O/T: Abby Sunderland

She is SAFE.

Boat is dismasted.

Details later.

Lew

Now if they can just get too her in time?

But - Big YEA!

cavelamb wrote in news:IL-dnQ8oSoDEZYzRnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

I do not want to denigrate the girl's accomplishments, but who is paying for the rescue efforts now?

Lew,

I'm glad she is ok, already there were rumblings of removing parents heads. She is a sailor from a sailing family, I don't believe what she was doing was inherenly more dangerous than the way I lived my teenage years, without me accomplishing a damn thing.

I know nothing about sailing or sail boats, but I thought the mast could be laid down in bad weather and with everything sealed up a good sail boat could withstand hurricane force weather.

Could you enlighten the unknowing?

basilisk

Those who know a little about sailing thought this voyage was in trouble before it even started. The boat was not properly equipped (huge understatement) for a circumnavigation, and she departed at about the worst possible time. Leaving California in January, put her in the notorious Indian Ocean just as the worst season there (winter) began. That was about as bad a plan as possible. Her reason for leaving at such a bad time was so she could set a particular record. If she waited to sail at the right time, when conditions would be as favorable as possible, she would be too old to claim that idiotic record.

The way she did many things made it far more dangerous than it needed to be.

Boats on which the mast can be laid down have that feature for going under bridges or the like, not because it is beneficial to do so in bad weather--the sails are one's power source--if you take down the mast you have no propulsion and no control.

A good sail boat well handled and with sea room can usually survive any kind of bad weather, however it will often suffer damage in the process. Too much damage and it becomes unmanageable. And Poseidon can kill _any_ ship if he gets angry enough.

it usually takes a crane to pull a mast on any reasonably large sailboat.

in almost all cases, a catamaran will be found floating abandoned after a dismasting, sometimes years later. they almost never sink as they don't hang a heavy chunk of lead on the bottom like monohulls.

"Lew Hodgett" wrote

Dismasted?? Is that a word?

Yep, I looked it up, it is a word.

Sound painful. It must have been trumatic. What kind of forces must be brought to bear to break a mast? Those things are pretty sturdy. It must of been really rough seas. She is lucky to be alive.

most usually a roll unless there was either damage to the mast, a fitting pulled out, or she lost a shroud.

just a knockdown usually doesn't do it.

----------------------------------------- They have already been paid for, comes under the heading of SAR (Search And Rescue).

SAR units practice every day.

Putting that practice to actual usage is just another "day at the office".

Here in L/A, we have urban SAR teams which include among other things cadaver dogs.

These teams respond world wide.

NYC 911, Katrina and Haiti are just a few plasces that they have served.

Go back to Ben Franklin's day and this same discussion was being had about fire department services.

Lew

--------------------------------------------- Boat up to about 25 ft can have what is known as a tabernacle mast which can be dropped on the deck without a crane.

Common in some parts of Europe for navigating the canals.

If the boat rolled, the chances of losing a mast increase significantly.

In addition, if a shroud (cable that holds up the mast) or shroud fitting failed, chances are good that would take the mast.

Faced with the weather she had, the usual practice is to "Heave To" where the jib sail is backwinded and the rudder is turned to oppose the jib.

The boat just bobs along.

You lose ground, but both you and the boat survive.

IMHO, this whole trip was a disaster waiting to happen as a result of bad planning.

She left L/A far too late. (January)

Prudent seamanship would have been to depart Dec 1 from San Diego or Thanksgiving from L/A which is after hurricane season, pass the "Horn" on New years Day and head East.

Machinery and sailboats are mutually exclusive IMHO.

Choosing not to use a windvane self steering as opposed to a power hungry electro/hydraulic autopilot was just plain fool hardy IMHO.

When they started crapping out and she was forced to make port in Capetown, all weather window was lost.

Choosing to sail in the Southern ocean in the winter comes under the heading of PPP, (Piss Poor Planning).

Lew

-------------------------------- See prior post.

Lew

Good question. Not like climbing Mt. Rainier.

Is SAR going to picked her up??

The news sites said a fishing boat was heading there to rescue her. But she'll have to stay aboard and fish until they go back home.

Looks like the "rescue" is getting "paid for" after all. :)

A fishing boat is picking her up - and they stay out until full. She might be on a boat a long time waiting for port. Then - which port.

Mart> cavelamb wrote in

--------------------------------- That's part of the package.

Lew

--------------------------- The fishing boat also has salvage rights if they want to be bothered exercising them.

Lew

On the Great Lakes a police department SAR unit can go pick you up with a helicopter wherever you are. But Abby was as far from the nearest police department as Los Angeles is from New York. Australian Search and Rescue had to borrow an airliner from QANTAS just to have something with enough range to reach her, and any ship dispatched from Australia would have taken a week to get there. They sent the closest vessel they could contact, which was a French fishing ship. She'll probably stay aboard that ship until it reaches port.

So, no, SAR was not going to and did not pick her up.

How it's all going to get paid for really depends on the attitudes of those involved--the Australians have stated that they're footing the bill for their part of it, what the French will do Lord knows, but I suspect that they'll let it slide too since it didn't cost them much and they got a good story out of it.