much leeway we had.

All would have been comfortable if it wasn't for a 40'+ mobo that came flying out of Alum bay and right across our bows, and it was very close with the crew having a laugh at our reaction. We stalled when the wash hit us and what would have been a relatively comfortable pass became squeaky-bum time.

I certainly identified a few lessons there.
 
Stemar said:
Also wondering if "hole near the bow" is an assumption because she went down by the bow. It isn't hard to imagine a solid hit on the keel causing a major leak, especially after a few unreported groundings, then the buoy's chain carrying on to take the rudder out. It must have been quite an impact to remove the rudder completely, though.
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I too thought it unlikely that a hole in the bow big enough to have flooded her that badly could have been stopped as it would be under 2-3m of water and would therefore cause the boat to sink in pretty short order. With a hole in the bow how could it have stayed afloat bow-down like that? It would continue to flood and sink.
On the other hand if the impact had torn the rudder and post out of the hull you'd have a leak bad enough to flood the hull and as seen to sink the bow and then leave the hole above the waterline unable to flood any more.
 
birdseye said:
I would hope and expect that it would. A friend of mine sailing here in the Bristol channel ( conditions a bit more serious than the Solent :encouragement: ) made a habit of hitting the channel markers we sail around. Must have done it half a dozen times both in his own boat and in others, and the only time he did any serious damage was when reverse failed, he hit the lock gates and the mast came down. But they were older British boats built rather more strong than the modern BenJenBAv AWB.
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A few of my Bristol Channel associates have hit buoys. Usually when racing and trying to round the mark but there have been other reasons. 4knot cross tides can catch one out and my Navigator gets nervous if I am too close when using buoys as waypoints. Mostly its just been nasty paint scrape on boat and presumably gel coat remains on the buoy but one fellow club member did have to re-glass-fibre the bows. None were sunk
 
Looking at the pic of the buoy, there are some nasty lifting eyes. Fall off a wave onto one of them and you'll have a nice hole punched through, then the weight of the boat could easily rip out a big enough lump to defeat a big pump. It isn't a matter of not being sufficiently strongly built, that would be enough to hole most boats if you get an unlucky impact. Once the bow fills with water, tipping bow down like that is what you'd expect, and the rest is inevitable.

Still a bit puzzled as to how you hole the bow then take the rudder off without the keel getting in the way.
 
dom said:
Odd, Babylon's pic in post #10 clearly shoes two !!
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Agreed, no doubt about the identity, maybe there's another one sunk, you can see in the pic there's only one set on this one !
Looking closer the mast top has maybe broken off as the headsail appears to finish at the top of the mast and the F40 is a fractional rig, otherwise the rig doesn't look tall enough for a First40, almost looks like two different boats
The recovery vessel is quite small, It looks like they're lifting it to coachroof level then possibly creeping around to CYH to get it out.
Nothing further has happened in the last half hour
 
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Meanwhile, at the eastern end of the Solent (a few miles south of Southsea seafront).... what is going on there I wonder. RNLI been on station there for maybe 12 hours or more. A fishing boat milling about next to it, nets stuck, caught an old bomb, anchored offshore with an old bomb in nets maybe, aground or half sunk maybe. Maybe hit the submarine barrier and then stopped nearby, not sure. Looks very puzzling on AIS. What ever it is I hope it is not a MOB or something similar/serious.
 
Channel Sailor said:
Meanwhile, at the eastern end of the Solent (a few miles south of Southsea seafront).... what is going on there I wonder. RNLI been on station there for maybe 12 hours or more. A fishing boat milling about next to it, nets stuck, caught an old bomb, anchored offshore with an old bomb in nets maybe, aground or half sunk maybe. Maybe hit the submarine barrier and then stopped nearby, not sure. Looks very puzzling on AIS. What ever it is I hope it is not a MOB or something similar/serious.
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https://www.countypress.co.uk/news/...ier-off-isle-wight----lifeboats-called-scene/
 
Lightwave395 said:
Back in the West, (what an exciting place the Solent is) the flotation crew appear to have abandoned, possibly due to the tide and it still doesn't look like a Sunsail 40, puzzling indeed
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I'd guess that it's not the boom in your first picture (of today's operation), and that the other spreaders haven't yet made an appearance.
 
Lightwave395 said:
Thanks for that, most helpful, must have missed that in my first post
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Forumites with a long memory might recall that once upon a time I used to drive Sunsail boats. Perhaps I still know people who work there.... Who knows....

Perhaps on that basis it might be worth considering what I have, and have not, corrected on this thread.
 
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