Posted on 06/17/2010 5:27:33 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW
The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea was first adopted in 1914 in response to the Titanic disaster. Along with mandating the number of lifeboats and the notification of a ship's routes, it also dictates that any ship in the area of a distress call will divert to assist that ship.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
Yeah, it was just that little matter of the Southern Ocean in wintertime? I mean, who could have seen that coming? Who knew? (sarcasm, if you didn’t pick it up.)
Swedish saying: “In calm waters, all boats have great captains.”
excellant post.
I got so tired of being flamed as a “socialist” because I raised these issues...It seems that to be a conservative here you must also tolerate ANY IRRESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR if the person is homeschooled, a Christian and “wants to be free”. Yeesh.
Until conservatives get it straight that to be “free” means to cancel the entire entitlement society FIRST or put up a multi million dollar escrow account so I dont’ have to pay for someone’s stupid “freedom “ stunt.
Thank you for the explanation! :-)
For their next act, Abbey’s parents are going to put her into a home-made rocket and fire her across the English Channel.
She had sailed through in difficult water before. She’s not the first captain to lose a boat to a storm.
So many great quarterbacks to be found on a Monday morning that I am surprised that the NFL doesn’t automatically schedule a draft every Monday at 11 AM during the season.
This article says that they had no insurance. The comments at the end are telling too.
"These rescues are not at all an efficient use of our military and civilian resources," James said. "But the problem is, what happens if you don't do it? There's some real moral dilemmas involved in this. You can't just say, 'Well, you're a stupid idiot,' and let them drown. It would be pretty hard to justify that."
DUH..........I was being sarcastic.
On these threads one needs to use /sarc tags. :-)
REGULATION! That’s the answer. Force solo sailors to take ten years of high education and THEN put up a multimillion dollar bond, and they only may sail in government approved equipment, and then we’ll redefine solo circumnavigation as pushing a rubber ducky around a government approved bath tub with government approved Viagra assisted body parts. Yeah, that’s the ticket! LESS FREEDOM. SAVE US FROM ALL POSSIBLE MISFORTUNE, BIG MAMMY GOVERNMENT!
You left off Alexander the Great.
Look, there is a REASON why Everest has a “climbing season” and even professional mountain climbers and sherpas will NOT take people up in December. There is a REASON.
There is a REASON why even professional crews on corporate sponsored multi-million dollar ocean racers don’t do the Southern Ocean in winter. There is a REASON.
The only REASON “Abbey16.com” was sent by her parents in a big rush to get out the gate, without such critical basics as a non-electric windvane self steerer was TIME. She was going to “age out” of being “Abbey16.”
So her parents threw her life onto the craps table in a grab at fame and $TV$ deal$.
If it was about the sailing, they would have waited for the correct season for the Southern Ocean, and at LEAST she would have also had a quality non-electric windvane for steering.
(But you can’t just walk into West Marine and walk out with a windvane and slap it on your boat and go. It takes a few weeks to adapt it to your yacht, since all transoms/wheels differ, and tweak it until it’s “right.”
Abbey’s media-whore parents didn’t have time for that! So they sent her out in a rush (Abbey16 is aging fast!) with only one electric autopilot, which burned out before Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. So they put on two more. But if one burns out, so with the replacements. Especially when you get into gales and big waves, when the force loads on the struggling autopilot motor increas exponentially.
And a solo sailor in the Southern Ocean, with no self steering (wind vane or electrical autopilot) will tire in less than one day in storm conditions. Even a pro sailor in his prime.
And once fatigues past the point of being able to steer to EVERY wave, the boat WILL broach, flip, and dismast.
And that’s what happened. That’s what every sailor could tell you would happen. And that’s why even pros in million dollar racers DON’T DO THE SOUTHERN OCEAN IN WINTER.
Ditto EVEREST IN WINTER.
Abbey’s parents sent her out, unprepared, for a winter rendesvous with the Southern Ocean, for one reason only: her age meant value to them.
More than her life.
What is so hard to understand about "This was a foolish venture"? And why the ridiculous, emotional, over the top response to a factual statement?
Before the advent of sat epirbs, if a sailor wanted to try this, it was all on him (or her.)
If they dismasted, they fixed a jury rig and sailed downwind to a safe port. (In Abbey’s case, Australia.) That was the expectation. Cut away the rig, erect a jury rig, and sail on.
In the EPIRB era, you don’t even cut away the rig, you just push the button, knowing that the Aussies will pay a million or two to rescue you.
I read some of that on Sailing Anarchy forum too.
There’s a REASON why guns should be banned too.
And people make awful bad decisions in the thrall of bad motives, like greed, lust, fame. So let’s REGULATE more. We need statists standing over our shoulder in EVERY aspect of life, protecting us!
So NO seasoned sailor ever sails the southern seas in winter, is that your claim?
Sail all you want. I’m for it! I’ve done it! I’ve sailed Panama-Hawaii-Guam solo, and Guam-Cali nonstop. I can speak to this! I was still a teen when I was third crew on a 33 foot wood sloop from Bermuda-Azores-Ireland. I know whereof I speak!
And I’m all for it! If you want to sail to Antarctica on a windsurfer, I’m all for it! Go for it!
But NOT if your sole “emergency plan” is to push the button on an EPIRB, and have the world rush to rescue your foolish and unprepared self.
Not needed. Public disapproval should be enough to stop people from foolishly risking young lives for personal benefit.
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