Search for missing solo yachtsman - IoW

bitbaltic said:
Hmmm. So in the last couple of weeks we have two missing singlehanders who were also sailing boats which were new to them. Seems to me that putting to sea in an unfamiliar boat is the real risk we should be talking about.
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Or is it just over confidence & limited recent experience?

No evidence of that on this latest one, of course, yet.
 
Scillypete said:
many more of these and SWMBO is going to start curtailing my activities, she worries enough as it is without reading more and more of these tragic tales in the press.

focuses the mind somewhat . . . . . . so sad for the family
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I have stopped telling SWMO about these, she has declared that sailing is not safe. Unfortunately she is a non-swimmer and only started sailing when I bought Khamsin two years ago.
I have an uphill struggle to build her confidence.

Another single-handed tragedy unfolds. I wonder if he managed to get ashore and is somewhere "sort-of-safe"?
 
lenseman said:
...Mr Mustapha is described as being approximately six feet three inches tall, of mid-European appearance with a stocky build. He has short, dark receding hair and a goatee beard.

He was last seen wearing a white sailing jacket, sunglasses and a hat.

Detective Inspector Pete Little said: “We are obviously concerned about Mr Mustapha and I am releasing an image of him in the hope that the public may be able to assist us in locating him...
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I've never seen that before - a description, a photo and a request for assistance in "locating him" - for someone thought to have gone overboard?
 
Searush said:
Or is it just over confidence & limited recent experience?

No evidence of that on this latest one, of course, yet.
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Well, putting to sea singlehanded is a decision the skipper makes. Overconfidence or inexperience (the former being born of the latter) are things that might lead to the decision to go, I guess.

But if singlehanding carries a level of risk, and making a passage (as opposed to a shakedown) with a new boat carries a risk, then singlehanding a passage in a new boat can only multiply them.

Plenty of experienced sailors would consider the total risk low, quite rightly, and plenty of inexperienced sailors get away with it. But that's what risk is all about.

I still count myself a newbie to sailing and one thing that strikes me is how far fewer people get into difficulties than seemingly ought to, when you hear some of the tales that are brought back to the pontoons.

I think it's all about a sensible assessment. For myself, I'd happily sail on an unfamiliar boat with a crew that know the boat, or a crew I know are experienced on varying boats. Outside of that it all becomes more hazy.
 
sailorman said:
agreed,very strange to have a photo
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Not really.

In any of these cases, parallel to any search and rescue incident being handled by CG, it also becomes automatically a missing person enquiry as far as the police are concerned, until such time as a body is located and positively identified.

Issuing a photo is standard missing person procedure.
 
chanelyacht said:
Not really.

In any of these cases, parallel to any search and rescue incident being handled by CG, it also becomes automatically a missing person enquiry as far as the police are concerned, until such time as a body is located and positively identified.

Issuing a photo is standard missing person procedure.
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Agreed

We seem to have Reggie Perrin fever on the forum
 
chanelyacht said:
Not really.

In any of these cases, parallel to any search and rescue incident being handled by CG, it also becomes automatically a missing person enquiry as far as the police are concerned, until such time as a body is located and positively identified.

Issuing a photo is standard missing person procedure.
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I don't recall in any similar suspected MOB incident the police putting out an appeal asking anyone with information or knowledge of the persons whereabouts to contact them or describing the clothing they were last seen wearing...
 
l'escargot said:
I don't recall in any similar suspected MOB incident the police putting out an appeal asking anyone with information or knowledge of the persons whereabouts to contact them or describing the clothing they were last seen wearing...
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It's entirely the choice of the police force dealing with it - and their protocols. In this case, the Met has primacy - as the person lived in their area. They will have agreed an action plan with Hampshire and it may well be that the Met's protocol is an immediate release of photo, etc. Other forces may simply ensure a quick release of photo to media rather than a formal appeal.

Often it can be because the next of kin haven't been informed.

I wouldn't read anything into the appeal though.
 
Robert Wilson said:
I have stopped telling SWMO about these, she has declared that sailing is not safe. Unfortunately she is a non-swimmer and only started sailing when I bought Khamsin two years ago.
I have an uphill struggle to build her confidence.

Another single-handed tragedy unfolds. I wonder if he managed to get ashore and is somewhere "sort-of-safe"?
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I have had more near misses on my mountain bikes in the last 10 years than 50 years of boating; so far .....
 
I think there really is an issue of people setting off on an unfamiliar boat without having a proper shakedown. Years ago when I was working for a yacht builder we sold a Trapper 501 brokerage boat to a client who picked it up & managed to stack it up on the front at Southsea taking it from the solent round to Chichester. Fortunately nobody was hurt but the boat was written off. It was a boat that when over canvassed had a rather alarming tendency to lee helm, I've often thought since then that a little more time spent in familiarisation with the new toy before setting off might led to a happier ending.
 
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