Novel way of dismasting. Cowes week

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5Nrx3Mdzls

The ship barely has steerage it's going so slowly. The yacht almost escaped with only a fright, but not quite.

 

Mass times velocity equals an *** whipping.

It's actually pretty easy to bring down a stick. I had a throttle stick, while bringing in a cruiser to the travel lift and the main hit the cross bar at the top of the lift, bringing down the whole shooting match in a heap. In fact, I've had very little difficulty breaking several over the years.

 

Sometimes you get away with a near miss... other times fate kicks your butt!
Will bookmark for next time I'm feeling blue over something I knew better than to do!

 

Some one might want to mention to this skipper that the concept of a safe lee is null and void if the other craft is a supertanker.

 

...might has right...why challenge it.....

 

I gotta ask-

Was the sailboat's tactician looking at AIS ? Did it say that they would clear the bow by 10 feet? Did it fail to mention that there was another 50 feet of beam to take into consideration? As far as I know, AIS does not figure the beam into its calculations; only the amount of boat in front of the transmitter.

 

Phil, I suspect the skipper figured he could clear, but was then headed and lost drive from his spinnaker, likely shaving considerable speed off his boat. While they battled with the balloon, the skipper actually tried to bear away, into the path of the monolith before him. This shorten the time he had to cross and at a reduced speed, he was screwed. I don't think he could have prevented the incident, once the chute collapsed, he was done. His alternative was to pass behind, which would have been a fairly long wait. Had he kept the chute full, he'd have likely made it, but the wind always shifts when you'd rather it didn't and it always does so in spectacular fashion, when folks are watching.

 

There's no tactical advantage in just passing ahead of the tanker. Once a ship is in the Brambles Bank area of the Solent, there is a statutory moving exclusion zone around the ship that stretches 1000m ahead and 100m either side of the ship. This exclusion zone is also incorporated into the sailing instructions issued by all clubs racing in the Solent and any racing boat that enters the zone as judged by the ABP pilot, ship's master or escort vessel skippers, is protested by the Race Committee and disqualified.

In addition, as the exclusion zone is mandated in the bye-laws of Southampton Harbour, the Harbour Master (ABP) can bring a prosecution with a maximum of a £1000 fine on conviction.

So the choice is not 'can I squeeze ahead of the ship' but can I pass 1001 metres ahead of the ship, or do I have to duck both it and the brake tug following behind. This is such a large area that any competent skipper will have figured it into his tactics in the same way that Brambles Bank or Gurnard Ledge have to figure. The fact that the ship is moving only makes it a little more tricky to figure as there's so much tide in this area that everything seems to be moving (relatively).

From Cowes Week SIs:
B17 Commercial shipping
B17 .1 southampton harbour Byelaws (changing RRS 60)
(a) Boats shall observe the Associated British Ports (ABP) Southampton Harbour Byelaws 2003 (see page 12) at all times and avoid any close quarters situation with large commercial shipping. Particular note should be made of Byelaws 10 & 11 and Associated British Ports Southampton Notice to Mariners No . 3 of 2011 giving details of a moving prohibited zone, which ranks as an obstruction for the purposes of RRS 19 and 20.
(b) Protests for infringements of B17.1(a) may be brought only by the race committee who may initiate a protest as the result of a report from an ABP Pilot or Patrol boat. Note that ABP may initiate court proceedings against boats that infringe this byelaw

 

Hi Mike
Any other access to the video that you know of, we're blocked from accessing social networks...

 

I try not to argue with anyone who seriously outweighs or outguns me....

Looks to me like the skipper pushed his luck a little, and the gods were fickle.

 

What orange hulled tanker? - - - Oops, Oh THAT one

 

I wonder what transpired after the video stopped. Did the rescue boats get there before the sailboat hit the prop-wash? What happened next?

 

I read that three RIBS got to the boat and the person in the water. No serious injuries and the person in the water was fished out.The sailboat hull was intact, more or less.

 

We forget how lucky we are . . .