Abby Sunderland

[nowell]

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/abby-sunderland-possibly-lost-sea/story?id=10877108

2 EPIRBs popped, rescue teams still trying to get on site.

[Frank]

CTV News

Teen sailor goes missing on solo world voyage

10/06/2010 4:06:50 PM

CTV.ca News Staff
An American teenager who was attempting to become the youngest person to sail around the world solo may have run into trouble, and her family is trying to organize a rescue mission.


Abby Sunderland's sailboat's emergency beacons were activated Thursday and communication with the vessel went down as it sailed between Africa and Australia.

The 16-year-old's family contacted the U.S. and other governments in the hopes of organizing a search for her, according to family spokesman Christian Pinkston.


 





"We've got to get a plane out there quick," said Pinkston. "They are exhausting every resource to try to mobilize an air rescue including discussions with the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Coast Guard and various international rescue organizations." The family's last communicated with Sunderland at 4 a.m. PT. She was facing 30-foot swells but was not in distress, Pinkston said.

The family learned an hour later that the sailboat's emergency beacons had been manually activated, he added, but they could not reach her by phone or via the Web. Sunderland had Internet access aboard the 40-foot vessel, but she said in her last blog entry that her connection had become unreliable, possibly due to the rough seas she had encountered.

"The last few days have pretty busy out here. I've been in some rough weather for awhile with winds steady at 40-45 knots with higher gusts," she wrote.

"I am expecting that by midnight tonight I could have 35-50 knots with gusts to 60 so I am off to sleep before it really picks up."

Sunderland began her voyage Marina del Rey in Los Angeles County on Jan. 23, hoping to become the youngest person to complete an uninterrupted circumnavigation of the globe alone.

However, she had problems with her equipment soon afterwards and had to return to land to repair them. She stopped seeking the world record two months ago, but continued on sailing regardless.

Jessica Watson, a 16-year-old Australian girl, set the record in May by finishing a 37,000-kilometre sail around the world in 210 days.

Sunderland departed from Cape Town, South Africa, three weeks ago and had completed half of her route on Monday.

With files from The Associated Press

Its the part in bold I wonder about..........

[nowell]

Shes on an Open 40 with, what, 6 or so water tight compartments, auto righting, every kind of safty gear imaginable. If shes smart shes with the boat and just trying to conserve energy.

Regardless of the outcome, im not looking forward to "self protecting America" that is going to say sailing is oh so dangerous, and the governments need to do something to protect its people from it, etc etc. The fallout from this is going to suck.

[Monovasia]

Good evening Nowell, I am not sure I agree with you on this one. If you recall there was a female youngster trying to set a transcontinental flight record a couple of years ago and the effort ended tragically and yet general aviation and efforts to set records still goes on. I was surprised to see ESPN pick up the situation this evening. Regardless of the outcome, the human spirit will continue to test the boundaries... I pray Abby fairs well, she seems pretty squared away for her age.

[Monovasia]

From the Lads on the "Anything Sailing Thread"

This from SMSScott on SA who did work on Abby's boat during both stops:

Between about 3:00 pm PDT and 5:00 pm PDT we had many very short broken calls from iridium phone from inside boat.

Abby had been Knocked Down several times in 60 Kts winds earlier in the day. Last Knock Down stripped radar from gimbaled mount on mast. There was slight amount of water in boat. No other damage was noted running backs were intact. A full damage survey had not been done yet outside.

She felt she was in good shape after these incidents. The main reason for the call was engine would not start. We got engine started and it was working OK. B&G wind instruments atop mast were still in working order she had 35 Kts wind and was sailing. Basically she felt all was OK.

Iridium dropped another call and we expected a quick call back as she had been doing for several hours. 30 minutes to 1 hour passed with no contact.

Then USCG called with first EPIRB deployment this was a manual EPIRB from inside cabin. Short time later Personal EPIRB was also activated. There is also a Class 1 automatic deployment EPIRB in cockpit that has not activated.

Just about the time of EPIRB activation it would have been getting dark.
She does have a life raft and survival suite.
Her last water temperature report June 5 was 54 degrees F and cabin was 60 degree F...since then she has reported a cabin temp of 65 degree F

Search and Rescue has been handed over to the French.

French navy vessel 2 1/2 days away has been diverted to EPIRB position. Fishing vessel 40 hours away has also been diverted to EPIRB location.

Initial EPIRB location was 557 NM NNE of PORT-AUX-FRANCIAS.

That is the extent of what we know.

This is the most full and complete info you will get from anywhere I was on the phone calls with her. If you hear anything else but this it is either not true or it is new info.

[tomwatt]

Morning news indicates she's de-masted.
But okay.
End of the adventure though.

[nowell]

Good evening Nowell, I am not sure I agree with you on this one. If you recall there was a female youngster trying to set a transcontinental flight record a couple of years ago and the effort ended tragically and yet general aviation and efforts to set records still goes on. I was surprised to see ESPN pick up the situation this evening. Regardless of the outcome, the human spirit will continue to test the boundaries... I pray Abby fairs well, she seems pretty squared away for her age.

True, I just can't help but wonder, why this was so important to sail that part of the world in winter, when common sense says to try and avoid it. I believe there were even some that asked about the validity of her choice? Now im hearing that her parents are saying she should abandon this. I guess thats my biggest problem with all this. While the dream is admariable, other people will use it as a platform to supposedly "protect" those that look up to her.

I guess my rant is just over the country we have become that feels everyone needs to be protected from themselves. As long as people keep pushing envelopes, innovation thrives, but it can be a double edged sword. I think the higher profile of this will tend to be more detremental than not.

Glad shes ok though.

[Tim]

Not knowing the individuals I find it impossible to judge the situation.

Although my 14 y/o daughter has already traveled the world more than I, I insist on somewhat chaperoning her and a friend on the Santa Cruz beaches this next week.

I think Abby was fine until the decision was made to continue on after making her stop at the Cape into the Indian Ocean during their winter. I think that was a mistake. It was no longer a non-stop and she could have picked up in a few months and completed the circ safely.

[AdriftAtSea]

I think Abby's need for rescue was the inevitable result of a few things:

1)  An Open 40 was the wrong choice of boat for the voyage.  This is especially true given Abby's relative inexperience in the boat in question (see point 2).  The Open 40 was highly dependent on electronics and the electrical system to work properly. Without a mechanical windvane, the Open 40 was completely dependent on the autopilots and a problem with the electrical system forced Abby to abort her first attempt and layover in Cabo San Lucas for additional refitting.

2)  Abby didn't have enough experience in the boat.  Wild Eyes was bought in October.  Abby was originally slated to leave in November, but didn't leave until the following January.  This means that she only had the boat for less than three months, a part of which Wild Eyes was in transport from Florida to California?leaving me to question how much actual time on the boat Abby had before leaving.

3) She was sailing to a schedule.  She had to abort her first attempt because of problems with the electrical system.  Her second attempt, leaving in February, meant that she was likely to be hitting the Southern Ocean in the beginning of winter, something that is generally avoided by even the most hardened of professional sailors.  She couldn't delay leaving and timing her departure to avoid the Southern Ocean in winter because of her approaching birthday.

I'd point out that the Sunderlands have really said nothing specific about what real experience Abby has as a sailor.  They said that she had a life-long dream of being the youngest to circumnavigate...but that lifelong goal is only three years old, since it occurred to Abby at the age of thirteen by all reports.

I'd contrast the above to the other 16-year-old girl that circumnavigated, Jessica Watson.

Jessica Watson's sailing experience has been pretty well documented, including a 1300 NM passage as captain of a 34' sailboat across the Tasman sea.

Jessica Watson was intimately involved in refitting her S&S 34, which is a proven cruising boat and has a history of successful solo circumnavigations.  Jessica got her boat almost a year before setting out in EPL, and had a part in choosing most, if not all of the gear that was aboard her.  EPL also had a windvane, which, although damaged in several knockdowns, continued to function well enough to allow Jessica to finish her trip.

[marujo_sortudo]

I agree that it sounds like some poor choices were made.  Of course, in general, I don't understand single-handed passage-making.  It seems a bit reckless to not be able to keep a proper watch, and dangerous not to have backup crew.  I also don't like the selection of the Open 40.  It seems to be an unnecessarily large and yet light displacement boat.  Made for racing, not cruising, IMHO.  For example:

1. Stainless steel rod standing rigging.  You can't carry spare standing rigging without a massive spool that you would stow where?  Repairs can only be done in port.
2. Carbon fiber mast.  Really, really tough to repair even in many ports.
3. Roller furling.  Enough has been said about this elsewhere, YMMV.
4. Electronics for everything.  What do you do with this boat when the electronics fail?
5. The sails.  Admittedly, I don't even understand all the verbiage of the sails, but they sound unnecessarily high-tech to me.  Probably quite difficult to repair, I assume, but correct me if I'm wrong here.

Another trend that bothers me is all these sailors getting rescued because of dismasting.  Why are so many sailors getting dismasted these days?  I'd argue their rigs tend to be underbuilt (in the interest of performance.)  It doesn't help that high-aspect Marconi rigs are popular, which place much greater demands on standing rigging (not that these rigs can't be completely safe if rigged conservatively and inspected regularly.)  Also, stainless steel standing rigging is highly susceptible to weakening from stress and strain and is often poorly inspected for such damage.  I'm guessing that this boat still had it's original standing rigging, which may have been only 9 years old, but because of it's racing history may have already been significantly weakened and/or undersized because of its racing design.

The other aspect of this that bothers me is that I feel a competent sailor should be able to rig a makeshift rig after a dismasting in most, but not all, cases and sail to the nearest port.  This, of course, requires a much more repairable rig, and a sailor with competent rigging skills.