You should read the full report
http://www.maib.gov.uk/publications/.../2007/ouzo.cfm -
it's very sobering, with good information on night vision and ship-to-yacht
interactions.

The Pride of Bilbao did have AIS equipment ( JRC JHS-180, whatever that
means). However "Had Ouzo carried AIS it would have made no difference to
the outcome as AIS information was not displayed on the radar of Pride of
Bilbao." (p 30)

The radar reflector on Ouzo sounds like yours, Peter - "but, in practice,
its overall performance is poor, and it is now evident that at best there
was only a 50% probability that the ship would have been able to detect Ouzo
on the radar at close range."- read the report for a full explanation.

Sal's Dad


Full AIS transponders.....the sooner, the better for everyone.

If you can afford a yacht, you can afford a small AIS transponder. Noone
HAS to die. Ouzo would have had the same size target on the AIS screen in
that ferry as a big aircraft carrier. No need, any more, to rely on some
plastic reflective ball to make you a tiny blip on someone's 1957 tube
radar screen, fading in and out as the mast lays over. EVERY yacht going
to sea in this traffic needs a full AIS transponder running 24/7.

There's too much big traffic, today, to go on without it.

Larry
Larry,
Great idea. I have been in situations where the ships can visually see
me but I do not appear on their radar screen - sea state and waves
etc. - I have the old metal "forget what it's called" aluminium sphere
permanently swinging at my cross trees.

"Sal's Dad" wrote in
:

The radar reflector on Ouzo sounds like yours, Peter - "but, in
practice, its overall performance is poor, and it is now evident that
at best there was only a 50% probability that the ship would have been
able to detect Ouzo on the radar at close range."- read the report for
a full explanation.



All of this might have been avoided if the Ouzo had violated all the
stupid 1920's lighting regulations of those tiny little light bulbs on
your mastheads, bows and sterns and had an incredibly bright strobe light
on top of his mast(s), the kind you see on aircraft. NOONE on the bridge
of any ship could miss a horizon-focused high intensity strobe's blinding
flashes, even in the fog.

LED marker lights my ass. Everyone should have a very high intensity
strobe on top of each mast they can turn on to wake their lazy asses up
on those big bridges....coupled to some serious whooping audio horns
wouldn't hurt, either.

No boat lighting is anywhere NEAR bright enough. I wonder if Ouzo had a
high intensity search light available. I've played 2,000,000 cp across a
few bridges to get their attention when they won't answer the damned
radio calls. There should be a handheld quartz-iodine searchlight in
every cockpit, even in the daytime. You can't help but notice them for
10 miles shined in your face!

Larry
--

On Sun, 15 Apr 2007 15:00:22 +0000, Larry wrote:

Thanks for the support Larry.

I have started to use a strobe attracting attention - to let them know
that I'm there. As I have the mast down - repainting, re-rigging etc I
have migrated it to my masthead where it sits above the nav and all
round white.

The interesting thing is, I have got a lot of criticism from other
yachtees who say that it is not "regulation" is a distress signal that
ships will detour to investigate and so on. Someone even called me
"selfish and arrogant in flaunting the rules". I wonder if any of
these people have spent much time on passage, especially at night as
they are commonly used to mark ends of fishing nets and long-lines as
well as being displayed by fishing boats having a braek.

I have used it when lying to my para anchor, on passage to ensure that
I am seen when ships come close. Not a single ship has condemned me
using it when I have spoken to them on the radio. Several have said
that that are pleased that they can see me.

I noticed that Aquasignal now have a combined all round white and
strobe below a tricolour (Please note the proper spelling!!). It looks
identical (on the shop shelf) to the one without the strobe.

cheers
Peter-

All of this might have been avoided if the Ouzo had violated all the
stupid 1920's lighting regulations of those tiny little light bulbs on
your mastheads, bows and sterns and had an incredibly bright strobe light
on top of his mast(s), the kind you see on aircraft. NOONE on the bridge
of any ship could miss a horizon-focused high intensity strobe's blinding
flashes, even in the fog.

LED marker lights my ass. Everyone should have a very high intensity
strobe on top of each mast they can turn on to wake their lazy asses up
on those big bridges....coupled to some serious whooping audio horns
wouldn't hurt, either.

No boat lighting is anywhere NEAR bright enough. I wonder if Ouzo had a
high intensity search light available. I've played 2,000,000 cp across a
few bridges to get their attention when they won't answer the damned
radio calls. There should be a handheld quartz-iodine searchlight in
every cockpit, even in the daytime. You can't help but notice them for
10 miles shined in your face!

Larry

Peter Hendra wrote in
:

The interesting thing is, I have got a lot of criticism from other
yachtees who say that it is not "regulation" is a distress signal that
ships will detour to investigate and so on. Someone even called me
"selfish and arrogant in flaunting the rules". I wonder if any of
these people have spent much time on passage, especially at night as
they are commonly used to mark ends of fishing nets and long-lines as
well as being displayed by fishing boats having a braek.


If is saves one life, to hell with the rules. If they get curious...they
can TURN ON THEIR RADIOS AND ASK!....which is what I wanted them to do in
the first place.

Speaking of radios, do you chat with ships you can see out beyond land on
Channel 13? Most sailors treat that radio as some kind of plague they're
required to carry. I'm an old ham operator, so like to chat. Coming
home from Florida, off the GA coast a hundred miles or so, we had 14
active "checkins" to "The Channel 13 Ship Net" at 1AM on the midwatch.
One of the 1st Mates wanted to trade me Lionheart for a containership,
but I had to turn him down...(c; They're really BORED TO TEARS up on
those tall bridges in the dark, I found. Having a chat on 13 perked
everyone, including me all red-eyed and a little seasick in the slop.
Oddly, though we could see lots of other yachts, both motor and sail, we
couldn't raise them on 13 or 16 or get them to respond to our calls for a
chat. Maybe it was that old "hermit syndrome" so may yachties have,
trying to leave the whole world on another planet. You know them, I'm
sure.

The big 12V quartz-iodine 55W searchlight with the big reflector can also
make anyone stand up and take notice.....especially if they are headed
right for you. After a quick sweep across to make a big flash pointed at
them, shine the beast up on their side of the mainsail, lighting up the
whole sail rigging like day so they can't miss that you are a SAILBOAT
and expect to be treated like same. Deck lights on the spreaders can't
hold a candle to the beast lighting up the sail for visibility to some
idiot banker on his Hatteras 58. Lionheart looks like the tail of a
Delta 757 taxiing its tail billboard around....(c;

Larry
--
Don't just sit in the dark and wait to die! LIGHT UP THE DAMNED BRIDGE
OF HIS SHIP!

On Sun, 15 Apr 2007 23:41:21 +0000, Larry wrote:

Larry,
You are a real social butterfly.

No, I have never called on channel 13 - what is it internationally
used for? We/I usually call on Channel 16 at sea.

I also have used the spotlight on the mainsail. I just hope that
someone is looking my way at the time. Some of them do come a bit
close at times though which is somewjhat disconcerting. WSe have found
that if the "owner" gets on the radio, we get good responses but that
is not a hard and fast rule.

You're right about them being bored to tears. It must be hell going
faster than 5 knots and making more than 120 miles per day. They never
have to worry much about wind direction or sea state not that we worry
overly about it. Ther's not much you can do when you are there. They
do however take advantage and note of currents which can save/cost
them extra time and fuel. But this is compensated for by having a
regular cook and all the comforts of home.

Peter

If is saves one life, to hell with the rules. If they get curious...they
can TURN ON THEIR RADIOS AND ASK!....which is what I wanted them to do in
the first place.

Speaking of radios, do you chat with ships you can see out beyond land on
Channel 13? Most sailors treat that radio as some kind of plague they're
required to carry. I'm an old ham operator, so like to chat. Coming
home from Florida, off the GA coast a hundred miles or so, we had 14
active "checkins" to "The Channel 13 Ship Net" at 1AM on the midwatch.
One of the 1st Mates wanted to trade me Lionheart for a containership,
but I had to turn him down...(c; They're really BORED TO TEARS up on
those tall bridges in the dark, I found. Having a chat on 13 perked
everyone, including me all red-eyed and a little seasick in the slop.
Oddly, though we could see lots of other yachts, both motor and sail, we
couldn't raise them on 13 or 16 or get them to respond to our calls for a
chat. Maybe it was that old "hermit syndrome" so may yachties have,
trying to leave the whole world on another planet. You know them, I'm
sure.

The big 12V quartz-iodine 55W searchlight with the big reflector can also
make anyone stand up and take notice.....especially if they are headed
right for you. After a quick sweep across to make a big flash pointed at
them, shine the beast up on their side of the mainsail, lighting up the
whole sail rigging like day so they can't miss that you are a SAILBOAT
and expect to be treated like same. Deck lights on the spreaders can't
hold a candle to the beast lighting up the sail for visibility to some
idiot banker on his Hatteras 58. Lionheart looks like the tail of a
Delta 757 taxiing its tail billboard around....(c;

Larry

Peter Hendra wrote in
:

No, I have never called on channel 13 - what is it internationally
used for? We/I usually call on Channel 16 at sea.

On this side of the pond, at least, Channel 13 is the Bridge to Bridge,
Ship to Ship channel, usually used for navigation broadcasts by the
ships. No shore stations are supposed to be allowed. Not sure about
your region's ship-to-ship channel, but I suspect it's the same.


I also have used the spotlight on the mainsail. I just hope that
someone is looking my way at the time. Some of them do come a bit
close at times though which is somewjhat disconcerting. WSe have found
that if the "owner" gets on the radio, we get good responses but that
is not a hard and fast rule.

Many of the merchant sailors I talked to were under the impression us
"yachties" were just too snobbish to talk to mere Merchant Mariners.
And, the yachties I've talked to thought the MM guys hated them, which is
just not true. They're as curious about your boat as you are about
theirs! I've even been aboard some of them docked at Charleston for some
chow or the nickle tour. You should see a 38,800hp, 7 cyl inline diesel
with 5' diameter pistons on a 7' stroke, if you haven't. It's a 2-
stroke!

You're right about them being bored to tears. It must be hell going
faster than 5 knots and making more than 120 miles per day. They never
have to worry much about wind direction or sea state not that we worry
overly about it. Ther's not much you can do when you are there. They
do however take advantage and note of currents which can save/cost
them extra time and fuel. But this is compensated for by having a
regular cook and all the comforts of home.

Well, we do it for fun. They do it as WORK, which makes it lots less fun
as the years pile up. They DO worry about wind...especially the car
carriers. Those ship sides have LOTS more sail area than the combined
sail area in any marina. The car carriers flat sides are HUGE! I have a
ham radio friend who is one of the two masters on Sealand "Performance",
a 950', 38,800hp single screw container ship. Larry tells me, "I can
stop it in less than 2.5 miles!" It's just like driving a bassboat in
slow motion...(c;

Speaking of the food, the food is excellent on "Performance". I ate
dinner with the crew who didn't go ashore. Their food is "packed" into 4
refridgerated 50' containers, stuffed full. The container crane lowers
the container onto a little railroad car made for them that transports
the container to the galley, stern end first. The cooks just open the
rear container doors and the food is ready to unload....in the order of
the menu they are going to serve. The crew simply eats their way through
the container from back doors to front wall, then open up the next
one....four in a load. It's all very efficient for the tiny crew these
huge ships now carry...about 21 crew and officers. A computer controls
the engine and pages the duty engineer if it doesn't like some parameter.
Noone sits in the engine room and watches it any more.

I've always wanted to go to Europe on a commercial ship. There's a
Polish steamship line that carries 6-8 passengers for around $1600, one
way. That's a helluva 2 week vacation really cheap. Many lines have
dropped passenger service because everyone, today, is just in too much of
a hurry to be crammed into an airplane after humiliating strip searches.
No thanks....I wanna DRIVE a ship!...(c;

Larry
--
Who cares about Europe? I just wanna go and come back around the
ports....(c;

On this side of the pond, at least, Channel 13 is the Bridge to Bridge,
Ship to Ship channel, usually used for navigation broadcasts by the
ships. No shore stations are supposed to be allowed. Not sure about
your region's ship-to-ship channel, but I suspect it's the same.

I'll try it when I leave here. Even though I do have aN N.Z. marine
operator's radio licence, when we sailed as a family my wife did most
of the radio work and pulled down the weather faxes. It was just the
division of labour thing. I do it now of course.


Many of the merchant sailors I talked to were under the impression us
"yachties" were just too snobbish to talk to mere Merchant Mariners.
And, the yachties I've talked to thought the MM guys hated them, which is
just not true. They're as curious about your boat as you are about
theirs! I've even been aboard some of them docked at Charleston for some
chow or the nickle tour. You should see a 38,800hp, 7 cyl inline diesel
with 5' diameter pistons on a 7' stroke, if you haven't. It's a 2-
stroke!
I have a German friend who captained an ULCC that used to carry oil
from Kuwait to Europe around the Caope of Good Hope and to Japan. The
draught laden at 80 feet was too deep to go through the Melaka Straits
so they had to go the long way through the Lombok Strait between Bali
and Lombok Islands in Indonesia. It was 1,150 feet long and at top
revs the prop was revolving at 73 revs per minute. I still have
difficulty in understanding how the thing moved


Noone sits in the engine room and watches it any more.

I don't ever sit in my engine room either


I've always wanted to go to Europe on a commercial ship. There's a
Polish steamship line that carries 6-8 passengers for around $1600, one
way. That's a helluva 2 week vacation really cheap. Many lines have
dropped passenger service because everyone, today, is just in too much of
a hurry to be crammed into an airplane after humiliating strip searches.
No thanks....I wanna DRIVE a ship!...(c;

I have been on board a Polish ship like that in Tauranga N.Z. a few
years ago. An American couple we met on the docks invited us aboard
and showed us around. What a way to see the world. So much better than
aboard a cruise ship where you are in more of a hotel than a ship.
When I was aged between 12 to 15 we used to go across Cook Strait that
seperates the North and South Islands of New Zealand - a very wild
stretch of water sometimes in the roaring 40's. We used to go every
Christmas school holidays (in N.Z. 6 weeks) to a camp run by the
Police where we lived in tents and learned to sail dinghys, fished,
tramped, (bush walking), scuba dived etc. under harsh discipline -
pants down and touch toes in front of all while a belt was liberally
applied. It was for rough kids who they were keeping an eye on - don't
know why I was there. My best memory is of steering an old ferry, the
Rangatira for half an hour- they were quite large ships, not a little
Staten island type with its large wooden ship's wheel. It had an open
bridge deck with an enclosed wheel house. I even remember the
Captain's name - Captain Russell. I knew then that I wanted to be at
sea. What a way to give a kid the determination to get something.

Larry, what I like most about you is your apparent enthusiasm for both
life and what you are interested in. You have a personality that
stands out. God knows the world needs it as most are so damned
negative by their mid thirties.

cheers and thanks
Peter

Fully agree with the strobe..... the point is to be seen.
For cruising sail, use the masthead tricolor....also more visible.
High powered search light..... shine on sails and everyplace else BUT
ship's wheelhouse




Larry wrote in
:

Peter Hendra wrote in
:

The interesting thing is, I have got a lot of criticism from other
yachtees who say that it is not "regulation" is a distress signal
that ships will detour to investigate and so on. Someone even called
me "selfish and arrogant in flaunting the rules". I wonder if any of
these people have spent much time on passage, especially at night as
they are commonly used to mark ends of fishing nets and long-lines as
well as being displayed by fishing boats having a braek.


If is saves one life, to hell with the rules. If they get
curious...they can TURN ON THEIR RADIOS AND ASK!....which is what I
wanted them to do in the first place.

Speaking of radios, do you chat with ships you can see out beyond land
on Channel 13? Most sailors treat that radio as some kind of plague
they're required to carry. I'm an old ham operator, so like to chat.
Coming home from Florida, off the GA coast a hundred miles or so, we
had 14 active "checkins" to "The Channel 13 Ship Net" at 1AM on the
midwatch. One of the 1st Mates wanted to trade me Lionheart for a
containership, but I had to turn him down...(c; They're really BORED
TO TEARS up on those tall bridges in the dark, I found. Having a chat
on 13 perked everyone, including me all red-eyed and a little seasick
in the slop. Oddly, though we could see lots of other yachts, both
motor and sail, we couldn't raise them on 13 or 16 or get them to
respond to our calls for a chat. Maybe it was that old "hermit
syndrome" so may yachties have, trying to leave the whole world on
another planet. You know them, I'm sure.

The big 12V quartz-iodine 55W searchlight with the big reflector can
also make anyone stand up and take notice.....especially if they are
headed right for you. After a quick sweep across to make a big flash
pointed at them, shine the beast up on their side of the mainsail,
lighting up the whole sail rigging like day so they can't miss that
you are a SAILBOAT and expect to be treated like same. Deck lights on
the spreaders can't hold a candle to the beast lighting up the sail
for visibility to some idiot banker on his Hatteras 58. Lionheart
looks like the tail of a Delta 757 taxiing its tail billboard
around....(c;

Larry

On 2007-04-15 11:00:22 -0400, Larry said:

LED marker lights my ass. Everyone should have a very high intensity
strobe on top of each mast they can turn on to wake their lazy asses up
on those big bridges....coupled to some serious whooping audio horns
wouldn't hurt, either.

No boat lighting is anywhere NEAR bright enough. I wonder if Ouzo had a
high intensity search light available. I've played 2,000,000 cp across a
few bridges to get their attention when they won't answer the damned
radio calls. There should be a handheld quartz-iodine searchlight in
every cockpit, even in the daytime. You can't help but notice them for
10 miles shined in your face!

I mostly agree, but see a place for LED as the usual lights, mostly
because they work in the usual world: They're as bright as the
incadescents, blow out less often (!), and draw little enough that I'll
be putting on brighter lights than required for our size.

Still, having a monster strobe at the top of the mast sounds useful for
*emergency* signalling, along with the super-bright spotlight that is
out of the weather, but can be pulled out and plugged in without
leaving the cockpit. The horn and flares are in that same bin.

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's new pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI pages: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 01:31:37 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:

Jere,
I have brought back a couple of LED clusters to replace the
incandescent bulbs at the masthead. If they are not any good I can
always change back to the ordinary bulbs. I hope to reduce the drain
whilst sailing and anchoring.

cheers
Peter



I mostly agree, but see a place for LED as the usual lights, mostly
because they work in the usual world: They're as bright as the
incadescents, blow out less often (!), and draw little enough that I'll
be putting on brighter lights than required for our size.

Still, having a monster strobe at the top of the mast sounds useful for
*emergency* signalling, along with the super-bright spotlight that is
out of the weather, but can be pulled out and plugged in without
leaving the cockpit. The horn and flares are in that same bin.