[OLD] Breaking News. Charlie Whipple shipwrecked!

[Kiwi25]

  Just saw this on the TV News.  Tragic.  He is OK and looked in good spirits..glad to be alive I guess.  He ran aground on the Gt Barrier Island off NZ, on his way to Hawaii it says.  4 am in the morning, he was picked up by a rescue helicopter..which had night vision.  It is mid winter here so it would have been very dark and very cold.

 They had pictures of the yellow boat with rescue red sails, well reefed down, but on it's side. being washed against the rocks.  A gut wrenching sight for a fellow sailor.  And after all the effort that had gone into the boat .. and the dream.   Charlie was 66.  

 I will post a link when this comes up on NZ news webites. :'(

[Tim]

Wow Bummer... :( Thanks and keep us informed

[Kiwi25]

Scroll down to my "Small boat long distance NZ" post to get links to Charlie.

[AdriftAtSea]

darn... How bad is it??? I've been reading his columns in SCA over the last year or so...

[Kiwi25]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4593644a11.html

  Here is a link to the story.  There may be pics later.  It broke about mid day here..and I'm sure will be on our evening news.   I will post tomorrow after I have seen the news. Maybe if the boat is high and dry they can salvage her.  They said on the TV news that the boat had cost 80,000.  I presume $NZ.  But that is a heck of a lot considering what you could buy 2nd hand for that.   What a hard lesson........
Ian
 

[Frank]

sad...very sad.Charlie put 3 years of his life into this project. 3 years of hard work building dreams into that boat.It must be devestating.My heart goes out to him. Glad he is OK. Certainly qualifies as a 'small boat/long distance' type guy

[CapnK]

Sad to hear that. My prayers go out for Charlie tonight, and in the coming days... I can't imagine what he must be feeling.

[Tim]

Here is his email;

deleted

I just sent him a quick note of support.

It wasn't a good address it came back

[Kiwi25]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10517875

Here is a link with a picture, and a video.  I don't know how long it will be up.  Far from being high and dry, the boat is awash and being slammed by breaking surf.  I doubt there will be anything left by the end of today.

  http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1865287
This is a link to our TV One, also with a video.  Charlie got onto the rocks, and was winched to safety from there.

  It got a lot of News coverage , I guess because they had some spectacular footage.  Those red sails really stand out.

  Hope the videos are still up when you guys get online in the morning.  Scary stuff.  I'm sure Charlie will write us a report of what happened.  And I hope we can learn something .....

  Ian

[Kiwi25]

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/423466/1865287

  Another video with some different footage.  This was the evening news.  The other was the afternoon news.  I think that Charlie had a storm sail up by the look.  Bright red.  There has been some pretty wild weather over the last few days.       :'(

[CapnK]

Here's a pic of his boat w/sails up, from his blog. The red sail was his staysail, apparently, although in the vids it looks like he had a red main, too. Maybe a high-vis storm main?



He said he was asleep, woke up, and the island was right there. I wonder if he'd passed out from exhaustion? Lotta questions!

[Kiwi25]

  As I mentioned we have had some BAD weather.. and he would have been taking a beating in that little boat.  He must have misjudged how fast wind waves and current were driving him shorewards.  He had really not gotten very far from his departure harbour.  Tho with GPS you would think he would have known his position.  Exhaustion may have been a factor.

  I can't resist commenting on the picture above.  The Resoluton is in Tauranga  Harbour, and that is my mothers home town, and I have spent many holidays there as a kid.  My mothers father was the Harbor Board Secretary in the 1930s and my mother says that those trees that you see in the background of the boat ..Norflok Pines alternated with Phoenix  Palms... were planted on his instructions.  They are a feature of the place now.

  The family name is Lowe, and about my only claim to yachting fame is that Colin Lowe is my cousin.  Colin built his first yacht , a ferro Hartley, before he was 20 and has sailed the world most of his life since.  If any of you have read NZ Boating you will know Colin was a regular contributor.  Mostly of the "do it yourself on a shoestring budget" type of article.  Someone mentioned his article about converting a plywood sailing dingy into a liferaft in a old thread here.  That was classic Colin.

   We are having a family reunion in Tauranga soon for the 90th birthday of his father..who has lived there all his life..so Colin and I can yarn about boats and crusing the Pacific Is.  Another cousin is wealthy and races a sports sailboat on Auckland Harbour.  So he can join in. Have not seen many of my cousins for years.  My kids have never met most of them..even tho my son now lives in Tauranga.

  It still shatters me to think that that brand new handbuilt  yacht is gone so soon....

[Tim]

Ian,

Thanks again for alerting us about Charlie's wreck. It was passed on to other boards also and allowed the sailing community know about it long before the other medias would have picked it up.
Tim

[Lynx]

I find it strange that he had the electronics to call for help but did not have an off course alarm. I would like to know if his boat could have sailed into the weather or could have changed course down wind to avoid the reef/island in the conditions that he was in.

[Bill NH]

... in the vids it looks like he had a red main, too. Maybe a high-vis storm main?

Looks like a storm jib and trysail set, not his staysail...  Storm sails are often built from hi-vis orange sailcloth.

What a sad sight, watching that video of the boat surging against the rocks...  it's gotta break any sailor's heart.

[Captain Smollett]

Here's Charlie's article about what happened.

[s/v Faith]

Reading this makes me more then sad, it makes my heart hurt.

Resolution lay low in the water, listed to port, decks white in the early morning light and sails aglow in Storm Orange. At the peak of her mast, the navigation tricolor light still burned. I am a ship, it said. Green to starboard, red to port. I live. I live. I am not dead. I am not . . . .

  I am glad you made it, and very sorry Charlie, for your loss.

[AdriftAtSea]

Thanks for the link to Charlie's account of the wreck.  darn shame.

[CapnK]

Wow. Ditto what Craig/Faith said, Charlie.

[hearsejr]

hay did Charlie say how or if he was coming home and start over again? if he is interested, maybe I can find a cheap boat in the boat and we can help him get her fixed up...just a thought. I saw a couple of boats that were actualy free, as long as you paid the fees for getting her registered and in your name.

Bill