Not wanting to be found
 

Here is a hypothetical question:

If somebody on a sailboat did NOT want to be found and had a 36 hour
head start leaving someplace like say the N. Florida Gulf coast, how
difficult would it be to find him. I assume the sailor not wanting to
be found could take some measures such as painting his boat a grey
color to match the water or even paint his sails, not use lights at
night, etc. What else can you think of to minimize his chances of
being found.
How difficult would it be in this case for conventional SAR to find
him? Remember, every 36 hours, the necesary search area quadruples
until after a few days it covers the entire Gulf of Mexico and its
shoreline.
I think it might be possible for such a sailor to elude being found for
a long time.

Its much easier to camp out in the park as a homeless person across the
street from the police station. They would never look there. Or, go buy
a car out of the paper with ligit bill of sale on Friday. In 36 hrs,
you could be at the Canada or Mexico border. Go camping. Now if your
just getting away from the wife, I understand. Sailing sounds good.
wrote:
Here is a hypothetical question:

If somebody on a sailboat did NOT want to be found and had a 36 hour
head start leaving someplace like say the N. Florida Gulf coast, how
difficult would it be to find him. I assume the sailor not wanting
to
be found could take some measures such as painting his boat a grey
color to match the water or even paint his sails, not use lights at
night, etc. What else can you think of to minimize his chances of
being found.
How difficult would it be in this case for conventional SAR to find
him? Remember, every 36 hours, the necesary search area quadruples
until after a few days it covers the entire Gulf of Mexico and its
shoreline.
I think it might be possible for such a sailor to elude being found
for
a long time.

I assume it's a small sailboat and doesn't carry a radar reflector.

About 15 minutes, if the time and point of depatrure are known. There would
be several radars and patrol planes tracking his every move to see if he
turned towards Cuba.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

wrote in message
ups.com...
Here is a hypothetical question:

If somebody on a sailboat did NOT want to be found and had a 36 hour
head start leaving someplace like say the N. Florida Gulf coast, how
difficult would it be to find him. I assume the sailor not wanting to
be found could take some measures such as painting his boat a grey
color to match the water or even paint his sails, not use lights at
night, etc. What else can you think of to minimize his chances of
being found.
How difficult would it be in this case for conventional SAR to find
him? Remember, every 36 hours, the necesary search area quadruples
until after a few days it covers the entire Gulf of Mexico and its
shoreline.
I think it might be possible for such a sailor to elude being found for
a long time.

Gee, that boy of yours must be starting to REALLY tick you off G

On 13 Jan 2005 12:09:48 -0800, wrote:

Here is a hypothetical question:

If somebody on a sailboat did NOT want to be found and had a 36 hour
head start leaving someplace like say the N. Florida Gulf coast, how
difficult would it be to find him. I assume the sailor not wanting to
be found could take some measures such as painting his boat a grey
color to match the water or even paint his sails, not use lights at
night, etc. What else can you think of to minimize his chances of
being found.
How difficult would it be in this case for conventional SAR to find
him? Remember, every 36 hours, the necesary search area quadruples
until after a few days it covers the entire Gulf of Mexico and its
shoreline.
I think it might be possible for such a sailor to elude being found for
a long time.

On 13 Jan 2005 12:09:48 -0800, wrote:

Here is a hypothetical question:

If somebody on a sailboat did NOT want to be found and had a 36 hour
head start leaving someplace like say the N. Florida Gulf coast, how
difficult would it be to find him. I assume the sailor not wanting to
be found could take some measures such as painting his boat a grey
color to match the water or even paint his sails, not use lights at
night, etc. What else can you think of to minimize his chances of
being found.
How difficult would it be in this case for conventional SAR to find
him? Remember, every 36 hours, the necesary search area quadruples
until after a few days it covers the entire Gulf of Mexico and its
shoreline.
I think it might be possible for such a sailor to elude being found for
a long time.


You might try this site for a possible method:

http://webster.fhs-hagenberg.ac.at/s...ingoncloaking/

;-)

Jack

On 13 Jan 2005 12:09:48 -0800, wrote:

Here is a hypothetical question:

If somebody on a sailboat did NOT want to be found and had a 36 hour
head start leaving someplace like say the N. Florida Gulf coast, how
difficult would it be to find him. I assume the sailor not wanting to
be found could take some measures such as painting his boat a grey
color to match the water or even paint his sails, not use lights at
night, etc. What else can you think of to minimize his chances of
being found.
How difficult would it be in this case for conventional SAR to find
him? Remember, every 36 hours, the necesary search area quadruples
until after a few days it covers the entire Gulf of Mexico and its
shoreline.
I think it might be possible for such a sailor to elude being found for
a long time.

Fill the boat with cocaine. We seem to have a hard time finding that
stuff.

John H

On the 'PocoLoco' out of Deale, MD,
on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay!

"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."
Rene Descartes

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 20:31:15 GMT, "Don White"
wrote:

I assume it's a small sailboat and doesn't carry a radar reflector.

==================================================

I don't think that matters anymore with a decent modern radar unit.
My new 4 KW Furuno routinely picks up small sailboats that are 4 or 5
miles away. Parts of the Gulf are just littered with crab and shrimp
boats however and you'd blend in with them on the radar. With your
sails down you'd be difficult to spot by eye from more than 2 or 3
miles away.

Rosalie B. wrote:
wrote:

Here is a hypothetical question:

If somebody on a sailboat did NOT want to be found and had a 36 hour
head start leaving someplace like say the N. Florida Gulf coast, how
difficult would it be to find him.

This depends entirely on who is looking. If the CG wants to find
you,
they will track you from the beginning of the trip and the color of
the boat or whatever won't make any difference.

If the person can avoid being a person of interest to homeland
security or the CG so that neither of them has an interest in looking
for the person, then there's no need to take any special precautions
.
I assume the sailor not wanting to
be found could take some measures such as painting his boat a grey
color to match the water or even paint his sails, not use lights at
night, etc. What else can you think of to minimize his chances of
being found.

Probably the best thing to do would be to set off as if it was an
ordinary trip, say from Texas to Pensacola on the ICW, and file a
float plan with someone to that effect. Tell them if you don't turn
up in Pensacola in 2 weeks, to start to look. Then go the other
direction.

How difficult would it be in this case for conventional SAR to find
him? Remember, every 36 hours, the necesary search area quadruples

Why is the SAR looking for him?

until after a few days it covers the entire Gulf of Mexico and its
shoreline.
I think it might be possible for such a sailor to elude being found
for
a long time.

grandma Rosalie

Unfortunately, my life is not interesting enough for anybody to look
for me. The question is purely hypothetical as I am wondering if Low
Tech could win over High Tech. Concerning tracking by the CG, how
would the CG find him in the first place if all they knew was that he
had departed sometime in th elast 36 hours from a certain port? They
might use radar but I understand that many small sailboats show up
poorly on Radar. They might use visual search methods but that should
be easy to defeat. Specifically, how would the CG find him?
Concerning radar, I admit my ignorance of anything but theoretical
concepts as I have never used one. Would removal of metal lifelines
reduce the radar cross section? Removing the mast would be difficult
but I think it produces a minimal return anyway being rounded. Would
covering the engine with a "space blanket" (aluminized mylar) reduce
its radar cross section?