Stemar
Well-known member
Not my idea of fun either - even in a Snapdragon!
Not sure the dark trousers would matter too much - I reckon any untoward marks would get washed out quickly enough...
Knock down(?) off Scilly - yacht under tow in RNLI video
- Thread starter dankilb
- Start date
Not sure the dark trousers would matter too much - I reckon any untoward marks would get washed out quickly enough...
[178529]
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To be fair I think any yacht would be compromised by those seas.
Sharky34
Well-known member
What yacht was it?
grandpaboat
Member
Ah that makes more sense.
Bobc
Well-known member
It'll be interesting to find out what he was doing out there. Whether we went out into it or was on passage.
kalessin
Member
Comments on social media suggest he was at the end of a solo transatlantic passage and experienced several problems before finally calling the Mayday.
Bobc
Well-known member
If that turns out to be true, then I suggest he needs sectioning. Who in their right mind would cross the North Atlantic during the middle of storm season?
Mark-1
Well-known member
Someone who enjoys crossing the North Atlantic in storm season? Or someone who hates it but wants to challenge himself?
NotBirdseye
Well-known member
Unless you're commanding a Submarine... (or... soon to be submarine...) I'd wager it's someone with a deathwish.
[178529]
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I think twenty years ago it could be excused as weather forecasting didn't exist when on passage and they could maybe 'take a chance' on the weather at the other end.
However I would have thought that even half way across the weather reports would have been showing the jetstream where it was and horrific low after horrific low just roaring in. If the person had any sense you would have thought they would have headed south for shelter before coming near biscay and the western approaches?
NotBirdseye
Well-known member
Could they have anticipated it would have blown through before they got there?
[178529]
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I've never sailed an ocean crossing so am saying this from the comfort of my sofa. But I know the forecasting apps that are now out there available across the oceans. I would have thought that it wouldn't be sensible to set off at this time of year without forecasting ability. Given that the forecasters were forecasting these succession of storms and high winds for a long period I would have thought it sensible to handbrake turn and hit the beaches of gran canaria for a few weeks
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
Basically, weather systems move faster than cruising yachts, and aren't predictable sufficiently far ahead for cruising yachts to dodge them on a transatlantic passage. You can make reasonable guesses, but sooner or later you'll get it wrong. And if you, for whatever reason, have a commitment to reach a particular country and/or port, then shifting your route south by hundreds of miles might not be a good choice. In this case the person concerned came out on the wrong end of the odds, but I wouldn't suggest that he or she did anything that any other long-distance cruiser wouldn't, except, perhaps, for setting out so late in the season.
[178529]
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How common is it that Transatlantic passages are made at this time of year or later? I know when I'm sitting on the sofa with a beer watching the weather forecast I often think 'i hope no-one is out there in a sailing boat' when a big storm is forecast
Sandy
Well-known member
This is 2020, the year of the COVID, all sorts of people have had to take some difficult decisions about where they need to be.
A pal was in Cuba as things started to lock down, to quote her "things were getting uncomfortable", my interpretation "you try buying loo roll as strangers in a foreign land the UK was bad enough". They took the decision to return to the UK. Arrived in the Azores where some fuel, food and water was delivered to the pontoon and then they were politely told to move on. This was before all the European boats streamed back east.
dom
Well-known member
FWIW quite a lot of boats sail late season and modern weather routing coupled with fast boats heading downwind can mostly keep the vessels away from the worst of it. They can also be quite fun!
The vessel in question of course wasn't a fast boat and didn't really look up to an off-season ocean jaunt - at least to me it didn't.
BTW, is there any hard evidence that it was completing an ocean crossing? If so, I'm not quite sure how he/she got that far and didn't know to stay well clear of the Isles of Scilly in gale force conditions given the lurid warnings in just about every written and electronic source one can think of!!
The vessel in question of course wasn't a fast boat and didn't really look up to an off-season ocean jaunt - at least to me it didn't.
BTW, is there any hard evidence that it was completing an ocean crossing? If so, I'm not quite sure how he/she got that far and didn't know to stay well clear of the Isles of Scilly in gale force conditions given the lurid warnings in just about every written and electronic source one can think of!!
Sharky34
Well-known member
Were they not allowed to revictual?