Tragic mistake

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rescuers-body-during-search-missing-151106785.html?nhp=1

Why in the world would a father set off in a sail boat out of site of land
with every one not wearing USCC class A life jackets They found and recovered life vests. It just makes me sick................................

Fox news just reported there were 7 life vests on the boat and all 7 have been recovered. Also 2 rib boats being towered are recovered.???

 

Actually the Coast Guard reported that the first body found was wearing a lifejacket. The two boats found were kayaks. Since yesterday they have found another body. They also found the boats mast.

It is painfully obvious that the father did not check the local forecasts and was not in anyway prepared for going to sea. He lived on this boat but there has been no mention of how long or what kind of experience he had. No epirb. No vhf. Woefully unprepared.

There will be an investigation and it will take a while but eventually we will find out what happened.

As retired Coast Guard , and having years of experience in accident investigation, I have seen people do things that would curl your hair. The big question is why? Bad judgement. Overestimation of their own experience and abilities. Lack of preparation, and a boat that is not suited for the conditions. And in many cases just plain stupidity.

But we will have to wait and see what comes of the investigation.

 

We see this every year down here and it's an unfortunate, but common place thing to see in the news. Once the investigation comes out, we'll see the cascade of errors that lead into the "event spiral", which has no good outcome typically.

All I know is it was a 29' boat, which is more than capable of handling the gulf, though you can get spanked, if unprepared and inexperienced. I'll guess they got hit by a sudden summer squall, which are very violent here, with full gales, sometimes hurricane force winds and horizontal rain that will blind you. The storm probably snuck up on them and a knockdown occurred. Likely tossing someone in the drink and in the panic to attempt a unrehearsed MOB drill, they lost control of the boat's situation (down flooding, broken gear, rig, etc.). When farther from shore than you can swim back to, the skipper has to make hard decisions and these often are made in a panic, particularly with your children involved, but you have to save the ship, if the crew is to have something to return home with.

 

Ike, an early repord said he called and said they were in 6' seas. would not healthy
people in class A life vests be able to (float) thru those size waves? Also the ribs in the photos looked really large to me. a friend of mine many decades ago was currear CC on the west coast and a cronic sea sick so they gave him light house duty. He would be say about 77 now and his name was bob Anton from Santa Rosa, CA

 

Not necessarily. You have to take in account water temperature and hypothermia. Even with a lifejacket on if you go into hypothermia, you drown. Hypothermia can occur even in Florida waters.

Ribs? are you talking about the USCG RHIBs or the plastic kayaks. The USCG RHIBs are 44 ft. If you are talking about the kayak then they were being towed and after a capsize or knockdown the would have been little use. Trying to get into a kayak in those seas would have been next to impossible. It's hard enough in calm water.

Chronic sea sickness happens to some of the best. My skipper on the Coast Guard Cutter Campbell, a Captain with 34 years of sea duty (yes sea duty, not just time in service) had chronic sea sickness. He took his pills every day and put up with it and he was one of the best sailors I have ever known. He went on to become the Ancient Mariner of the Coast Guard, an award given to the person in the Coast Guard with the most sea time. But others just can't handle it and get sent ashore.

 

Par, does a 29' sail boat half to have a certain amount of flotation?

 

No. In the US flotation is not required in sailboats.

 

6' seas are a pain in the butt, though certainly manageable, if the skipper has a clue. Water temperatures down here are in the mid 80's (yeah, we have it tough) and rising quickly. I'm still thinking they broached and capsized or got knocked down. They recovered the mast, which would have stayed attached if the boat had simply been holed. Maybe they broke a rudder or maybe the rig came down for some reason, we'll probably never know. There does seem to be a friend that knows the boat well and published interviews with him will likely reveal a lot.

 

I'm curious what sea sickness medication the Coast Guard issues or recommends? Sorry about the thread drift.

 

I haven't got a clue. I retired in 89. seasickness remedies have improved dramatically since then. I suppose now they use the transdermal patch. But that's just a guess. I am one of the lucky ones. Got sick my first time at sea. Never got sea sick again.

 

I'm one of the lucky ones too, but with enough motion, no one is immune to it.

 

I was mistaken. I did get sick once again. In 1970 doing a sea trial on a NAVY LPD off the mouth of the Strait of Juan De Fuca. The ship lost power and we were rolling around in 10-15 foot seas. Those LPDs roll like a barrel.

But I have been through 3 hurricanes in the Atlantic and been in the Pacific from Panama to the Bering Sea. The worst weather was in Alaska. Really nasty and cold. So cold we would have to break the ice off the superstructure because waves crashing over the bridge would freeze. Didn't get sick (I think I was too damn cold to get sick)

 

The Coast Guard has suspended the search https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-coast-guard-suspends-search-florida-family-lost-172813716.html

 

Any word on what boat, the make, model and year yet?

 

Detailed information here:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/articl...WS?Title=UPDATE-Coast-Guard-recovers-one-body