Federwolke found by coastguards

[Babylon]

Good news.

From the OceanRaceTrack Jester Azores Challenge website:

Federwolke found by coastguards
Sun 10 Jun 2012 08:55

Dear Ewen,
I have just had a call from the coastguard that they have found my boat drifting and will be taking her to Salcombe so hopefully I will be able to go and pick her up,
best regards,
Peter

Dear Peter,
Very good news.
Let me know how you get on.
Good luck,
Ewen

 

[LASSALLE]

Good new

Hello;
This is a good new but the first, you are in very goog health. this is better for you, your family and sailing again.
I am sorry I do not remember you in Plymouth.
JJ

 

[evantica]

glad for you, great news!

 

[Babylon]

Sorry - I am confused. if the yacht was found floating then obviously it was seaworthy enough to survive the gale? So why was the sailor "rescued" off it? Why did he not stay with the boat?
Or am I missing something here?

From the Jester Azores Challenge page on OceanRaceTrack, posted Sat 9th June:


Dear Ewen,
As you are no doubt aware I turned back and then was rescued from my boat Federwolke in the English Channel. To give you some background I spent 6 days battling with calms and headwinds. At one point I spent a night, the following day and most of the next night tacking back and forwards south of the Lizard into a south westerly 5-7, without making any headway. Dawn on day 6 found me 120 miles west of Ushant again marking time in the face of south westerly winds. The forecast that mornng was for force 9 from the south west so I decided to head back to the Channel Islands or St. Malo. At first all was well but that night conditions deteriorated to the worst I had seen so far, with large waves slamming into the boat, but she was holding up well so I pressed on hoping to get into shelter.I heard the 0520 shipping forecast which gave south 6 to 8 becoming south west 7 to 9 occasionally 10. During the morning conditions worsened and I could no longer hold a course so I lashed the tiller and dropped the sails and decided to sit it out. Conditions continued to worsen and I was knocked flat so I decided to run before the waves under bare poles but I was knocked flat again. The wind was increasing all the time making a roaring noise. It was difficult to see to windward as the spray was being driven off the the top of the waves. Some of the waves were bright green at the top where I presume air was mixed with the water. The tops of the waves were breaking and sometimes a cross sea developed with waves coming at 90 degrees.I was soaking wet under my oilskins and loosing heat, I could not leave the tiller as I believed the boat would have been rolled. I had my liferaft but I wasn't sure I could successfully launch it in those conditions, and it was getting worse so I called for help. The coastguard said afterwards that the winds were sustained 45 knots force 9. I know the Challenge ended badly for me which is a shame as right up to the end I was enjoying myself and I was really happy with my boat and the modifications I had made.
Best regards,
Peter Evans

Dear Peter,
What rotten luck and thank you so much for your honest and frank account - much in the Jester spirit. But above all thank goodness you are safe.
I am copying this to Guy and Eric and, if you don't mind, will add it in to tonight's Sitrep. I've also copied this to the wider Jester family.
We are, of course, sorry, too, for the loss of Federwolke - what a bugger. Do you have the lat and long (roughly!)?
I do hope we see you again. Please keep in touch.
Very best wishes from us all in the Jester Family.
Ewen

 

[Ceirwan]

Just wondering, did the skipper try to apply any storm tactics as have been discussed on here (and many other forums) as near essential for voyaging offshore?

Trailing warps, series drogue or conventional, heaving to, para-anchor? I don't know if they are simply not in the description of because no one has asked.
It sounds like he tried lying ahull and when that failed running before it but in my mind at least if he did not have some backup plan for bad weather than he left the shore a little bit unprepared.

I'm aware this opinion might be controversial and wrong as I don't know all the facts, but going on the description above it appears apart from running off no storm tactics were used, not even basic ones that could be improvised at the time such as trailing warps or a sail etc.

Glad he's safe obviously.

 

[rakaaw]

A bit unecessary Ceirwan. In my opinion.

 

[Reverend Ludd]

Sorry - I am confused. if the yacht was found floating then obviously it was seaworthy enough to survive the gale? So why was the sailor "rescued" off it? Why did he not stay with the boat?
Or am I missing something here?

Yes I think you are missing the fear, cold & exhaustion factors.

Each person must decide for themselves when they have had enough.

 

[Babylon]

Exactly. These days when we have "had enough" we can just press a button and be rescued. This doesn't sit well with me personally, but then who cares what I think.

Re-reading the skipper's own words above, he was clearly in 'distress' and his assessment was that he was in 'grave and imminent danger' -

Conditions continued to worsen and I was knocked flat so I decided to run before the waves under bare poles but I was knocked flat again. The wind was increasing all the time making a roaring noise. It was difficult to see to windward as the spray was being driven off the the top of the waves. Some of the waves were bright green at the top where I presume air was mixed with the water. The tops of the waves were breaking and sometimes a cross sea developed with waves coming at 90 degrees.I was soaking wet under my oilskins and loosing heat, I could not leave the tiller as I believed the boat would have been rolled.

Were the 1979 Fastnet or the Sydney-Hobart crews - younger and stronger in the main, and not singlehanding - wrong to have called for help?

We don't know what drogue etc equipment he carried, but some factors need to be borne in mind: he didn't have a lot of sea-room when conditions deteriorated further, having failed to have previously made any progress at all to windward, and had breaking cross-seas. He was presumably also suffering from a good degree of exhaustion and was in real danger of becoming hyperthermic.

His decision in these circumstances to 'press the button' was, in my opinion, the correct one.

 

[andlauer]

Safety at sea versus in an armchair

Bonjour
I've worked at aircraft security. The general statement is "a good landing is a landing you walk away from".
No one will never know if the decision was the right, the best.... What we know is that the decision was not bad. In certain situations, it's already a lot.

As you refer to Roger's publications; may I draw your attention on an interesting paragraph in "Voyage of a simple sailor"; "Capsize" p79 § starting by " It seems inconceibable,...."

In it you have this sentence : "you'd have to have been there to understand why."

Eric

 

[helixkimara]

Bonjour
I've worked at aircraft security. The general statement is "a good landing is a landing you walk away from".
No one will never know if the decision was the right, the best.... What we know is that the decision was not bad. In certain situations, it's already a lot.

As you refer to Roger's publications; may I draw your attention on an interesting paragraph in "Voyage of a simple sailor"; "Capsize" p79 § starting by " It seems inconceibable,...."

In it you have this sentence : "you'd have to have been there to understand why."

Eric

Exactly Eric,

Hopefully to assist you in your repeated question “She31” “If the boat didn’t sink, why was the sailor rescued”.

I believe that this fellow adventurous sailor totally believed that his yacht would be smashed or sink in those worsening horrendous sea’s and that he WOULD loose his life. It seems that you would have him sitting on the bottom of the sea before setting off his rescue devise.

I bet he wished he had “hindsight” to see his yacht actually survived. But he didn’t and made the decision to live. I support him.

God ! What would be the point of a rescue devise if the criticism for using it was worse than the dilemma you were in.

 

[co256]

safety at sea versus armchair

""In it you have this sentence : "you'd have to have been there to understand why."

Eric""

she31,

It is perfectly reasonable to ask questions, as a human being it is positively expected.

Most, if not all, have opinion but how many have opinion based on experience?

Knowledge is experiential, to know we have to experience and hence the quote above.

One day perhaps you will have your own experiential knowledge of such an event?! But even then it will be yours and yours alone, not that of Peter Evans in Federwolke or anyone else's.

Good luck,

Guy.

 

[andlauer]

Give time to time

"It is perfectly reasonable to ask questions, as a human being it is positively expected.
Most, if not all, have opinion but how many have opinion based on experience?"

To ask for rescue is something as chocking as getting divorced or being fire abruptly from your work or being the only survival of a plane crash.... "une déroute"

It is painful and a psychological disaster.

Just wait and give time to time to let the skipper rebuild himself until he will be in the capacity to absorbs facts and events and be in a situation where he'll be in a spirit to sheer with us his experience.

Any early question, legitimate in terms of experience and feedback, could only be feel as sterile aggression or acid poured on wounds.

I'm certain that it's not what you wanted to do.
Eric

 

[Reverend Ludd]

Exactly. These days when we have "had enough" we can just press a button and be rescued. This doesn't sit well with me personally, but then who cares what I think.
I think Roger Taylor, with thousands of ocean miles under his keels, writes exceedingly well about this issue in various articles on his website and in his books. Food for thought anyway.

What is the alternative I wonder ?

Call the rescue services and hope that your description of the problem lines up with government policy before a decision can be made that you "qualify for rescue"

No, I think it has to be each one of us decide when we want rescuing and hope that the rescue services are able to get you out of trouble.

 

[Reverend Ludd]

OK fair cop.

No I wasn't there - obviously. JAC is an event for singlehanders, so ergo, only singlehanders will ever experience storms as a single-hander if they are sailing single-handed.

Yes, the gentleman has a right to give his side of the story if and when he feels like it.

But I will ask another question if I am allowed: When you are rescued from your vessel, should you not sink it first so that it is not a floating around being a potential collision hazard to other sailors? Is it right that his floating boat could potentially hole another boat?

Is that a fair question?

That is both fair and interesting.

I guess it would depend on the way you are rescued.
From what I have seen on video and read some of these rescues are a matter of life and death for the rescuers too, the idea that they might spare a few seconds for you to open a bunch of seacocks is unlikely.
Insurance companies might not be too pleased the someone sank what may (may) end up salvageable.

 

[Gunfleet]

That is both fair and interesting.
Insurance companies might not be too pleased the someone sank what may (may) end up salvageable.

I don't suppose a single handed off shore sailor had insurance.

 

[Medusa25]

I suppose if it got flattened twice the

 

[Medusa25]

I suppose if it got flattened twice the coastguard would be right in saying it was not really up to the weather it was in.

 

[Ceirwan]

Just got back to read the responses!

Obviously my question wasn't intended to describe the Skipper as irresponsible, I simply wanted to know what/if any tactics had been applied.

Fortunately I've never had to use stormtactics myself as every time I've been out in the bad stuff we've carried on sailing F8-9 in sheltered waters and 7 gusting at sea. So I can't comment on the efficacy of trailing warps / sails / drogues etc.

However I have read many accounts of such conditions so on my boat even though I've never had to 'deploy' them my plan of action would be to initially run with bare poles, deploying my drogue on a bridle as required, I also have some long warps accessible that I could easily rig.

I know that deploying them would not be easy but there are many accounts of single handed sailors in worse conditions that have managed. I am another person who believes in complete self sufficiency at sea, but I would always call for help if I genuinely believed it was my only avenue for survival.

The only reason I asked the question was because it's important to learn from these reports and alter our own methods accordingly .

 

[Independence]

In my experience none of the Jester boats are standard when compared to the original design and it is therefore unfair to initiallly assume they are not sea worthy.

Most skippers go to considerable efforts to strenghthen and enhance the sea keeping qualities of their vessels.

 

[Gargleblaster]

Personally I think someone abandoning their boat like this reflects badly on all Jester Challengers.

If I read the situation correctly he started with 120 Nm of sea room which should give him easily enough room for the gale/storm to pass.

Obviously the boat was seaworthy as it was recovered off Salcombe.

Blondie Hasler believed that in the OSTAR 1960 that competitors should not carry radios as it reduces their ability to call for help and risk the rescue services. I think his comment was that competitors 'should die like gentlemen.'