Saved from an inflatable

oldbilbo

oldbilbo

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This news item on YBW.com's front page raises a few eyebrows....


http://www.pbo.co.uk/news/534931/warning-after-inflatable-dinghy-rescue


....and some questions.

Why a beach-toy inflatable? Why today? What type of anchor did he take? Why Ireland?

Does the team think he should be counseled? Or Sectioned? Would possession of a £45 RYA International Certificate of Confidence be of any assistance, other than to keep the sun off for a while?

Of course, there are those - and I may well be one of them - who think he should have been allowed to continue on his slow and unsteady way and that the gunners at Lulworth/Bovington should have been encouraged to used him for live-fire practice.

:cool:
 
In a moment of unbridled curiosity, I did a quick measurement of the distance involved. I reckon he had about 350 miles to travel to the nearest point of Ireland. His dinghy looked to be about 8' long (probably less), so hull speed would be about 4 knots max. So the SOONEST he could get there would be in 90 hours (discounting tides, which should average out over that sort of period). I very much doubt he would make 4 knots - 1 or 2 seems more likely, especially as he had no means of travelling to windward! And he had to round Portland Bill, the Lizard, Lands End and then make it across the South West Approaches.

Unless he had a Baldrick like cunning plan to live off the sea in the manner of the Baileys or the "Survive the Savage Sea" family, I reckon it would have been kinder for the range to open fire!
 
He's probably a senior manager/captain of industry - they're usually the w+nkers who think they can walk on water. I worked for one to55er who motored a sailing boat from Southampton to Gibraltar using an AA book - and he couldn't see what was wrong with that!

Rob.
 
rob2 said:
.....one to55er who motored a sailing boat from Southampton to Gibraltar using an AA book - and he couldn't see what was wrong with that.....!
Click to expand...

So tell me - was the boat his? Did he get it there in one piece? Was the AA book out of date....? So tell me what's wrong with that?
 
rob2 said:
He's probably a senior manager/captain of industry - they're usually the w+nkers who think they can walk on water. I worked for one to55er who motored a sailing boat from Southampton to Gibraltar using an AA book - and he couldn't see what was wrong with that!

Rob.
Click to expand...
Did he make it?
 
rob2 said:
I worked for one to55er who motored a sailing boat from Southampton to Gibraltar using an AA book - and he couldn't see what was wrong with that!
Click to expand...

Well, Columbus, Magellan and Cook did far worse and they're considered heros...(they didn't even have the RAC book, let alone the AA...)

As was the elderly lady who sailed a folkboat solo from Oz to Cowes in 1974 using a school atlas.

And the Austrian chap who ran up the N face of the Eiger.

Just because they're unconventional doesn't mean they're mad or bad (tho a petrol station dinghy to Ireland is probably taking it a bit too far)
 
MASH said:
Well, Columbus, Magellan and Cook did far worse and they're considered heros...(they didn't even have the RAC book, let alone the AA...)

As was the elderly lady who sailed a folkboat solo from Oz to Cowes in 1974 using a school atlas.

And the Austrian chap who ran up the N face of the Eiger.

Just because they're unconventional doesn't mean they're mad or bad (tho a petrol station dinghy to Ireland is probably taking it a bit too far)
Click to expand...

Wearing a wig doesn't mean you're Mozart.
 
There's ' adventurous ', and there's ' downright liability '.

If he didn't have the brains to do the tiniest bit of reading up on boats let alone his proposed trip, he needs some fairly force-fed instruction or else next week he'll be at it again, and so on until other people put their lives at risk helping him.
 
There is a point but throughout history people have being going to the aid (in all walks of life) of those that do daft things. Also hindsight speaks of people being innovators, brave, trying something different, when people at the time no doubt thought they needed their heads read.

I guess swimming the English channel is even more bonkers.. That's sailing without any form of boat. :)
 
AntarcticPilot said:
In a moment of unbridled curiosity, I did a quick measurement of the distance involved. I reckon he had about 350 miles to travel to the nearest point of Ireland. His dinghy looked to be about 8' long (probably less), so hull speed would be about 4 knots max. So the SOONEST he could get there would be in 90 hours (discounting tides, which should average out over that sort of period). I very much doubt he would make 4 knots - 1 or 2 seems more likely, especially as he had no means of travelling to windward! And he had to round Portland Bill, the Lizard, Lands End and then make it across the South West Approaches.

Unless he had a Baldrick like cunning plan to live off the sea in the manner of the Baileys or the "Survive the Savage Sea" family, I reckon it would have been kinder for the range to open fire!
Click to expand...

I don't necessarily think he intended to do it in one go & he may well have been responding to the "WTF do you think you are going?" question with a facetious answer. But the lack of windward capability & feeble rowing performance leads me to think he may have had more difficulty getting back to land than he was expecting.
 
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