North Sea: pics of huge seas this week

PaulGooch

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great images and sorry to be picky but are you SURE no photoshopping?
there are a few abberrations eg,
rocks just visible in the foreground in picture #7
undidentfied object mid sea beneath the bows in image #8
shape of a quayside or something flat and horizontal in image #6
others too if you look closely.

Just saved them back and uber zoomed them, cannot see any of the things you mention. The object you mention for image 8, is a seagull.
 

Colvic Watson

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great images and sorry to be picky but are you SURE no photoshopping?
there are a few abberrations eg,
rocks just visible in the foreground in picture #7
undidentfied object mid sea beneath the bows in image #8
shape of a quayside or something flat and horizontal in image #6
others too if you look closely.

I can't see any of those. Can't see the bows at all in pic 8 - do you mean the end-on seagull in pic 7?
 

jfm

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great images and sorry to be picky but are you SURE no photoshopping?
there are a few abberrations eg,
rocks just visible in the foreground in picture #7
undidentfied object mid sea beneath the bows in image #8
shape of a quayside or something flat and horizontal in image #6
others too if you look closely.

I'm definitely not sure. But I am am sure they are from folks working in N Sea on rigs and rig supply vessels, as I have the full email chain, but of course they could still be p'shopped

Ref #7, I don't see rocks. I see seagulls stbd bow and port quarter
Ref #8, do you mean right under the bow? That's a seagull banking in a turn. And there's another seagull 10m in front of bow dead ahead
Ref #6, I cant see a quay!

But I'm no expert, not 100pc sure, so happy to be corrected

EDIT: There is no exif data on these pics (that I know how to access) becuase they were sent to me as embedded images in a 3Mb MSWord file. That's a strange way to distribute pictures, and suggests an amateur not a pro. Or a pro masquerading as an amateur? The "properties" embedded in the Word doc show it was generated by a named individual (I won't mention name) on a copy of word belonging to an ExxonMobil affiliate, and the Word doc was made on 12 Feb ie 4 days ago. Seems plausible enough

The pics are bit shrunk, to 640x480, by photobucket. I have them in original resolution that i received, but that isn't much more than 640x480 anyway

Besides, doing photoshop that well is surely quite hard. What is the motivation for anyone to put in all that effort NINE TIMES for no commercial gain?

All that said, I'm just guessing and don't know for sure. Perhaps someone can AIS the f/v Harvester. She might not be back in port yet and might be heading down from N NSea? If she is down in the Med the pics are definitely fake!
 
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blueglass

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I'm definitely not sure. But I am am sure they are from folks working in N Sea on rigs and rig supply vessels, as I have the full email chain, but of course they could still be p'shopped

Ref #7, I don't see rocks. I see seagulls stbd bow and port quarter
Ref #8, do you mean right under the bow? That's a seagull banking in a turn. And there's another seagull 10m in front of bow dead ahead
Ref #6, I cant see a quay!

But I'm no expert, not 100pc sure, so happy to be corrected

#6 the quay or whatever is lower right corner in the foreground. Don't zoom in - its clear when you look at it normally once you have your eye in.
 

blueglass

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I'm definitely not sure. But I am am sure they are from folks working in N Sea on rigs and rig supply vessels, as I have the full email chain, but of course they could still be p'shopped

Ref #7, I don't see rocks. I see seagulls stbd bow and port quarter
Ref #8, do you mean right under the bow? That's a seagull banking in a turn. And there's another seagull 10m in front of bow dead ahead
Ref #6, I cant see a quay!

But I'm no expert, not 100pc sure, so happy to be corrected

#7 the rocks (awash) are in the foreground on the left directly in the boat's path
 

blueglass

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I'm definitely not sure. But I am am sure they are from folks working in N Sea on rigs and rig supply vessels, as I have the full email chain, but of course they could still be p'shopped

Ref #7, I don't see rocks. I see seagulls stbd bow and port quarter
Ref #8, do you mean right under the bow? That's a seagull banking in a turn. And there's another seagull 10m in front of bow dead ahead
Ref #6, I cant see a quay!

But I'm no expert, not 100pc sure, so happy to be corrected

in #8 I see the seagull dead ahead but what is that below the bows? I admit that this could just be an out of focus seagull
 

jfm

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Hi jfm

Cracking pics, they are actually from a few months ago, are very real and were I believe taken from her identical pair trawling partner.

I put them up on an angling forum a few months back.

http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=292373&highlight=tranquil+north+sea

Aha! Thank you 3571. Good ole internet eh, people making stuff up ie the "taken from Beryl Alpha stand-by vessel this week". But despite the duff info regarding their history, I still think they're real pics. You'd have to be abit of an anorak to photohop these things a dozen or so times :) Thanks
 

Firefly625

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Blueglass, are you sure we are looking at the same pictures? I can't see any of what you describe :D

i was just thinking I needed to change my glasses as I couldn't see any rocks.... and that was starting to worry me! but glade I don't seem to be the only one! ::eek:

BTW, they are truly great photos and as for pleasure boats that could handle that weather... well how about these;

Steel-02-big.jpg


86


main_568x418.jpg


OK, its not a pleasure boat, but a superyacht support vessel which is supposed to go anywhere!
Oberon-big.jpg
 
D

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Tee hee. Funny, cos as I opened the email and looked at the pics this morning, I wondered what sort of pleasure boat you'd need to survive that. I don't know and have never had to endure such seas so i can only guess. I would think that with a good skipper you could possible survive an hour of that in an 80 footer, but you'd have to make zero mistakes so as not to broach and have a lot of luck. You'd lose loads of things, including maybe the radar mast, and you'd risk being thwacked in the back of the head by flying dishwashers and things. Thing is, not many people could withstand it physically and once everyone on board is uber seasick you wont have the helmsman skill to not broach.

Also you can lose the boat through a window failure (remember the superyacht Nadine that went down off Sardinia, over 10 years ago? It could have survived but the hard tender came loose and smashed thru the saloon windows, causing the seas to come in and the boat to sink)

So that's a "no" I suppose!

Remember also, as has been said on here many times, the sea looks better in pictures than in real life. So the reality of that must have been hell

Mmm, I think your Trac stabilizers are going to be working awful hard in that:) But talking about surviveability, surely a well found yacht would survive that even if they had to heave to and put a drogue out? The question in my mind is would a well found motorboat like a Nordhavn survive something like this and what tactics would have to be employed to to help ensure survival? Obviously the big difference between any mobo and a yacht is self righting capability so I guess the correct tactic for a mobo is to avoid being knocked over at all costs which I guess means heading straight into the wind and waves at minimum speed. I think this is a tactic used by fishing boats in extreme conditions. Anyone care to say what they would do in these conditions with a motorboat?
 

fisherman

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Dodge head to wind and pray. A 60ft Newlyn boat caught out in the Fastnet gale said the worst thing was at night not seeing it coming. Next day there was no gear, longline baskets, on deck whatsoever.
 

Pinnacle

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Only ever been out in conditions resembling these once - '79 Fastnet - and have no wish to repeat the experience. 37ft Oyster yacht. No damage to boat or crew - we gave up on the race and ended up in Crosshaven.

The comment about not being able to see the waves coming at night is true, but no so much cos its nightime (and hence dark:D), but cos there is so much spray/rain/spume flying around, that looking to windward was almost impossible. If you feel the urge to try and experience what its like, put your head out of your cars sunroof going down the motorwaty at 70mph when its raining.

When it became light, we had a go at estimating the height between the trough of one wave and the crest of the next. Oodly, there were no wave height gauges fixed to the bottom of the Irish Sea so it was quite hard to judge the height. General concensus was that it was between 100% and 130% of mast height. :eek:

I am very happy not to be a fisherman!:)
 

nedmin

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Fantastic pics. My friend who was an engineer on an oil tanker, was anchored off Scarboro waitiing for a storm to subside when the anchor started dragging,they up anchored and managed to turn to go with the storm as waves were going over the ship and going into the engine room.When they got to the platform to load,the guys on the platform said there had been a 60ft swell on the platform.
 

scubaman

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I'm slightly suspicious as to their authenticity. The pic #5 shows the waterline of the boat and there doesn't seem to be any waves coming from the boat. Ie. waves caused by that big lump of a boat being on the water.

Pic #7 is a bit of the same, but more to the point, the surrounding waves look a lot smaller than on the other pics. Ie. might be a real pic taken on more 'moderate' conditions.

The other 'Perfect storm' pictures don't show the waterline ie. it's easier to embed a boat between the waves because of not having to fake wake.

The quality of light landing on the boat is a bit odd on pic #8.

Pic #3 ???

Anorak off now... :)
 

Nautical

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I know it would be a nightmare situation but do you think that 78/70 could survive in those seas? Or any 80 foot pleasure boat for that matter?

If I were pushed into a corner and had no choice I would say one would be fairly OK in one of these, no busted port holes etc, 3/4" bullet proof stuff with crash covers, crash covers for all saloon/external windows, heavy weight steel construction and five watertight bulkheads, I think you might lose the RIB from the fore deck though :)

(caveat , I have vested interest, but doesn't change my view, a few people on here have been on board and can attest to her credentials)
 
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MapisM

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If I were pushed into a corner and had no choice I would say one would be fairly OK in one of these
Seconded 100%.
If I can borrow a cliché, there's no replacement for displacement, when the game gets really tough.
I even considered to purchase her smaller sister (65') a few years ago, and asked for the forum views in this thread, though I changed my plans eventually, for various reasons.
The link I posted in that thread is now dead, because the boat was afterwards sold, but the very same boat (aptly named Atlantic Ranger) can still be seen on this page of Eric Sponberg website.
Truly amazing boats those Molokai Strait, where safety level is head and shoulders above the rest of pleasure boats as we know them - even the most beautiful ones.
 

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