Missing yachtswoman in South west.

AntarcticPilot said:
Agree, but given the way the leads etc. are designed, it's hard to change.
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Without a sprayhood, you can take the tail of the halyard up to the mast with you.

However, the weather conditions as they seem to be understood on the forum don't seem to indicate that reefing would have been an issue.
 
Been "off air" for a couple of hours and just read last five pages.
My thoughts, having seen the wreckage, are a gas explosion. But I've no experience of such and wonder if the forumites can recognise any signs of explosion damage, charring etc.
The lady seems to have been a very "colourful" character, but to undertake such a journey in those waters needs either a lot of experience and guts, or sheer bloody-minded stupidity.
Whatever her reasons, it appears something catastrophic has befallen her. AND that she managed to round Lands End, in the dark. No mean feat for a solo-sailor.
Perhaps she's afloat somewhere and will be rescued.
 
Robert Wilson said:
Been "off air" for a couple of hours and just read last five pages.
My thoughts, having seen the wreckage, are a gas explosion. But I've no experience of such and wonder if the forumites can recognise any signs of explosion damage, charring etc.
The lady seems to have been a very "colourful" character, but to undertake such a journey in those waters needs either a lot of experience and guts, or sheer bloody-minded stupidity.
Whatever her reasons, it appears something catastrophic has befallen her. AND that she managed to round Lands End, in the dark. No mean feat for a solo-sailor.
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That is possibly the best lit coastal area in the West Country so the relevance of it being might time is perhaps tiredness or the ability to spot a floating object and I am sure the search aircraft will have spotted a stray container for instance.

Although ambitious her planned voyage doesn't seem exceptional or foolhardy to me.
 
TamarMike said:
That is possibly the best lit coastal area in the West Country so the relevance of it being might time is perhaps tiredness or the ability to spot a floating object and I am sure the search aircraft will have spotted a stray container for instance.

Although ambitious her planned voyage doesn't seem exceptional or foolhardy to me.
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My immediate thoughts when hearing the local news yesterday at 05-30, and the coastguard reports saying how she hadn't had much recent sailing experience, and had only just bought the boat a few days ago, and was sailing solo to Bideford, were that it was an ambitious solo voyage in a vessel in which she'd had no experience, and one that at the age of 65 I'd not want to make alone in the circumstances.

I doubt whether tiredness was a factor, it has been reported that she set off at around 18-00 on Saturday from Mousehole and the wreckage was found at Sennen which is a little over 12nm away. Assuming a cruising speed of say as little as 4kts she'd have reached Sennen area by about 21-00, so I really don't see how she would have been overly fatigued by then.

The inshore waters forecast for 06-00 on Sunday was North 3 or less, backing west 4 or 5 and the seastate slight or moderate, occasionally rough in far west. So I imagine there was a fair swell running, as there usually is down there, which could easily break up a boat if it was on the rocks. The chances of a gas explosion are pretty minimal, I can't recall a boat blowing up when at sea. Not impossible but unlikely. And being run down, and then for the wreckage to drift into Sennen, she'd have to have gone a reasonable way off to be in the shipping lanes, again not impossible but unlikely. However there are lots of offshore dangers around Lands End which she might have come to grief on, all near Sennen.

Of course, all assumptions which could be very wrong. The fact of the matter is that we will probably never know exactly what happened. A very sad loss.
 
franksingleton said:
I have not been through all the posts and this may have been discussed.

As she wnt into Mousehole, I assume that Seagair had bilge keels?

Was she tring to get into Sennen - another drying harbour?
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I think the information on the for sale site stated that "Seagair" has (had) a fin keel.
 
Land's End waters

TamarMike said:
That is possibly the best lit coastal area in the West Country so the relevance of it being might time is perhaps tiredness or the ability to spot a floating object and I am sure the search aircraft will have spotted a stray container for instance.

Although ambitious her planned voyage doesn't seem exceptional or foolhardy to me.
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Thanks for the view on those local waters, as I said earlier I'm not very familiar with them, particularly the navigable distance from Mousehole to Sennen.
As you say, not an exceptionally difficult or dangerous navigation, in fair conditions.

A subsequent thread seems to rule out an explosion, thankfully. But something has tragically befallen the lady.

However, having set off from Mousehole around 18:00 heading for "where"??, she would still have a solo passage up the north coast in the dark, after possibly a whole day awake in Mousehole.

I've just done a North Sea crossing (skipper +2 crew) standing notionally 4 hours on/ 4 hours off watches. We had generally good weather, but had to do a 21 hour spell, including helming for 3 "lively" hours. I managed ok, but was very tired the next day, even allowing for adrenalin. I am 64.
My point is the lady could have managed the solo voyage, but I still feel she was pushing her "envelope", and luck.

I hope she is found (alive) and we all hear what happened. Tragedies like this the sailing fraternity don't need.
 
franksingleton said:
I have not been through all the posts and this may have been discussed.

As she wnt into Mousehole, I assume that Seagair had bilge keels?

Was she tring to get into Sennen - another drying harbour?
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Surely a trip from Falmouth to Mousehole in an unfamiliar boat and a brisk Westerly would be a little tiring for a 65 year old. I was in the area, but relatively sheltered water in the bay at the time and it was trying for me. Then looking at 12 hours before you get near shelter at Padstow, or ?20 hours to Bideford, in the dark somewhere you've never been before?

Some of the debris is GRP, and it doesn't float, so can't have come far. I reckon she thought better of carrying on overnight, tried to go in Sennen, thinking it's a decent haven.

Edit: Newlyn Harbour office understand she moored outside M'hole.
 
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fisherman said:
Surely a trip from Falmouth to Mousehole in an unfamiliar boat and a brisk Westerly would be a little tiring for a 65 year old. I was in the area, but relatively sheltered water in the bay at the time and it was trying for me. Then looking at 12 hours before you get near shelter at Padstow, or ?20 hours to Bideford, in the dark somewhere you've never been before?

Some of the debris is GRP, and it doesn't float, so can't have come far. I reckon she thought better of carrying on overnight, tried to go in Sennen, thinking it's a decent haven.

Edit: Newlyn Harbour office understand she moored outside M'hole.
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COULD Sennen be a practical harbour/haven for any 31ft boat? I have only been there once (by land) and can't remember seeing anything like a suitable harbour.
Did she panic/have a serious incident/become overly fatigued? How familiar was she with that coast?
Will we ever know? Sadly, I doubt it.
 
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chris46 said:
she maybe was over confident, weather was not that good, her experience was rusty and she was heading into some dodgy waters that held quite a few dangers, she traveled with fading light towards the darkness, all in a boat she was not readily familiar with...
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Perhaps I'm getting cynical, but it seems that an effort was made to ensure that these facts were known...
 
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