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

http://cruisersforum.com/showthread....14183f29db2dde...

Mayday off coast of Mexico

so what's the story, does anybody know if this guy ever found his boat ?

On 30 Jan 2006 22:46:54 -0800, "purple_stars"
wrote:

so what's the story, does anybody know if this guy ever found his boat ?

It will depend on wind and ocean currents, unlikely any time soon.

Mic wrote:
We left Nicaragua on Friday 13th, which probably didn't help matters,
and had a very frustrating sail along the coast of El Salvador and
then Guatemala. Frustrating, as the weather was really changeable. For
example we went from motoring to sailing under reefed genoa alone in
under 2 minutes. But we did have some nice sailing for a couple of
hours each day - then followed by several hours of motoring. So it was
taking longer than we wanted to get to Mexico and we were both getting
tired, but Jetti, as always, was preparing good food. There was a time
constraint as we knew there would be a bad gale coming through the
Gulf of Tehuantepec on Wednesday afternoon, and we had wanted to get
past that area by then. Sadly we didn't quite make it.

The wind got up very quickly from south 7-10 knots to north west 30.
As we got away from land the wind increased more. There are several
proven, accepted, techniques for handling bad weather in a catamaran.
If the wave and wind are not too severe, one can just heave to or take
down all sail and lie ahull.

I am surprised no one has mentioned that trying to cut straight across
the Gulf of Tehuantepec in January (which is when this happened
according to news reports) is wildly reckless. As even some cursory
research will show, the winds in the Gulf of Tehuantepec in January are
pretty much non-stop gales. Even if someone predicted that the winds
in the Gulf would be less than gale force in January, I wouldn't
believe them for a second. The only non-suicidal way to traverse
Tehuatepec in January is stop in Puerto Madero and wait patiently for a
weather window (which may take weeks) and then stay 50 feet off the
beach and creep along the shoreline the whole way around.

The other thing I found bizarre about this story was the fact that the
author seemed to have little understanding of the stucture and dynamics
of the Tehuantepec gales. When a Tehuantepec winter gale starts
blowing it could easily last for 10 days or more, especially in
January, and the zone of gale force winds can extend something like 350
or more miles out to sea. Its not like a low pressure system that
blows through; its a stationary gale that can last weeks. Putting out
a sea anchor in Tehuantepec in a January gale is pretty much
guaranteeing that you will be beat up by gale force winds until you or
your boat falls apart. Also, the Tehuantepec gales shoot out of the
Gulf like a jet from a firehose; if you can work your way to the edge
of the gale zone you can go from 20-30 knot winds to dead calm in the
space of 5 miles.

The real lesson in this story is not about heavy weather tactics, its
about researching conditions before you start a passage, which these
people didn't seem to do.

I crossed Tehuantepec going north around late Nov 2002. I stopped at
Puerto Madero, and then went to the internet cafe every day and
downloaded NWS TPC weatherfax for Tehuantepec. It took 10 days until
they predicted a brief break in the gales (5 knot winds for 2 days).
Then we set out creeping along the shoreline. Just as we were about at
the top of the Gulf the winds were still light and were still predicted
to be less than 10 knots, and we decided that it couldn't be that bad
to cut across the last little bit of the Gulf about 15-30 miles off the
beach. Wrong. We got hit with 30 knot plus winds, double reefed the
main, rolled up the jib to just a scrap, and then flew across the gulf
at 2 knots over hull speed on a beam reach heeled over like crazy.
Since we were relatively near shore the waves weren't too bad, and
since we were near the top of the gulf we only had a short distance of
the wind tunnel to cross, so after about 6-8 hours we were out the
other side and motoring in dead calm, but it was still a hair raising
experience. If we had tried to heave-to, or put out a sea anchor (not
that we had one), we probably would have spent the next couple weeks
drifting slowly downwind in non-stop gale conditions.

Andy

Hi Andy:

So true. The original poster on this topic summed it up best whith a
quote from the skipper of the cat,

"....However, in 45 years of sailing and around 70,000 of offshore
sailing, I have never had to stop sailing because of bad weather. So it

had all been theory for me, until now...."

"I don't think were're in Kansas anymore Toto."
Dorthy

The best way to forcast a Tehauntepecer is to watch the weather in the Gulf
of Mexico.
If you have a Blue Norther or strong North wind there, fiqure you're in for
a pasting in Tehauntepec.....hug the beach.

"Andy" wrote:
...
The real lesson in this story is not about heavy weather
tactics, its about researching conditions before you start
a passage, which these people didn't seem to do.
...

I can't help but wonder if Richard Woods wanted to test
his catamaran design in a heavy weather condition but
just didn't expect it to get as bad as it did.

wrote:
"Andy" wrote:
...
The real lesson in this story is not about heavy weather
tactics, its about researching conditions before you start
a passage, which these people didn't seem to do.

I can't help but wonder if Richard Woods wanted to test
his catamaran design in a heavy weather condition but
just didn't expect it to get as bad as it did.

A desire to do some heavy weather sailing seems like the only
reasonable theory for why someone would charge into the Gulf of
Tehuantepec in January without first stopping in Puerto Madero and
waiting for an unambiguous weather window. The only other possible
explanation is that Mr. Woods had simply not read or heard anything
about the region he was sailing in and had no idea that he was sailing
into a wind tunnel, which seems unlikely.

In any event, it offended me that Mr. Woods described what happened to
him as if it was just some unlucky twist of fate that he got caught in
a gale, when in fact it was almost a certainty that he would get
plastered doing what he did.

Andy

Andy wrote:

In any event, it offended me that Mr. Woods described what happened to
him as if it was just some unlucky twist of fate that he got caught in
a gale, when in fact it was almost a certainty that he would get
plastered doing what he did.

Andy

Yes.......... I agree!
And I would add humbly to Andy's observation that Freak, Maverick, and
Sneaker waves might also fit with that example. Sorry guys, I really
feel strongly that the unpredictable can be expected, and reasonably
predicted. Its the old Observe-Anticipate-Take corrective actions
routine. As mariners, we do not have the luxury to blame the fickle
finger of fate for our troubles. An earlier sailor here said that a
more accurate analogy would be to get into a car, drive down the road,
and have a tree fall on us. How could we predict that? Anybody ever
live in the mountains where an interstate freeway cuts through a pass.
Ever see those 4x4 SUVs from the warmer and flatter elevations go
roaring pass at 70 mph over the packed snow with a Starbucks in one
hand? I usually would pass them in the ditch. A very sobering and
edicational sight for my then 16 year old daughter. She learned from
the mistakes of others. Ever talk to one of those SUV drivers after
their crash? "All of sudden the care went completely out of control !"
Duh, wonder why? So, who was driving???
Sounds a lot like those charterboat operators who killed their
passengers when a Rogue
Wave "came out of nowhere."

Bob
(Emerging Sock Puppet)