What are some opinions and methods sailors are
utilizing these days, in open ocean/offshore
anti collision measures? Are folks/sailors using
good radar systems with alarms (if so what brands)
or just post and conduct regular watches, utilize
radar reflectors, etc? ... Ween i say "open ocean/off
shore" i mean crossing oceans, 20-30 days of straight
sailing, etc...


thanx...

In article .com,
~^ beancounter ~^ wrote:
What are some opinions and methods sailors are
utilizing these days, in open ocean/offshore
anti collision measures? Are folks/sailors using
good radar systems with alarms (if so what brands)
or just post and conduct regular watches, utilize
radar reflectors, etc? ... Ween i say "open ocean/off
shore" i mean crossing oceans, 20-30 days of straight
sailing, etc...

Well, not exactly crossing an ocean, but 10 days out of sight of land
(100-200 miles off) seems to be offshore enough for my taste. For that
we used a combo of radar (at night and only if we weren't sure about
something) and regular watches, with two people on deck at all times
(day or night). We only had one encounter with a tanker, and she
changed course to avoid us. Yes, we had a radar reflector. Don't know
if it was that or she saw us with a visual scan. It was during the
day.

We did encounter another sailboat who clearing had some sort of radar
alarm, but it only alerted him when he was about 3-500 yards
off. Plenty of time for both of us, but....



--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

One radar reflector, A torch to flash over sails in low visibility
condition, and "eyes". Nothing better than someone on deck with a hand
compass taking a bearing on the approaching vessel.. Rememeber, if the
bearing doesnt change you are going to collide. Simple!

Definately, definately post watches around the clock unless you are sailing
in the southern ocean perhaps. If you are in shipping lanes or anywhere that
has "traffic" you need a good watch keeping system. And people who go to
sleep on watch should still be keel hauled. (personal opinion there).

I woke up once to find a watch keeper asleep in the cockpit. There was a
ship only 500 meters away. Sleeping beauty could have killed us all. This
raises a couple of interesting points. Watches should be made so not to
fatigue the crew any more than nessesary. Tasks and challenges can be set at
night to keep the crew busy durning the watch to prevent them from "nodding
off". Peel tomorrow vegies, Entrys to personal logs, cleaning, safety
inspections around the deck- what ever.

DP
"~^ beancounter ~^" wrote in message
oups.com...
What are some opinions and methods sailors are
utilizing these days, in open ocean/offshore
anti collision measures? Are folks/sailors using
good radar systems with alarms (if so what brands)
or just post and conduct regular watches, utilize
radar reflectors, etc? ... Ween i say "open ocean/off
shore" i mean crossing oceans, 20-30 days of straight
sailing, etc...


thanx...

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.

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.

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.

Denis....damm...that was close..nice to hear the
wake or displacement pushed you to the side !!

I would be a singlehanded 38 foot sailboat...doing the
SF Bay to Hawaii and onto NZ or Perth...so...i would
be in open ocean most of the time....not being able
to post 24 hr watches, I would be dependent on radar
and electrical devices to alarm me.......And pure
lick, of course......



"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 think it was a miracle......"

Meye5...what are the best, or what systems
would you look at 1st for a 38ft sailboat?

i guess i would be looking for a nice radar/alarm
scan or feature.....


"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."