Seems a distant memory now (with pics)

[Ianj68]

The comment about t-boning a raggie speaks volumes. It would only have been doing 5-6kts max (probably half that if sailing) so you would have flown out of the murk at him going like a train. AND, being in flotilla, any attempt to miss one projectile could throw him under the bows of the next.

Try to think what the MCA report might have said . . . It's OK, no harm was done, but next time could be different. Asking convoy speed to be reduced slightly might have been more sensible.

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Thanks for contributing. I accept your point, however perhaps equally sensible would have been of the yacht to have had a radar reflector of some sort in such conditions, perhaps even an engine considering he was dead in the water with no wind to speak of. Personally, I can think of nothing worse than being dead in the water, mid channel in those conditions.

We saw him at the last minute and managed to avoid him. I doubt he would have been so lucky if he'd come across a fast ferry or a container ship.

 

[duncan]

i'm not disagreeing the gereral principle - overall I find most small craft (sail and power) have their radar on far too large a range looking for the big commercials as already said.

I wasn't there (well I was in the fog between Alderney and Guernsey all day) so I, as you, can only interpret the comments.

reviewing my earlier post I would agree with you that on balance their speed would appear excessive for the conditions. Personally I would have the lead boat with it's radar on 1m and a secondary designated to look out at 6m - I would also have them all line astern but that creates it;s own problems and many skippers don't like running in the wake......etc

 

[Ianj68]

Your observations were pretty much spot on Duncan. We were running at about 18kts, Some of the bigger boats wanted to maintain that speed. Personally, I would have liked to have run a little slower but then I can stay on the plane and not burn too much fuel at about 15kts. The group maintained a pre agreed set of radar ranges. The yacht in question was picked up, then lost, picked up again just before we got sight of him. I can't help but think a half decent radar deflector would have helped his cause somewhat.

 

[oceanfroggie]

I suppose it's easy to jump to an opinion from the comfort of an armchair, but as I said we were in a similar situation last season but vis below 100m for 3hrs, there was a lot of yacht traffic, and the same problems with radar, so we did slow to 8kt and I have to say that took the strain off the excercise. At one point the vis dropped to almost zero with 5 weak targets on radar all within 1/4 mile so we slowed to 5kt until we had cleared the traffic and vis improved back up to 100m+. 3hrs later we were in glorious sunshine passing the Fastnet at 22kt .

In relation to traveling line astern, I have organised quite a number coastal CICs for the IWAI and travelling line astern has proven to be effective with no wake problems as long as boats travel in line. We found once boats fan out in a horizontal formation somebody inevitabley get clobbered by wake.

Btw, Ian I'm perhaps sorry now I mentioned the vis/speed issue in my original post, I hadn't intended to start a debate. You seemed to have enjoyed a nice trip with family and pals. At the end of the day most of us are amateur leisure boaters enjoying the water and continuously learning more as we go along. Your trip was an adventure and one that many never take on, so be encouraged and keep exploring. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif