On Sat, 21 Feb 2004 18:46:11 GMT, Jack Dale
wrote:

Does anyone in the San Francisco area have any further news?
Apparently one crew member was dragged down while wearing a harness,

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Calgar...20/354088.html

This was the result of an error of Darwinian proportions. It seems to
be mainly caused by lack of local knowledge. The presumed-dead sailor
is, according to the SF Chronicle, the son of one of the survivors.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...AG6654OUS1.DTL

You probably need a chart to see this, but there is a "(" shaped bar
across the entrance to SF Bay. The extreme west is about 8 miles
offshore (IIRC) and the south tip comes within about 1.5 miles from
shore roughly at the south end of San Fran. The bar is something like
25-35 feet deep. There's a shipping channel dreged through the center
of it out to the west extreme that's 42 feet deep on a course of
250-70 degrees. (I'm doing this by memory, cut me some slack.)

The charts show something vaguely called "south channel" that is 25
or so feet deep about a mile offshore of San Fran that, on a calm day
in a good boat is tempting to use because it saves several miles on
the trip. Othewise you have to head to "buoy 2" about 8 miles offshore
and then turn about 110 degrees.

They apparently tried to run the south channel on a day which was
immediately post-storm, leaving hellaceous waves behind. I would not
have taken a 20 foot boat outside the gate, even in the shipping
channel. You can get 20 foot breaking waves in the channel on days
like that. (BTW, I'm not convinced yet the boat was that small).

I've taken 36 and 47 foot boats on that route a bunch of times and
never tried to run the south channel. On a calm day I might cut the
corner around buoy 2 by a mile or two.

I'm going to look at various sailing guides when I get a chance, but I
bet that this isn't simply "local knowledge" but something that's in
any Pacific Coast sailing guide.

My wife heard a story that I didn't that said the Coast Guard stopped
them near Monterey for a judgement check but allowed them to go on
after consultation.

Tragic and should not have happened.




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