Solo 16-year-old sailor hits merchant ship

Perhaps she didn't want to release her self-steering gear, or start the engine? Would that have disqualified her from whatever it was she was doing?

I agree, that if I see it from at least a couple of cables away I reckon I can miss it - unless becalmed with no engine - in which case I would be inclined to row away in the dinghy, towing the boat!
 
I have been taught that it is my responsibility to miss everybody else whatever the col regs indicate in my favour.
Even years later I deem it my responsibility to keep a regular look out. At sea I set a simple kitchen timer to alert me to have a look every 10 minutes. This to give at least a quick look round, and a check on my AIS.
Even going down the Solent at night, which I've done several times this summer, it would be easy to get caught out if I didn't check regularly.
At sea, a fast ship going full tilt can be from over the horizon and to your side in around 15 minutes and a quick visit to the heads and to make a hot drink may take all of that if your all geared up in bad conditions.

How can these long distance solo sailers could do it 24/7 without instruments. Obvious, they cannot. But, in the last 2 years I've had instances of no readings from ships on the AIS. I've heard ships called up by CG on C16 for not transmitting AIS. SeaMe and Echomax are a step in the right direction, but according to the latest ad's I've bought the least efficient of the two.
Also people who are exhausted can sleep through alarms and ships can often not see smaller boars as they may not reflect the radar often enough in the radar sweeps.
Why do we keep having these failures? Surely there's enough information and training available to avert this sort of incident..... it sure was no accident!
 
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wooslehunter said:
The fact is that solo sailors, be they young, old, experienced, men, women etc have to sleep. There are plenty of ways to alert a solo sailor of a collision risk: AIS, radar, Sea-Me etc.
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A newspaper report cited in the other thread includes this:

Mr Watson [her father] said Jess made several attempts to avoid the Sliver Yang, including repeated radio requests, but ultimately braced herself in her bunk for impact.
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So this doesn't sound like a sleeping solo sailor being hit: it sounds as if she spend a fair bit of time trying to get a Great Big Ship to get out of her way and didn't try the obvious "change course so it misses you" approach.

On the basis of this snippet, therefore, I think she should give up solo sailing until she learns sensible behaviour. The next thing to hit her may be the MV Charles Darwin. Terminally.
 
The oceans will soon be full of juvinile blondes! Hope they all pay bit more attention to the Col' Reg's :-)

Report..........

Zac Sunderland’s 15-year-old sister Abby is planning her own circumnavigation.

From Abby Sunderland
I have wanted to sail around the world alone since I was 13-years-old. At 13 I had been single-handing boats on a regular basis, but my parents weren’t ready to let me go. As disappointing as it was to be told that I was too young, I did understand their reasoning, and so, I kept on working towards my goal.
When I was 14, Zac launched his campaign to sail around the world alone. It was a bit of a shock at first to hear that he was now doing it, but it was great being able to help out with his campaign. Watching Zac’s trip, we have all learned loads, and now after almost three years of dreaming and planning I’m finally pulling together my own campaign.
What am I going to do? Sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world alone. The plans, if every thing goes according to plan, (how often does that happen!) are to leave this November from Marina del Rey and to return in April, six months later.
My route will take me down around all the major capes. Yes, it’s a scary thought, alone in some of the roughest places there are, but I have been doing this sort of thing my whole life. Right now I’m in training. I’m also trying to keep up with my classes that have started. Sponsorships have been coming in and we are searching for just the right boat to make my dream a reality.
 
The pictures of the boat show a glancing blow to the starboard side #2 that took out the starboard uppers, the mast broke just above the lowers or intermediates and fell to port #5. The starboard toe rail is barely damaged #7

I have seen more damage to a boat at our sailing club that hit the poles of a marker; he lost his entire rig.

This is the luckiest 16-yr-old in the world.."a near miss is as good as a mile"

I think if she had done 'Day Skipper' on the Solent she would have been better prepared! The 4 hours of night sailing would have taught her to avoid big ships.

JESSICA WATSON YACHT CRASH | Stock Photography Photo Gallery Stock Image | Stock Photo AAP Image Australia

http://www.aapimage.com.au/SearchPr...&section=D&gallery=JESSICA+WATSON+YACHT+CRASH
 
I care zero about this person, zero about her "team" and zero about the commerco-ego-celebrito approach to personal achievement and self-fulfillment.

That said, I simply cannot understand why she wallied about (trying to raise the ship's bridge on her radio, then going down below) instead of concentrating on taking avoiding action.

Can someone please enlighten me?
 
possibly the "ostrich syndrome" - refusal to face imminent danger. Or more likely a belief that, based on previous experiences, ships don't collide, they turn away.

I agree with your indifference to her 'exploits'. They really don't progress the human condition.
 
dulcibella said:
We are all glad that she wasn't hurt or killed, but her attitude to the accident suggests that a more mature approach to her responsibilities may be needed before she takes on things like this. All the "challenge" b.....x that is now rife in sailing ignores the fact that sailing is first and foremost a trade that needs to be mastered, not a fairground ride.
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I was thinking along the same lines, I can only comment on what little I've seen of her on the internet, but. Considering the undertaking, even putting aside she is probably a great sailor, she comes across as a bit naive and unworldly, I worry this could be a terrible tragedy waiting to unfold. I hope it's not.
 
To pretty much all of you who have posted on this thread

.
What a bunch of self-righteous gits. None of you know what happened, you just have a few garbled press reports to go on.

Leave the girl alone.

- W
 
To those people in glass houses who like to throw stones

webcraft said:
.
What a bunch of self-righteous gits. None of you know what happened, you just have a few garbled press reports to go on.

Leave the girl alone.

- W
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1. If the girl wants to be left alone, she should go sailing quietly, not LOUDLY
2. People are going on the available information - if futher information comes to light people might change their opinions, but that will depend on the verity of the information
3. We're all entitled to our opinions without being call 'self-righteous' or 'gits'
 
Concert

never mind that, how was the concert ?
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If you mean Dick Gaughan, it was brilliant. I've never seem him before, and it was a real privilege to do so in such a small and intimate venue. Good company as well with no less than three other forumite crews in attendance.

- W
 
Of course you can follow her direct on :

http://www.jessicawatson.com.au/

even contact her and ask her about the incident ?

Having looked through the aap images - I am surprised at the lack of damage. The mast has broken clean at what appears to be a weak spot - upper radar fixing ... and apart from what appears to be pulpit, guard lines / stanchions and a good scrape down side - surprisingly little.

What does surprise me are the sponsors and names on the boat ...
 
I can well imagine her "Media Manager" is going to milk this cow for everything he can get ...

Just another comment - but I've always been surprised by the lack of shipping incidents with all these Circum-Nav people and single-handed yachties .... I just hope that this incident will bring it home to some of these "hopefuls' just how serious the game is. ( I have a serious doubt in my mind that young Jessica really has learnt from it - but that's just my peception from reading her press releases etc. One comment that I have trouble with ... she has said more than once .. "all the years training that's gone into this" ... hang on the lass is only 16yrs old ... did daddy let her out years ago on her own ? )

When I asked my father if I could sail his Snapdragon 23 on my own ( I was 13 ... ) he said No !
 
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webcraft said:
.
What a bunch of self-righteous gits. None of you know what happened, you just have a few garbled press reports to go on.

Leave the girl alone.

- W
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I've read this thread with interest. Press information is always unreliable and therefore as webcraft correctly (if somewhat impolitely) states we should avoid jumping to conclusions.

However, the part I don't understand is that she was seemingly able to spend time attempting to contact the ship, and then descending into the boat to her bunk to brace herself for the impact. As she wasn't competing under any rules at he time ( "At the time, she was conducting sea trials" ) I am struggling to understand why she didn't just turn the boat around to avoid the collision and then worry about colregs afterward.

I hope that the enquiries (three apparently) return their findings as quickly as possible so as to prevent too much speculation detracting from her endeavours.

Quite seperately from this particular incident, I do find the recent trend of encouraging Young People to compete in endeavours to youngest person to ... somewhat disconcerting. I am all for young people taking on challenges (I am a D of E exepedition organizer/assesor), even hazardous challenges on their own basis but the quest to "be the youngest" inevitably places calendar deadlines on things which may result in ill prepared events taking place.
 
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