On 26 Jan 2006 18:40:36 -0800, lid (Jonathan Ganz)
wrote:

He told them to screw off. Finally, they backed
down and left him alone.

OK, you first.

Jonathan Ganz wrote:
In article ,
Wayne.B wrote:

Refusing to follow an order from the coast guard is a felony for those
who are inclined to go that way.


I'm not sure this is correct in all situations. It might also not be
enforceable. What are they actually going to do to you? Say you're 500
miles off, there is high wind and big waves, the epirb is activated
(how about by mistake?), the CG shows up, and you say, no, it was a
mistake. Everyone is fine (of even better, you're single handing and
you're fine). Are they going to stay on station until the weather gets
better then arrest you on the high seas? What if you're not a US
citizen? Are they going to follow you to port or attempt to board you?

I know of at least one situation with a fishing boat out here where
they asked to board for an inspection. The guy had apparently been
boarded many times. He told them to screw off. Finally, they backed
down and left him alone.




What are the Coast Guard doing 500 miles offshore?

"Jonathan Ganz" wrote in message
...

why do people abandon ship ?

Injury, fatigue, hunger, thirst, hypothermia,

JimB

Jim, I'm sure those are reasons, but they're not particularly
good
reasons. You're not going to be doing better in a smaller and
much
more uncomfortable liferaft.

Perhaps psychosis or delusion would be a better excuse. :-)

You're quite right of course. Proper reasons for abandoning ship
(for a life raft) are fire and uncontrollable leakage such that
the vessel is about to sink.

The reasons I gave above are reasons for transferring to a larger
vessel, which wasn't the point of the previous poster, but is the
most common type of abandonment, the one being discussed earlier
in the thread.

JimB

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 05:44:34 GMT, Gary wrote:

What are the Coast Guard doing 500 miles offshore?

It was 50 miles. They have routine patrols on both coasts going down
as far as South America, primarily for drug interdiction but also for
Search and Rescue (SAR) operations.

In article ,
Wayne.B wrote:
On 26 Jan 2006 18:40:36 -0800, lid (Jonathan Ganz)
wrote:

He told them to screw off. Finally, they backed
down and left him alone.

OK, you first.

Not me buddy. I might not be too bright, but I'm not stupid. :-)




--
Capt. JG @@
www.sailnow.com

In article 6riCf.337319$2k.178832@pd7tw1no,
Gary wrote:
Jonathan Ganz wrote:
In article ,
Wayne.B wrote:

Refusing to follow an order from the coast guard is a felony for those
who are inclined to go that way.


I'm not sure this is correct in all situations. It might also not be
enforceable. What are they actually going to do to you? Say you're 500
miles off, there is high wind and big waves, the epirb is activated
(how about by mistake?), the CG shows up, and you say, no, it was a
mistake. Everyone is fine (of even better, you're single handing and
you're fine). Are they going to stay on station until the weather gets
better then arrest you on the high seas? What if you're not a US
citizen? Are they going to follow you to port or attempt to board you?

I know of at least one situation with a fishing boat out here where
they asked to board for an inspection. The guy had apparently been
boarded many times. He told them to screw off. Finally, they backed
down and left him alone.




What are the Coast Guard doing 500 miles offshore?

Air/sea rescues. We were just over 200 miles off when we were
overflown by a USCG Air/Sea rescue plane. I think they were wondering
what we were doing out there, since we were just drifting for a couple
of hours. They did a couple of loops while we waved, and then they
took off in the direction of another sailboat we had seen a 1/2 day
before. I think they did the extra loops so low because a couple of
the women were skinny dipping, but you never know.


--
Capt. JG @@
www.sailnow.com

In article ,
News f2s wrote:
You're quite right of course. Proper reasons for abandoning ship
(for a life raft) are fire and uncontrollable leakage such that
the vessel is about to sink.

The reasons I gave above are reasons for transferring to a larger
vessel, which wasn't the point of the previous poster, but is the
most common type of abandonment, the one being discussed earlier
in the thread.

I would think that some boat interiors would become uninhabitable if
the boat were dismasted. This happened in the Fastnet Race, and I'm
sure it's happened other times.



--
Capt. JG @@
www.sailnow.com

"Wayne.B" wrote
why do people abandon ship ?

Injury, fatigue, hunger, thirst, hypothermia,

Fear.


Yes, fear. In this case, fear for themselves, with no consideration of the
risk to the rescue crew. Did anybody else notice that they asked others to
risk their lives?

By the time of the rescue, the worst was past: "conditions
were fortunately not nearly as bad as they had been when we put out
the Mayday. Ironically we probably were over the worst of the gale."

" In the morning we had discussions with the crew. The helicopter pilot
said she had great difficulty controlling her helicopter as she was
flying at 50 knots to stay in position and going up and down 20ft to
stay with the waves. Independent confirmation that it was still a full
gale, if not F9. Even so, it was far less severe than earlier in the
day. She also said it was her first real sea rescue. She, like the
swimmer, had only done simulations in weather this severe. She also
admitted that her helicopter had not been airworthy the day before as
the rotor blades were being changed. We met the captain who said he
had been steaming his frigate away from the area to keep away from the
bad weather. "

Yes, this was an extreme situation, but all too often we hear of morons
calling for assitance, when there is little real danger, or when reasonable
planning could have averted the situation. Coast Guard (or Navy) personnel
WILL come get you out of it - but every mission, even in the best
conditions, puts them at risk.

Sal's Dad

On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 20:14:03 GMT, (Mic) wrote:


http://cruisersforum.com/showthread....5&pagenumber=1

Mayday off coast of Mexico

The following information about the need to be rescued from his
catamaran has been retrieved from www.themultihull.com forum and has
also caused a considerable discussion on www.ybw.com forums as well -
principly on drogues/parachutes.

http://www.ssca.org/sscabb/index.php...m=6&topic=2221
# Posted: 23 Dec 2005 10:27


I was recently made aware of an interesting and relevant statistic.

The total number of fatalities, per year world wide, as a result of
sailing (in any form) is identical to the total number of fatalities
suffered by people playing golf.

Paul

# Posted: 23 Dec 2005 21:15


Paul, where did you get that stat? Smells of urban myth to me. Is it
published anywhere?

http://www.ssca.org/sscabb/index.php...m=6&topic=2221
78% of sailors give up before their boats
60% of boats abandoned are found in fine shape later
50% of wifes get divorced over a boat
13% of wifes making long passeges with husbands "fall overboard"

--------------------------
http://www.radford-yacht.com/stablty1.html
Introduction
This outline on stability is based on "The Safety of Small Commercial
Sailing Vessels" A Code of Practice, which emphasises the point of
vanishing stability as THE MAJOR INDICATOR of a yachts ability to
resist capsize. We are not attempting to address other issues relating
to stability in this section.

Boat stability links
http://www.rya.org.uk/images/uploade...e_10_11_05.pdf

http://www.rya.org.uk/images/uploade...lity_Intro.pdf

Xantrex links
http://www.xantrex.com/support/web/t...cldoc_type.asp
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/736/docserve.asp
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/475/docserve.asp
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/268/docserve.asp


-from Bilge Water Review, Fool Hardy Publications

Wayne.B wrote:
On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 19:40:58 -0500, Jeff wrote:


So this brings up the question, if you could quantify the risk, at
what point would you say, "please send a chopper"? Would you do it at
50% risk? 10%? 90%? Or should you wait until you're stepping into
the liferaft?


My boat?

1. After I'm in the liferaft and the big boat sinks or is clearly
about to;

2. Someone has become seriously injured.

Easy to say here in the comfort of my home...

Refusing to follow an order from the coast guard is a felony for those
who are inclined to go that way.

Richard Woods (the skipper of the cat we're discussing) is British and
his boat is UK Flagged - and this is international waters. What
felony law would apply?

I do agree that once you've asked for a rescue, you should be prepared
to abandon the vessel, unless conditions have really moderated when
the rescue vessel arrives.

I met Richard last summer and really feel for him losing his boat. I
hope he gets it back.

Evan Gatehouse