Missing tourists in a dinghy

[troy2000]

This isn't good news.

VALLETTA, Malta – Maltese authorities enlisted the U.S. 6th Fleet and Italian coast guard on Tuesday as they searched for a second day for five French yachters who went missing off the Mediterranean island.

The tourists — two men, two women and a 15-year-old boy — had anchored their yacht, El Pirata, off the village of Dwejra on Sunday. They left on their 4-meter (12-foot) tender Sunday evening to go ashore for dinner at Xlendi Bay — the next cove over on the Maltese island of Gozo — but failed to return to the yacht.

The trip would have taken them out into the open seas where conditions were rough and winds high on Sunday night.

The Spanish yacht captain reported the group missing Monday at 4:30 p.m. after he did an initial search himself, a government statement said. Police confirmed the group had dined at a Xlendi restaurant and that a witness saw the five leave Xlendi Bay at around midnight.

Patrol boats of the Armed Forces of Malta, a helicopter and aircraft were joined Tuesday by search and rescue teams from the U.S. Navy's 6th Fleet stationed in Sicily and the Italian coast guard, a Maltese government statement said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/0...ng-ashore-from/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz2Sm1hxGy3

We don't know much about the specific boat they were in. But isn't five passengers a bit much much for the average 3-meter dinghy, in anything but calm waters?

 

[daiquiri]

Typically, RIBs are used as tenders on small family yachts in the Med, and they are very stable boats. A typical 3.5 m tender looks like this: http://www.zodiacmarineusa.com/zodiac-tenders/zodiac-zoom , which is certified for 5+1 passengers (I am just guessing that "+1" refers to 1 child). So, from that point of view, their number was in the allowed range.

It is also designed to C category according to EU Directive a 94/25/CE, which means that it should be suitable for waters with winds lower than Force 6 and wave heights smaller than 2 meters. The seas usually calm down in the evening, but the actual weather conditions at the moment of (presumed) accident are to be verified.

However, the article says that they have disappeared after the dinner, so we can only guess what happened and why after dinner. But they make such wonderful red wine in this part of the globe, you know...

 

[michael pierzga]

Ive got a 3.2 Rib and 5 people is a heavy load. Wet *** syndrome. Normally you are only shuttling 100 meters in the anchorage. The danger comes when the wind is blowing you offshore and mechanical failure stops your RIB

Over the years there have been many Yacht tender accidents. Since its almost impossible to row a rib if the engine breaks down you are in trouble. Some years ago 3 dessicated French yachties washed ashore in Panama...they went missing in Greneda 4 months earlier. A few years ago I was sailing off the Island Vis . A cold front had just passed.. Its was very windy and rough. My sharp eyed crew spotted a RIB adrift. I altered course to check it out and there were three young people in the RIB wearing swim suites. They were hypothermic and useless like jellyfish so I had to send a crew over the side in a harness and one by one hoist the people out of the Rib. Stressful

The most valuable equipment on a yacht rib is an anchor with a thin, long 100 meters, anchor rode. and a extra bright flashlight.

 

[daiquiri]

Normally you are only shuttling 100 meters in the anchorage. The danger comes when the wind is blowing you offshore and mechanical failure stops your RIB
...
Since its almost impossible to row a rib if the engine breaks down you are in trouble.

This is so true. Not that it is impossible to row it, just very difficult - especially if packed up with people.

 

[michael pierzga]

A few years ago I was singlehanded in the Rib , returning to the boat. I was zipping along at full speed with my 8hp and ran over a piece of floating rope. The rope fouled the prop and sheared the rubber propeller hub. No more outboard thrust , so I broke out the oars and started to row..and row and row...impossible to row upwind so I gave up and rowed downwind back to shore...pulled up the tender on the beach and walked back to the village to find a fisherman to tow my rib back to the anchorage.

During the Summer Silly season its good seamanship to keep a sharp lookout for drifting RIBs

 

[daiquiri]

Ok, let's make a creative discussion out of this accident. A portable human-propulsion device for RIBs, more efficient than rowing paddles, is necessary. Come on folks, unchain that ingenious inventor which is sleeping in you!

 

[michael pierzga]

An Iphone ?

 

[bntii]

Yeah- phone or radio in a any tender used near offshore waters and a ANCHOR...

I had to pick up a small boy who was allowed to play in a outboard powered rib in a anchorage. He couldn't get the outboard going and the tender was quickly blown out onto the open bay. Chesapeake Bay so not too bad but still upset the lad quite a bit.

The windage of the tubes and the lame oar setups make rowing the average rib tough or impossible if it is blowing at all.
A four meter rib is not overloaded by 5 people (if this is a rib they were in).

 

[viking north]

Make your dink a more efficient rowing machine. Just a little improvement could make the difference ---- And this will make a difference. Step one, throw away those "dinky" oars that are usually sold or supplied with the rib. Second make up two FRP oarlock support bases that are moulded to drop down over and conform to the ribs normal oar locks. Say about 1.5 ft. long and rolldown over the dink's tubes about 6 in. either side of the oar locks. Then go out and purchase or build a good set of 6 to 8 ft. oars (depends on the dinks freeboard) And yes you guessed it the oarlock support bases keep the dinks tubes from collapsing when you put your back into it.
Another simple addition -- keep a small sail stashed in your dink along with a compact survival kit. Common sense yes -- but it always happens to the other guy.

 

[alan white]

Who said it was a RIB?

 

[daiquiri]

Bad news.

http://www.thelocal.fr/page/view/th...ta-hunts-missing-french-tourists#.UYvjqKJmXJY

 

[daiquiri]

Who said it was a RIB?

It was my conjecture, based on what I typically see around here.

However, in this case it was a wrong guess. The boat was found, pretty damaged, and it is not a RIB:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130508/local/french-tourists-boat-heavily-damaged.468869

 

[michael pierzga]

Makes no difference...The story is the same.

 

[bntii]

That's not capsize damage-they ran into something or were run down.

 

[daiquiri]

We don't know where the boat was found. Perhaps on the shore, after being battered by waves and rocks for hours.