GGR 22

[Buck Turgidson]

This is why I have no interest in this race. It's a folly that will kill someone whist proving nothing.

 

[capnsensible]

This is why I have no interest in this race. It's a folly that will kill someone whist proving nothing.

I am. I think it's an awesome adventure undertaken, eyes wide open, by people of great fortitude.

Plus whilst sat in boozer watching football, we saw two of them go by.

Fair winds to them.

 

[Blueboatman]

Love the Corinthian race spirit
Hate to read about a ship ashore
Particularly when without the media stop he would have been prudently offshore -that sucks

 

[savageseadog]

Doing that race without GPS is idiotic and proves nothing other than it's dangerous to do so.
What weather info do they have? I guess that SW radio and weatherfax might be allowed as they are quite old tech.

 

[capnsensible]

Doing that race without GPS is idiotic and proves nothing other than it's dangerous to do so.
What weather info do they have? I guess that SW radio and weatherfax might be allowed as they are quite old tech.

So you can't do astro then.

 

[Blueboatman]

So you can't do astro then.

The thing that would always worry me slightly as a tired singlehander pushing a heavily laden boat in a race with a compulsory inshore drop point , on unfamiliar rocky shoreline possibly with current ( long shore drift ??) , swell and a dying breeze and penalties for starting the engine if you felt you were too close to the bottom is , well … what could possibly go wrong eh?
Poor bxgger, rotten end to all that work

 

[capnsensible]

Good job it's voluntary...

 

[capnsensible]

Feel sad for the chap who ran aground......quite near a big lighthouse.

 

[dunedin]

This is why I have no interest in this race. It's a folly that will kill someone whist proving nothing.

Yes these deviations close to shore are even more bizarre than the rest of the bizarre race rules. Unseamanlike, and have no precedent or link with the original race.
The one at Cape Town has been reported as particularly risky, as for ing boats to go into an area that most boats seek to avoid

 

[capnsensible]

Rules written by sailors with vastly more experience at sea than probably nearly everyone on here.

I think it's great that people are prepared to push the boundaries of human endeavor.

Voluntarily.

 

[Blueboatman]

Yer but
Don’t care how experienced the rule writers are , rocks is rocks.
Tiredness kills . Which is why I -I-would never /am not man enough/blah blah have no intention to race around the world sailing solo and sail inshore close to rocks just because ..

Didn’t Moutessier use a slingshot to deliver his cans of film to passing commercial vessels ?

 

[savageseadog]

Rules written by sailors with vastly more experience at sea than probably nearly everyone on here.

I think it's great that people are prepared to push the boundaries of human endeavor.

Voluntarily.

"Rules written by sailors with vastly more experience at sea than probably nearly everyone on here."

Given their "experience" one might have expected them to have thought better of applying such rules to sailors with less experience and under perhaps unforseen pressures.
Nothing will persuade me that not using GPS is anything other than barmy. I hadn't realised that this was anything other than an offshore ocean race.
Should they be limited to cotton sails and hemp rope as well? Perhaps they should be forced to trail drogues to slow them down?

 

[capnsensible]

Entrants must show prior ocean sailing experience of at least 8,000 miles and another 2000 miles solo, in any boat, as well as an additional 2000 miles solo in their GGR boat.

Hardly inexperienced......

Still, whilst we sit here flapping our gums, they are out there doing the challenge.

 

[capnsensible]

Perhaps those of us who learnt our navigational skills prior to GPS have a different view. Certainly some merchant navy guys on here used to navigate large vessels without it.

It's great that GPS has enabled many more people to go to sea with the minimum idea. But to claim you can't do without it is way off track.

 

[savageseadog]

Entrants must show prior ocean sailing experience of at least 8,000 miles and another 2000 miles solo, in any boat, as well as an additional 2000 miles solo in their GGR boat.

Hardly inexperienced......

Still, whilst we sit here flapping our gums, they are out there doing the challenge.

Except one, for the time being.

Inexperienced might be the wrong word. Let's face it a sailor like Robin KJ is exceptional. The sailors in the race might aspire to his achievements but there must surely be a spectrum of the level of toughness and competence that they will have.

 

[savageseadog]

Perhaps those of us who learnt our navigational skills prior to GPS have a different view. Certainly some merchant navy guys on here used to navigate large vessels without it.

It's great that GPS has enabled many more people to go to sea with the minimum idea. But to claim you can't do without it is way off track.

There's one man who couldn't

I'm not saying it's not possible. I just don't see that astro-nav only adds anything worthwhile to the race. So, skippers can navigate round the World with a sextant, it proves absolutely nothing, zero. The skippers will of course need to have astro-nav as a backup. The race itself, handling a yacht through all weathers is challenge enough.

 

[capnsensible]

There's one man who couldn't

I'm not saying it's not possible. I just don't see that astro-nav only adds anything worthwhile to the race. So, skippers can navigate round the World with a sextant, it proves absolutely nothing, zero. The skippers will of course need to have astro-nav as a backup. The race itself, handling a yacht through all weathers is challenge enough.

Proves that you don't have to use GPS, actually.

As to why a competitor ran aground near a big lighthouse, none of us know. But it sure as anything it had nothing to do with a sextant....

 

[savageseadog]

Proves that you don't have to use GPS, actually.

As to why a competitor ran aground near a big lighthouse, none of us know. But it sure as anything it had nothing to do with a sextant....

No. It had something to do with the rocks he went aground on.

So please tell me what astro-nav only adds to the race?

 

[capnsensible]

No. It had something to do with the rocks he went aground on.

So please tell me what astro-nav only adds to the race?

The use of a sextant is a navigational skill. Yup, a skill. Non dependency on electronic navaids. You could try it......

I must say though I do like an echo sounder in shoal waters. But I can also navigate with a chart and a handbasin compass.

I'm sure we will eventually discover why the skipper ran aground. However using a clearance bearing off the light would have helped.

 

[savageseadog]

The use of a sextant is a navigational skill. Yup, a skill. Non dependency on electronic navaids. You could try it......

I must say though I do like an echo sounder in shoal waters. But I can also navigate with a chart and a handbasin compass.

I'm sure we will eventually discover why the skipper ran aground. However using a clearance bearing off the light would have helped.

I asked, "what does astro-nav only add to the race?"
It might be "a skill" but a very minor one in the context of the race. All it does is give the skipper a position, something that modern equipment does far more quickly and accurately.