Gogarty wrote:

The vessel looks totally shattered from the deck line up. She must
have been swept.

Swept doesn't do that kind of damage. A boat of the quality that one
appears to be would have survived a lot of sweeping.

What kills boats in these latitudes and waves of this size (probably 20 feet
since he said 40) is being dropped off the steep face of ones that are
nearly breaking. Imagine your boat picked up by a crane 15 - 20 feet and
rolled so the masts are pointed downwards. Then just let it go. That's the
kind of impact we're talking about. The rig seldom survives and the major
damage is always on the downward side.

People will probably respond that they have been out in 20 foot seas many
times and nothing like this happend. It's the shape of big wave trains
running in wide open water with even bigger swells under them that is more
dangerous than just the height. If most of the waves he was in were 20
feet, the one that took his rig out still could have been over 40.

--
Roger Long

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
Gogarty wrote:

The vessel looks totally shattered from the deck line up. She must
have been swept.

Swept doesn't do that kind of damage. A boat of the quality that one
appears to be would have survived a lot of sweeping.

What kills boats in these latitudes and waves of this size (probably 20
feet since he said 40) is being dropped off the steep face of ones that
are nearly breaking. Imagine your boat picked up by a crane 15 - 20 feet
and rolled so the masts are pointed downwards. Then just let it go.
That's the kind of impact we're talking about. The rig seldom survives
and the major damage is always on the downward side.

People will probably respond that they have been out in 20 foot seas many
times and nothing like this happend. It's the shape of big wave trains
running in wide open water with even bigger swells under them that is more
dangerous than just the height. If most of the waves he was in were 20
feet, the one that took his rig out still could have been over 40.

--
Roger Long


And, there's the washing machine effect of being rolled over and over and
over. Not something anyone will put up with for very long before they want
out.


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

I listened to the phone interview on his web site last night.
Had to rig up some powered speakers to hear it all.

Basically he said the wind was 35 knots on the starboard quarter.
Then a sudden big blow caused the boat to round up - square across the
waves - and she rolled. Perhaps all the way over.

Now I won't claim to any great blue water experience, having been out
of sight of land only once in the Caribbean.

But my immediate question was how much sail was up at the time?

I would think that a single handed sailor would, in deference to
survival, take a very conservative approach.

Reef early - and deep.

My impressions from his web site is that he thought the boat could take
anything Mother Nature dished out and was cracking on.

Maybe I'm reading too much from between the lines?

Richard
Spirit

On Sat, 6 Jan 2007 12:02:38 -0500, "Roger Long"
wrote:

What kills boats in these latitudes and waves of this size (probably 20 feet
since he said 40) is being dropped off the steep face of ones that are
nearly breaking. Imagine your boat picked up by a crane 15 - 20 feet and
rolled so the masts are pointed downwards. Then just let it go.

Nice description.

I usually say something like "tossed down into the trough from the top
of a 20 foot wave" but it all amounts to the same thing, and it's not
at all uncommon. I've also heard it described as "falling off a wave"
which is fairly apt, and not difficult to do if you have some speed on
and the waves are steep.

One aspect of big waves is that they often appear as a hole in the
water instead of looming overhead.

The most interesting part of this IMHO is the lady single hander
coming to save him! She, in a tiny Southern Cross 28 sloop, versus his
heavy steel 44' ketch.
Gordon

Gordon wrote:
The most interesting part of this IMHO is the lady single hander
coming to save him! She, in a tiny Southern Cross 28 sloop, versus his
heavy steel 44' ketch.
Gordon

You've (and everyone else, have got to look at her web site). This lady is
something else.

http://www.donnalange.com

I'm not sure she has the street smarts I'd want to have to under take the
trip she's on now but she replaced a propeller all alone in the middle of
the ocean so she certainly makes up for it with other qualities. I suspect
it's no accident that her little 28 footer skated through the conditions
that killed that big, tough, 44 footer (In just 35 knots?).

We should all buy her CD to support this fellow cruiser who is doing it big
time on a shoestring. Scroll way down in her site.

--
Roger Long

Roger Long wrote:
Gordon wrote:
The most interesting part of this IMHO is the lady single hander
coming to save him! She, in a tiny Southern Cross 28 sloop, versus his
heavy steel 44' ketch.
Gordon

You've (and everyone else, have got to look at her web site). This lady
is something else.

http://www.donnalange.com

I'm not sure she has the street smarts I'd want to have to under take
the trip she's on now but she replaced a propeller all alone in the
middle of the ocean so she certainly makes up for it with other
qualities. I suspect it's no accident that her little 28 footer skated
through the conditions that killed that big, tough, 44 footer (In just
35 knots?).

We should all buy her CD to support this fellow cruiser who is doing it
big time on a shoestring. Scroll way down in her site.


Actually, she TRIED several times to replace the prop but couldn't get
the key in place in the rough weather. How about where she hand steered
for three weeks with no sleep!
Gordon

Gordon wrote:

Actually, she TRIED several times to replace the prop but couldn't

Trying is as impressive as doing it in this case. I was just skimming
through the site on a friend's laptop this morning so I haven't gotten the
whole story yet.

--
Roger Long