Denis Marier wrote:
In 1982 (as a beginner) I was going upstream with no wind on the Saint
Laurent river toward Montreal in my brand new 27 foot sailboat when I lost
the diesel engine. I went down to investigate the diesel engine while the
wife was hosting the sales. Suddenly I raised my head to see the bow of a
huge container ship coming at me. Then with the sails up with no wind and
no engine I said this is the end of my family. I had no time to pray. The
bow of the container ship was right on my stern. As I saw the bulbous of
the ship the wake pushed my little sailboat aside and the 6 - 7 current took
me away from the freeboard of the ship. I still thing it was a miracle.
The lesson I learned is when your engine breakdown in heavy current on a
dead calm sea
is to broadcast your position and situation. Today I have a radar and I use
the range guard alarm and I plan my course within a safe distance from the
ship lane. When the location permits I like to contact Maritime traffic and
make my intentions known. The other thing is I always leave the VHF on
scanning. When entering heavy commercially fished and whales watching areas
I broadcast my course and speed.
Last year a 44 foot sailboat was hit by a container ship in the same zone.
The sailboat sunk and everyone on board drowned.

"Meye5" wrote in message
oups.com...

What I go by, 1- Dont expect the big boats to see you, often there is
no watch and if they actually hit you, they will NOT stop. Even if they
know there was a collision. This is a universal reality. Cold but true.
If you don't believe this your living in fantasy land.
2-Radar with an alarm is a must if your in
shipping lanes Headed to the Bahamas at night on a well travelled
route? A watch and radar, a must.
3- Lots of navigation lights beyond the usual,
4-Dont **** your pants if they get within 500
yards, to actually have a collision requires actual contact. Thats
where that boat hits yours????? Their big and scarie looking when
they get close but dont panic if they get real close as long as you
take evasive action you can avoid the problem just fine. Closer they
get the easier it is to calculate your desired course of steer. Just
use your brain and dont freak out like your wife. And give her a shot
of thorazine or prozac what ever you have on hand. Keep the boat crew
calm.




We have to be careful here also, although the ships do slow down a bit
once in the harbour. (Halifax).
I bought my Sandpiper 565 from a guy in Cap de la Madeleine, Que and he
told me he found the wake from the passing freighters very high out in
the St. Lawrence River traffic lanes. He also had a scare trying to
re-start my Evinrude Yachtwin 6hp outboard to avoid a ship. He warned me
not to tilt the motor. I'll have to find out what that problem might be.
BTW, even when sailing on my friends Mirage 33, I always brought my
handheld VHF along and tried to monitor traffic, over his stereo and
boisterous crew.

Don White wrote:

We have to be careful here also, although the ships do slow down a bit
once in the harbour. (Halifax) ... I always brought my handheld VHF along
and tried to monitor traffic,
over his stereo and boisterous crew.

A few years back I entered Halifax for the first time, and unfortunately it
was a real "thick-o-fog." I could not see the dink I was towing.

It was roughly 0300 and I had been in contact with Halifax Traffic and
learned that a commercial ship was outbound and that we would meet in a
rather narrow stretch about 2 or 3 miles in from the mouth of the harbor.
Frankly I was a bit spooked.

In any case I used radar, my eyes, my ears, my GPS(s), and a few assorted
pieces of electronics and miscellaneous body parts to proceed into harbor.
At the appointed time I could both hear and feel the ship's horn off to
starboard and close aboard. I eventually made it into the Northwest Arm and
grabbed a RNSYS mooring I could barely see to calm myself down and get some
rest.

I am not sure what point I was trying for when I started this post, other
than to say that even the best-prepared boats will at some point be severely
tested.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 13:22:47 GMT, Don White
wrote:

BTW, even when sailing on my friends Mirage 33, I always brought my
handheld VHF along and tried to monitor traffic, over his stereo and
boisterous crew.

I keep a handheld VHF (with a NiCad pack I recharge every 12 hours or
so) in a caddy hanging in the companionway. I also have an air horn
and a couple of hand rocket flares within reach. Lastly, I file a sail
plan with the Coast Guard when cruising away from Toronto and/or so
far out in the lake that I'm beyond cell phone range. Sometimes, if
the weather's rough, I do a position check and repay their attentions
by providing local weather, wave height, etc. as there are only two
weather buoys in Lake Ontario (at either end).

The lake freighters and tankers keep to fairly well-travelled lanes. I
keep a running fix with pelorus and/or GPS on the hour when I do my
log entries, and I can tell if I am getting close to these lanes.

Lastly, when night sailing, I keep the usual nav lights on and raise a
"raincatcher" radar reflector on the flag halyard. I also ready a
500,000 candela halogen hand light to flash on the sails. I also add
the "ship-to-ship" frequencies to my scan list on the nav station VHF.

Frankly, though, I have had far closer encounters with dopey fellow
recreational sailors, powerboaters and jetskiers than I have with
commercial maritime traffic. I have had 35-40 foot sailboats under
main and motor cross my path obviously under autopilot in Lake Ontario
with no one at the helm or visible. I gave one such "near miss" two
miles offshore a blast with the horn (I was under sail alone) and saw
a bed-headed sailor with a mug of what I assume was coffee appear in
his cockpit, peering owlishly about as I sailed off, having missed him
by about three boat lengths.

Some people just don't get it. He probably thought his chartplotter
would shriek if he got near another vessel.

R.

interesting rhys...thanx......some good observations there...

Here is very common to have two VHF on board one handheld and one fixe
mount. With the use of relay towers locate on high ground the range of an
handheld is better than before. Now days the cell and sat. phones, are used
more and more. The same thing goes for GPS one handheld with an SD memory
card loaded with information and one fixe mount both working on 12 volts and
batteries back up. The US defense dept are not suppose to scramble GPS
transmissions. But to be on the safe side I still have my old Loran as a
back up. This year I have added a 12 volts 700A mobile power pack in case
the boat's batteries run out, one more thing (toys) to carry.

"rhys" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 13:22:47 GMT, Don White
wrote:

BTW, even when sailing on my friends Mirage 33, I always brought my
handheld VHF along and tried to monitor traffic, over his stereo and
boisterous crew.

I keep a handheld VHF (with a NiCad pack I recharge every 12 hours or
so) in a caddy hanging in the companionway. I also have an air horn
and a couple of hand rocket flares within reach. Lastly, I file a sail
plan with the Coast Guard when cruising away from Toronto and/or so
far out in the lake that I'm beyond cell phone range. Sometimes, if
the weather's rough, I do a position check and repay their attentions
by providing local weather, wave height, etc. as there are only two
weather buoys in Lake Ontario (at either end).

The lake freighters and tankers keep to fairly well-travelled lanes. I
keep a running fix with pelorus and/or GPS on the hour when I do my
log entries, and I can tell if I am getting close to these lanes.

Lastly, when night sailing, I keep the usual nav lights on and raise a
"raincatcher" radar reflector on the flag halyard. I also ready a
500,000 candela halogen hand light to flash on the sails. I also add
the "ship-to-ship" frequencies to my scan list on the nav station VHF.

Frankly, though, I have had far closer encounters with dopey fellow
recreational sailors, powerboaters and jetskiers than I have with
commercial maritime traffic. I have had 35-40 foot sailboats under
main and motor cross my path obviously under autopilot in Lake Ontario
with no one at the helm or visible. I gave one such "near miss" two
miles offshore a blast with the horn (I was under sail alone) and saw
a bed-headed sailor with a mug of what I assume was coffee appear in
his cockpit, peering owlishly about as I sailed off, having missed him
by about three boat lengths.

Some people just don't get it. He probably thought his chartplotter
would shriek if he got near another vessel.

R.

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 19:01:40 -0400, rhys wrote:

Frankly, though, I have had far closer encounters with dopey fellow
recreational sailors, powerboaters and jetskiers than I have with
commercial maritime traffic. I have had 35-40 foot sailboats under
main and motor cross my path obviously under autopilot in Lake Ontario
with no one at the helm or visible. I gave one such "near miss" two
miles offshore a blast with the horn (I was under sail alone) and saw
a bed-headed sailor with a mug of what I assume was coffee appear in
his cockpit, peering owlishly about as I sailed off, having missed him
by about three boat lengths.

Coming back south to Lake Ontario was a real eye opener towards the
end of this season. The recreational traffic was so much denser in the
Niagara to Toronto area. I had got used to scanning the horizon,
seeing nothing, and figuring I had 10 or 15 minutes to myself.

The freighters were much easier to deal with. There weren't as many of
them. They didn't change course capriciously. Their lights were good.
It was still challenging to keep comfortably out of their way in tight
places like the St Clair River, especially at night.

Some people just don't get it. He probably thought his chartplotter
would shriek if he got near another vessel.

There's an advantage to starting out with very limited instruments

Ryk

Ryk,

I'm checking your arithmetic. Let's say the horizon is 4M away from the helm
of an average recreational vessel, so two such vessels in good visibility
might have sight of one another at 8M (but would look very small and not
"leap out" visually).

If one is a sailboat doing 5 kt, it will take quite a while to cover that
distance. But if the other is a planing powerboat doing 30 kt, it might be
there in roughly 15 minutes. Two power boats at that speed would be
"together" in half that time.

So, you might be about right. Does that mean you don't keep a constant
watch?

====

Charles T. Low
www.boatdocking.com

====

Coming back south to Lake Ontario was a real eye opener towards the
end of this season. The recreational traffic was so much denser in the
Niagara to Toronto area. I had got used to scanning the horizon,
seeing nothing, and figuring I had 10 or 15 minutes to myself.

The freighters were much easier to deal with. There weren't as many of
them. They didn't change course capriciously. Their lights were good.
It was still challenging to keep comfortably out of their way in tight
places like the St Clair River, especially at night.
...
Ryk

On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 05:58:28 -0500, "Charles T. Low"
[withoutUN] wrote:

So, you might be about right. Does that mean you don't keep a constant
watch?

Am I constantly scanning the horizon? No, not when I don't see
anything out there. Will I go below long enough to get a sandwich or
use the head? Yes. Will I read a couple of pages of my book before
looking up? Yes.

Ryk

Thanks for fleshing that out.

Single or short-handed boating does, of course, require some compromises.

I don't find anything in the ColRegs which exempts any boater from keeping a
constant watch, and yet there are situations - such as sleeping while
anchored - in which the authorities seem to recognize implicitly that it's a
safe (enough) and accepted practise.

Has that policy ever given you any close calls?

====

Charles T. Low
www.boatdocking.com

====

"Ryk" wrote in message
...
Am I constantly scanning the horizon? No, not when I don't see
anything out there. Will I go below long enough to get a sandwich or
use the head? Yes. Will I read a couple of pages of my book before
looking up? Yes.

Ryk

On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 20:07:51 -0500, "Charles T. Low"
[withoutUN] wrote:

Thanks for fleshing that out.

Single or short-handed boating does, of course, require some compromises.

I don't find anything in the ColRegs which exempts any boater from keeping a
constant watch, and yet there are situations - such as sleeping while
anchored - in which the authorities seem to recognize implicitly that it's a
safe (enough) and accepted practise.

Has that policy ever given you any close calls?

No, I've never been in a near collision situation except on the race
course. Although I have occasionally been caught by surprise while
(supposedly) keeping a constant watch, usually by somebody overtaking,
or sneaking into the blind spot under the genoa. I think I may be more
concious of checking the full 360 when I know I've had my attention
elsewhere for a little while.

Ryk