VOR yacht aground!!

dom said:
Permission to speak Mr Jet, I thought a rock is wos what they hit?
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Yes, but the point is they probably wouldn't have if they weren't fatigued from racing hard with what sounds to me - who knows little of such racing - a rather small crew.

Or they could have all been sipping pina colladas in sun chairs and just relaxing; either way fatigue or avoiding it would be a prime cause.
 
Come on guys, they were racing.

Everyone knows there's a wreck off the needles, but still someone hits it every year trying to take the short route.
 
Mercifully everyone survived and an inquiry will no doubt resolve what happened, but from the safe distance of an armchair it seems likely to have been an electronic-chart-assisted grounding.

Any of us, when relying on an electronic charting system, could run similar risks of not 'seeing' critical navigational information that is only available on certain scales.

The bet is that the navigation in the VOR yacht was being conducted on a non-ECDIS system using an underscale presentation of Vector information. IMO and other agencies have long warned that only Raster ECDIS systems enable navigators to be confident of being presented with comprehensive information on electronic chart screens.

I wonder what the race organisers specified; and what lessons can be learned about that? Terrifying for the crew to 'discover' a reef at night while travelling at 15 knots .....

The message for all of us is that when planning to sail in unfamiliar water it is literally vital to explore the route using large scale charts, preferably paper ones, and if relying on electronic charts to change the scale frequently to look for shoal waters and other isolated hazards. There but for the grace.... etc
 
Seajet said:
Yes, but the point is they probably wouldn't have if they weren't fatigued from racing hard with what sounds to me - who knows little of such racing - a rather small crew.
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On a serious note, I fully agree. I've personally witnessed people, including me, getting into a strange tunnel vision mode where one can skillfully operate for long hours under stress, but are unable to cope with something new. You think your're fine and dandy until faced with a simple nav or tactical task, which you then completely screw up; vector calculations are particularly dangerous.
 
If you mean Cork, no that was an entirely different reef, near Indonesia.

It was mis-charted (not in its charted position). This one appears to have been accurately charted.

That suggests a probable cause = fateigue (these boats are under crewed) plus poor nav proceedure ( should examine the route at high zoom before hand, and should leave 2nm clearance to this sort of remote reef).
 
dom said:
On a serious note, I fully agree. I've personally witnessed people, including me, getting into a strange tunnel vision mode where one can skillfully operate for long hours under stress, but are unable to cope with something new. You think your're fine and dandy until faced with a simple nav or tactical task, which you then completely screw up; vector calculations are particularly dangerous.
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dom,

on an early for us Channel crossing ( no electronic nav or autopilot ) the 2 crew ' retired ' below having had enough, leaving me to most of the trip with a E F7 on the beam, so I was occasionally luffing through the bigger crests and paying off again.

As we must be getting close to the Nab generally I called Dad ( who was a newbie to sailing ) for an RDF fix; he and my chum were knackered, and he just yelled " get stuffed ! " and shut the hatch.

I carried on the compass course, I was always careful with paper nav and knew the character of the Nab light to look for.

Eventually the light came into view, I was a touch to the West, unsurprising after the waves so altered accordingly.

It was only a good while later I noticed another light to the West;The Nab.

I'd been steering straight for Selsey rocks, being so tired I had seen what I wanted to see
.

I've had this a few times since but never so badly, it's a really dangerous state and quite easy to get into.
 
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Think about this....
A navigator with traditional Pacific navigation skills, without electronics, without charts and even without any local knowledge at all, would not hit that reef in the same situation. The reflection waves from a 2 m southerly swell (info from grib) would for him just mean one thing. A reef is dead ahead. How many of today's navigators are "tuned in to receive" this info?
 
Seajet said:
I was always careful with paper nav and knew the character of the Nab light to look for. Eventually the light came into view, I was a touch to the West, unsurprising after the waves so altered accordingly.. It was only a good while later I noticed another light to the West;The Nab.

I'd been steering straight for Selsey rocks, being so tired I had seen what I wanted to see

it's a really dangerous state and quite easy to get into.
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Great illustration, and that's exactly the dangerous state that's so hard to recognise in oneself. I once sailed from St Helier to the Solent with no sleep. I''d no problem with tiredness at all; quite impressive I thought ...until I almost hit the Fairway Buoy. Luckily a deep reflex kicked in when I saw the light rising skyward. If that had been a reef I'd have hit it, no doubt about it.
 
Seajet said:
I was always careful with paper nav and knew the character of the Nab light to look for. Eventually the light came into view, I was a touch to the West, unsurprising after the waves so altered accordingly.. It was only a good while later I noticed another light to the West;The Nab.

I'd been steering straight for Selsey rocks, being so tired I had seen what I wanted to see

it's a really dangerous state and quite easy to get into.
Click to expand...

Great illustration, and that's exactly the dangerous state that's so hard to recognise in oneself. I once sailed from St Helier to the Solent with no sleep. I''d no problem with tiredness at all; quite impressive I thought ...until I almost hit the Fairway Buoy; luckily a deep reflex kicked in when I saw the light rising skyward. If that had been a reef I'd have hit it, no doubt about it.
 
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