On Mon, 20 Jan 2014 05:08:53 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Mon, 20 Jan 2014 00:06:13 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jan 2014 11:56:08 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jan 2014 09:50:54 -0700, slide wrote:

On 1/19/2014 6:17 AM, Bruce in Bangkok wrote:


And thus speaks the Pseudo Sailor. Who knows all about sailing. Why,
he once sailed, single handed too, all the way down the bay to anchor
for the night on a mud bank.


I skimmed the article but it seemed to me that the boat was poorly made.
A wave against a 'window' was all it took for the window to leak, lose
trim and other wave / ocean action put the boat out of commission. It
also seems that the rudders were attached to the stock by small set
screws. That on a vessel meant to voyage across oceans?

I was greatly impressed by one guy going for a swim under the boat. I
did sail in this area at around that time and the water is COLD.

Overall, though, it's not the behavior of the crew which I thought
deficient but the construction of the boat.

Agree. There might be a warning there about embarking on an offshore
trip with a boat of unknown "reputation."
It looks like the quality issues went beyond the set screw, which was
handled.

===

Clearly there were some issues with the boat but I believe they made a
very foolish choice to go offshore from New Jersey, in the middle of
winter, into the teeth of several North Atlantic gales. It would have
been far more prudent to go down the east coast via Chesapeake Bay
and the ICW at least as far as North Carolina. From NC you assess
the weather and wait for a window when you can cross to Bermuda with
reasonable safety. However in a boat that size, in the middle of
winter, it is far safer to go all the way to Florida via the ICW and
then head down through the Bahamas on the so called "Thornless Path"
to the Caribbean. Having made the winter trip through the Bahamas
several times in a 50 footer, even that route is something less than a
walk in the park.

I don't know what their sailing background is, so I can't speak to
that. That course and those weather conditions are "unsafe?"
Appears to me they didn't run into anything but one wave that disabled
steering. Then they also had batten problems and electrical.
Seems the boat quality was the main issue.
Even taking your southern route may have broken that boat.
But you know better than I about sailing conditions.

===

The North Atlantic in the winter time is a dangerous place. Water
temperatures are very cold, and there are usually gale force winds 20
to 30% of the time. The biggest problem however for a small boat is
that there is no nearby shelter if conditions deteriorate. You are
fully committed to being "out there". Even large, well crewed boats
in top condition get into trouble once in awhile in circumstances like
that. It only takes one major gear failure to become life
threatening, and there are a lot of things that can go wrong.