Some times just 1 small thing goes wrong

[Cyric30]

You-tube sailor loses boat in Spain, whats your take aways from this folks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vdaxrGfT1M

[Bubba the Pirate]

I usually don't like to criticize another skipper, but usually that means his seamanship choices underway. We cannot really put ourselves in the shoes of someone who is battling all the variables that can come at sea in a storm or some other tough situation.

However, leaving your chain hanging on the windlass is asking for exactly what happened to happen. It would be difficult to actually prove that the wake of the ferry had anything to do with the accident. If it is actually true that "no one in the med" uses a snubber, I'd bet that most wrap their chain on a big cleat or a samson post that is between the windlass and the bow. Relying on the clutch of the windlass to hold your boat is a fool's errand. 

Also(!) "the ferries are supposed to slow down, but never do."  So the wake of the ferry is a known issue within the anchorage. This should have been taken into account when anchoring there. If it wasn't known beforehand, it would have been the first thing you learned there and your scope/chafe gear/set up should have to be adjusted.

I feel terrible that some sailor's boat is likely a total loss, but I hate to say that it couldn't have been unexpected. That was just a bad call; bad seamanship.

PS: This is NOT "one SMALL thing that goes wrong" this was a HUGE -- and completely preventable -- MISTAKE on his part.

[Bubba the Pirate]

The salvage company is probably protected by so-called good samaritan laws but they are completely responsible for ripping the mast off the boat. They never should have attached a tow line to the chainplate.

OK, I'm off my soapbox.

[Norman]

Perhaps a lot more scope out would have eased the up and down stresses. 

Just leaving it on the windlass does seem lazy,  A chain hook, a length of nylon to a cleat, with slack in the chain to the windlass would have also helped.

I wonder how much of the keel damage was going in, and how much dragging it out.  I would think that attaching a tow rope to the mast, and raising it to the spreader with the halyard would have allowed heeling the hull in the proper direction to more readily slide over the rocks would have helped a lot.

Naturally, going in, it was heeled in the best direction, and lifted by waves for each rock, so minimized damage going in.

I once winched a keel boat off a sandbar with the rope up the mast technique, and it slid smoothly off after tilting toward me.  I did not have enough winch to move it cleated at deck level, tilted against the move, as the keel just dug in.

If it had come against a log or rock, it would have heeled more, and slid over whatever was there.  I had no lines to the hull, just to the mast, and pulled more than 50 feet away and anchored before starting to winch, so the pull was as horizontal as possible. 

Winching gives more control of the pull, and there is no prop wash going against the hull that opposes your pull.

Second guessing at its best here, of course, but if any readers here do go aground, some alternate means of getting off with minimal damage.

[Owly055]

    I was not remotely impressed with the salvage crew........ but the boat was probably a total loss from the outset.  There is an important lesson here about anchoring....  if  not several.   
     I'm grateful that there are people who have the courage and integrity to post this sort of thing....... And it DOES take courage to expose yourself to the inevitable criticism, which is often cruel.......... The ONLY reason to do this is to help others NOT to repeat their mistakes.  We are none of us perfect, and all suffer from lapses of judgment.  We all make mistakes.........."He who has not made terrible mistakes......... let  him cast the first stone".........to paraphrase Jesus.   I applaud the skipper, and if I make the same mistake some day, I have only myself to blame!!  It is far easier to learn from the mistakes of others than to make them ourselves....... I've  missed a lot of "rocks and shoals" in my life by learning from the mistakes of others........... but I've made plenty of my own ..................

Again, I applaud the skipper for his courage in bringing this to us.............. and every other person who shares his failures and mistakes with the world.  Usually the failures and mistakes are a more valuable learning tool than the successes.  What  is there to learn from bikini clad babes and idyllic adventures....... really?

                                                                                      H.W.

                                                                         H.W.

[Bubba the Pirate]

Leaving chain on the windlass is not just lazy, it is dangerous and NOT what the windlass is designed for.

This is not a skipper sharing a life  lesson. His friends put the vid together and want us to feel sorry for the skipper b/c "nobody on the Med used a snubber."

Hogwash. I feel badly for him losing his boat but it is on him. Bad seamanship.

[Norman]

Bubba, it just occurred to me, all the other skippers in the Med just might skip the snubber, and have no problem, due to much better maintenance of the windlass.  Not likely, though.

More likely, the hero of the video and his friends, who think others should bail them out of the predicament they are in, just did not look close enough at other boats riding at anchor.

I personally know of a skipper who did use a snubber when anchored outside effective breakwaters in the Med.  The bay this boat was anchored in was relatively open and large.  Additionally, it seems to be shallow, and large waves are created at much lower wind speeds in shallow water.  The waves as they recovered the boat were doubtless smaller by far, than when the windlass brake failed and set the boat adrift.

One additional risk of chain in shallow water, most of your "scope" is lying flat on the bottom, no catenary, so you come up quickly on each wave, producing very high shock loads.  Even if secured to a strong cleat, repeated enough times, this can rip the cleat out.

The shallower the water, the more essential that you have something that has a lot of stretch between you and the anchor.

I wonder what they plan to do if they do not get donations enough to repair or replace their boat?  I suspect the replace is going to be their choice, as I do not see them as having the patience to deal with all the issues of finding replacements for the multitude of parts that make up a complete, seaworthy sailboat.

[Bubba the Pirate]

I agree with all that.   8)

[CapnK]

Good responses all, here, IMO. Norm's points about stretch/give/built in strain release, Owly's about what kind workover the griefers are gonna give the guy :) but at least he is owning it.  No rode on windlass, check. And all the others.

I had to leave my boats last storm. I fully expected there may be none there on my return. It's stressful, and it is hard to get to that point where you finally have to say "I've done all I can do...", and take one last long look before you hand the reins over to Fate...

Hopefully I will be paranoid/wise/experienced enough to never lose a boat in this manner. But if I do, I know I'll think of Awhanee and the Griffiths in the Tuamotus, of Slocum making a big ol' dugout to sail back to New England from Brazil, and try to salvage what I can, for use towards getting a hull back between me and the waters. :)

Anchoring tactics - that's a subject, eh? I've had good luck/success so far with 2 hook spreads in a blow, but then I watch this video of Skip Novak and just look where that guy is dropping a hook (!!!), and his strategy is no matter what, big gear and one hook does the trick. He's proof that that works as well. :)

But he does use a snubber. :D

[Phantom Jim]

These circumstances are when experience and the ability to utilize what you have work to get the outcome desired.  This is no time to search for a solution on a palm pilot, not that it would have the proper solution to the unique variables of each individual situation.  I still shrug my shoulders and shudder when  think of some of the situations I have seen some boaters get into...there really is a GOD that protects them.

There are many things that can/will go sideways even if you have experience and good judgement.  Those without seem to rely on others to bail them out.

[Godot]

I went through the video at 1.5x and skipped ahead a bit (I'm having an issue with patience, lately) so I may have missed some things.

I think they explained pretty well what happened. A snubber should have been used. The safety line maybe should have been stronger. Even if the ferry shouldn't be going as fast as it was and throwing the wakes it does, knowing that it does it anyway means additional precautions were probably in order. You can get away with it most of the time. His number came up. I've seen quite a few foreign (meaning, they've put some miles on) boats anchored without snubbers. I think that was pretty much what everyone did a few decades ago.

Happily, while the boat may be lost, at least he (and his dog) are fine.

I try to not question a person's choices lest my own be questioned in return. Even very experienced and generally wise sailors screw up. Passing off responsibility to the other boats (no one uses a snubber! Ferry! Whatever.) is probably part of the grieving process (denial, maybe), although I think it was his friends who were doing the justification because they were probably anchored the exact same way. Luck of the game that Sailing Sea Dogs is the one who got caught. There but for the grace of God, go I. I can pretty much guaran-dam-tee, that he (and hopefully Zephyr, and maybe a few others who watch the video) will use a snubber, and not rely on the windlass, in the future. He probably picked up a few other lessons as well, though it may take him awhile to realize them.

Thus far I've avoided anything spectacularly embarrassing. But I've had a few close calls. I've made a ton of bad mistakes, some of which I probably shouldn't have survived. I like to think I make fewer bad choices than I used to. Getting old is the reward for surviving youth.



"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it" --Steven Wright

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first and the lesson afterward." --Vernon Law

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." --attributed to lots of people, with lots of varients. I don't know who originally said it.

[Frank]

Well put Adam....

[CapnK]

Well put Adam....

Aye, aye. Love the quotes. Makes me think of a thread topic that might be in order: "What was your worst fu... um, mess up?" :)