Mentioned in a thread below but deserves its own post as a must see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wzGs...related&search

This is the most compelling and sobering sailing video I've seen since the
web started bringing us these clips. Anyone who plans to go deepwater
should watch this a few times as they are organizing their equipment,
supplies, and mental preparation for heavy weather.

You can ask what the hell he was doing out there in an O'day Mariner, no
matter how modified, but the fact is that a vessel of the size most of us
sail can find itself in this kind of situation.

Watch closely and you will see that the deceased was briefly outside with
his video camera sitting on the overturned hull.
the boat evidently righted again because the camera got back into the cabin
where it was found.

Note that, despite all this abuse, the boat washed up afloat in Ireland.
The impressive growth of mussles indicates that it floated a lot longer than
his supplies were likely to have lasted. Since the cabin door was closed
and the crew was not on board, the final moments of this adventure are
pretty grim to contemplate.

If you are going blue water, ask yourself how you would handle this
situation in your boat and then prepare mentally and physically.

--
Roger Long

I see after some goggle research that he survived and was rescued from the
overturned boat. I wonder how he got the camera back in the cabin.

Good to know he's alive.

BTW this was a kite boat.

--
Roger Long

There is a lot more info about this boat on the
web. The guy was rescued, and the boat itself was
tiny--much smaller than it appears in the video.
A good link is:

http://sailing.about.com/b/a/206041.htm

The conditions that he says are horrendous look to
me like 30-40Kt winds and maybe 15 foot seas--a
good day for a romp with two reefs set in the
main, and a smallish jib. Not a good day out if
you get seasick though, and for sure not a good
day to be on a 14 foot boat with no mast and no
engine.

Don W.

Roger Long wrote:
Mentioned in a thread below but deserves its own post as a must see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wzGs...related&search

This is the most compelling and sobering sailing video I've seen since the
web started bringing us these clips. Anyone who plans to go deepwater
should watch this a few times as they are organizing their equipment,
supplies, and mental preparation for heavy weather.

snip

Roger Long

"Roger Long" wrote in news:45a7776b$0$9653
:

If you are going blue water, ask yourself how you would handle this
situation in your boat and then prepare mentally and physically.



Roger, do you know the state of the EPIRB? Was it ever found and, if so,
was its battery dead but the EPRIB operational? We carry the Internal GPS
ACR Globalfix 406 Cat II, manual deployed in our ditch bag. (Model RLB-35)
It sends its own fix to the overhead birds.

I'm interested as it seems he got no response from his EPRIB emergency
beacon. Did anyone hear it? Any information anyone has on the EPIRB
response is most important to all of us.

It would be hard to believe that nothing was received from such an EPIRB.
This one is rated for a continuous output for 48 hours from activation.
That would be pretty hard to ignore.

Everyone sailing outside needs to get this model with its own GPS. As you
can see from his video, the boat wasn't going to have a working GPS to feed
data to an EPIRB externally. Yeah, it's expensive. What price is life?

Hope yours never activates.....or ours.

Larry
--
Extremely intelligent life exists that is so smart they never called Earth.

I think the guy is a nut case but the weather was bad. I know I don't want
to be out in wind of 60 knots.









Loss Of The Sea Anchor
Dom Mee had been riding out a 40-knot gale two days prior to when the big
storm hit, as he had been doing for most of his attempt during this
hurricane season. On September 25th, Mee checked the wind, which at 05:00
was blowing 55 knots gusting to 60. The sea anchor's trip line was stretched
tight and seemed ready to pull the cleat securing it right off the deck. It
was already fouled on the main anchor line causing the stern to point into
building huge seas. Mee released the trip line but as he did so, heard the
sound of a large breaking wave from the opposite direction of the main
swell. He dove below deck before it hit.

Mee became aware that the small boat was listing to port which was odd, and
upon checking the reason found the boat had spun 360 degrees and the main
sea anchor line had become wrapped around the keel. As his boat sat beam on
to the building seas, the anchor rope cut into her keel. The rope soon
snapped.

Mee quickly got into his dry suit, assembled emergency equipment survival
bag to prepare for whatever came next. Mee stated that, "At that time I was
not in imminent danger, but still a very dangerous situation." But then the
boat rolled. As designed, it righted itself as Meed struggled to keep the
electronics from getting wet. The boat continued to roll seven more times,
but on the final roll it stayed inverted.

Rescue
The cabin began to flood as water poured in through the solar vent. Mee
activated his EPIRB only at the last minute with just an inch of air left in
the cabin before making his escape. As he swam out he became entangled in
kite lines, which had wrapped around the cockpit, but finally managed to
escape. As he made it to the surface he was greeted by a very scary storm.
Mee pulled himself onto the overturned hull and clung to the keel.

Assessing his situation, he felt he "had a 5% chance of making it till help
arrived", and then activated his PLB. He clung to the keel for five hours
before a huge wave broke over the boat. "I thought that this was the end of
us, but it turned over Little Murka." He was connected to the small vessel
by a line and proceeded to use every other line available to attach any
heavy items to the boat to act as stabilizers. He used the kite's to act as
sea anchors which worked to stop the capsizing for a while. For seven hours
he bailed out the cabin. Mee was able to return below deck and get a rest
from the elements, "as I knew we may have to survive for a further 30
hours."

Mee spotted a Hercules SAR aircraft over head. The Hercules dropped a life
raft and two bags which he used as drogues for more stabilization. The Berg
Nord came but was unable to locate Mee in the large swell and waited until
first light to continue to search. Five hours later the CCV Cygnus arrived,
launched a small rescue craft and transferred him across to the Cygnus.

Hi Larry,

Larry wrote:

Roger, do you know the state of the EPIRB? Was it ever found and, if so,
was its battery dead but the EPRIB operational? We carry the Internal GPS
ACR Globalfix 406 Cat II, manual deployed in our ditch bag. (Model RLB-35)
It sends its own fix to the overhead birds.

I'm interested as it seems he got no response from his EPRIB emergency
beacon. Did anyone hear it? Any information anyone has on the EPIRB
response is most important to all of us.

See the link in my other post. He was rescued by
a freighter, but they apparently declined to pick
up his custom built 14 foot boat.

It would be hard to believe that nothing was received from such an EPIRB.
This one is rated for a continuous output for 48 hours from activation.
That would be pretty hard to ignore.

Everyone sailing outside needs to get this model with its own GPS. As you
can see from his video, the boat wasn't going to have a working GPS to feed
data to an EPIRB externally. Yeah, it's expensive. What price is life?

Agreed. GPIRBs are the thing to have--and a
satellite phone to keep the loved ones from
freaking when they are notified that your EPIRB
was activated. Gives you something to entertain
you while you're waiting.

Now that I think about it, that video camera is a
good idea too. The film rights might be worth
something if there is enough drama. I liked his
video drama shot like "The Blair Witch Project".

Of course, stuff like this scares the bejezuz out
of the reluctant spouses, thereby ensuring that
there are more solo sailors out there

Don W.

On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:39:19 -0500, Larry wrote:

"Roger Long" wrote in news:45a7776b$0$9653
:

If you are going blue water, ask yourself how you would handle this
situation in your boat and then prepare mentally and physically.



Roger, do you know the state of the EPIRB? Was it ever found and, if so,
was its battery dead but the EPRIB operational? We carry the Internal GPS
ACR Globalfix 406 Cat II, manual deployed in our ditch bag. (Model RLB-35)
It sends its own fix to the overhead birds.

I'm interested as it seems he got no response from his EPRIB emergency
beacon. Did anyone hear it? Any information anyone has on the EPIRB
response is most important to all of us.

It would be hard to believe that nothing was received from such an EPIRB.
This one is rated for a continuous output for 48 hours from activation.
That would be pretty hard to ignore.

Everyone sailing outside needs to get this model with its own GPS. As you
can see from his video, the boat wasn't going to have a working GPS to feed
data to an EPIRB externally. Yeah, it's expensive. What price is life?

Hope yours never activates.....or ours.

His EPIRB was heard. Here's the story of his rescue:

http://www.dommee.co.uk/pgs/expediti...-05-09-26.html

and here's more about him:

http://www.dommee.co.uk/pgs/whoisdom...s-dom-mee.html

He's quite a character.

Steve

Don W wrote in news:xaRph.8369
:

Of course, stuff like this scares the bejezuz out
of the reluctant spouses, thereby ensuring that
there are more solo sailors out there


I don't think that's a bad thing. She might take more interest in the
boats OPERATION and maintenance and less interest in how pretty the cushion
colors look with those drapes. Way too many women aboard are just dead
weight passengers. Men need to test this out when crusing around the
harbor. Without warning, call down to The Princess on the settee and say,
"I just fell overboard. What do you do?", and sit back in the cockpit and
let the boat round up into the wind on its own with no helmsman.

For some, the test would be quite a shock to watch.....

Larry
--
Extremely intelligent life exists that is so smart they never called Earth.

Steve wrote in
:

He's quite a character.


Aye, that himself is.....

Thanks

Larry
--
Extremely intelligent life exists that is so smart they never called Earth.

Sounds like a nut to me.


===================
"Steve" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:39:19 -0500, Larry wrote:

"Roger Long" wrote in news:45a7776b$0$9653
:

If you are going blue water, ask yourself how you would handle this
situation in your boat and then prepare mentally and physically.



Roger, do you know the state of the EPIRB? Was it ever found and, if so,
was its battery dead but the EPRIB operational? We carry the Internal GPS
ACR Globalfix 406 Cat II, manual deployed in our ditch bag. (Model
RLB-35)
It sends its own fix to the overhead birds.

I'm interested as it seems he got no response from his EPRIB emergency
beacon. Did anyone hear it? Any information anyone has on the EPIRB
response is most important to all of us.

It would be hard to believe that nothing was received from such an EPIRB.
This one is rated for a continuous output for 48 hours from activation.
That would be pretty hard to ignore.

Everyone sailing outside needs to get this model with its own GPS. As you
can see from his video, the boat wasn't going to have a working GPS to
feed
data to an EPIRB externally. Yeah, it's expensive. What price is life?

Hope yours never activates.....or ours.

His EPIRB was heard. Here's the story of his rescue:

http://www.dommee.co.uk/pgs/expediti...-05-09-26.html

and here's more about him:

http://www.dommee.co.uk/pgs/whoisdom...s-dom-mee.html

He's quite a character.

Steve