Should vessels that are abandoned mid-voyage be scuttled?

dunedin said:
Depends what the bucket itself is made of. A metal,bucket sinks, some plastic ones float. It depends on the density of the bucket material. The water weight is irrelevant
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Negative buoyancy is caused by the weight of the boat or bucket plus the weight of the water. Obviously it depends on the weight of the material the bucket is made from.
 
Chiara’s slave said:
Sure it does, as long as it’s not bolted to a lump of lead.
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And engine(s) and mast, rigging, water tanks, fuel tanks, furniture, fixtures and fittings, winches, steering wheels, personal passions, victuals for crew for the intended voyage, yadda yadda.

That's just the known knowns. There mebbe unknown knowns.
 
capnsensible said:
Not sure of your point here. I don't think any boats are stuffed full of heavy buckets. What I do know is that a bucket lost over the side of a yacht generally sinks. Because it becomes negatively buoyant. Its good to know this if any9ne tries the old fender and bucket thing for mob. When the handle eventually comes off the bucket, it sinks.
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The point is that you suggested in #24 that the weight of water in the "sunken" hull would drag it down. The point is that the water - when in more water weighs nothing. Hence the bucket example. Yes, the bucket sinks. But not because of the weight of water in it once fully submerged but because of its own material content exceeding the specific gravity of the water it displaces
 
capnsensible said:
Negative buoyancy is caused by the weight of the boat or bucket plus the weight of the water. Obviously it depends on the weight of the material the bucket is made from.
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No the “weight” of the water, in water, is irrelevant # - it is only the relative density of the other materials vs water that determines if the bucket, or boat, floats or sinks.

# Of course in other circumstances, impurities in water can affect things. Can sometimes see stratified layers of water in bays where salt water is flooding in underneath fresh river water flowing out! Often seen at Loch Aline. (Where also lies my sunk bucket, when I failed to tie the bowline carefully.)
 
dunedin said:
No the “weight” of the water, in water, is irrelevant # - it is only the relative density of the other materials vs water that determines if the bucket, or boat, floats or sinks.
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...unless it's a bucket of fresh water being put into the ocean

gotcha!

anyway - the chance of anyone running into an abandoned sailboat is vanishingly small. I wouldn't be too concerned with scuttling it.
 
capnsensible said:
The bucket will float until you add weight in this case water. That's why your bucket sank.
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But a bucket that, overall, is lighter than an equivalent volume of water, will float, even if full of water. Just like a multihull made of foam sandwich, with waterproof compartments. The buoyancy built in easily outweighs trivia like rigs and engines. On a boat like a Leopard, there will be literally tons worth of inbuilt buoyancy, air, in built in boxes. And no ballast for stability, which is what drags monos down. Apart from Hugo Boss. Oh yes, the keel fell off that one, and she’s still afloat.
 
Bouba said:
While I agree that leaving a shipping hazard borders on the criminal....going below in desperate circumstances could be risky.....what if you get trapped or injured ?.....as captain you are the most competent person aboard which means that you have a duty to those in the liferaft as they may not be able to survive without you.
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If the boat is sinking, then there would be no need to go below to do anything to help it sink.

If it isn't sinking then why would one be apprehensive about going below?
 
Poignard said:
If the boat is sinking, then there would be no need to go below to do anything to help it sink.

If it isn't sinking then why would one be apprehensive about going below?
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If you are abandoning ship then something very serious is happening.....although, if the boat is not sinking, why would you abandon it ?....fire ?.....risk of capsizing ?
 
Bouba said:
If you are abandoning ship then something very serious is happening.....although, if the boat is not sinking, why would you abandon it ?....fire ?.....risk of capsizing ?
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You'd have to ask the master of the 'Marie Celeste' about that.
 
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I can remember seeing a video of the us coastguard blasting lump out of a boat that was being abandoned.
Just to be safe they used the big gun and not someone filling the thing with a bucket.
 
Laser310 said:
Here are some pics of the Gunboat 55 Rainmaker that I took at a yard in Bermuda when I stopped there on a delivery of a bigger Gunboat.

Rainmaker was abandoned on her maiden voyage just off the Carolinas in the USA.

She was recovered about 2 years later by someone out fishing off Bermuda, and I believe is now a power cat in the UK.

Given that she was abandoned just near the NE flowing gulf stream, it seem likely that she drifted NE, and then E pretty far in the Atlantic, and then S enough to get into the easterlies, before ending up in Bermuda.

View attachment 186317View attachment 186318View attachment 186319
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She was recovered and repaired (by Dazcat I believe) and is based in Falmouth. In the summer moored in Port Pendennis marine and now on the hard at Ponsharden. The guy who owns her can afford the very costly repairs.
 
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