"Bob" wrote in message
...
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Fastnet Disaster
of
1979

Interview with Bill Burrows, Chief Engineer Royal Navy Lifeboat
Institution. Retrieved three disabled sailboats in a 21 hour rescue
during the fatal 1979 Fastnet Storm.

“… Look, you get 300 Yachats in poor weather and you’re going to have
some trouble, almost certainly. But the majority of the trouble was
hysteria created by the situation and by inexperienced crews. And that
it was. They were blaming rudders and such, but none of those rudders
would have snapped if they had put drogues out and storm jibs and run
before the weather. They were under bare poles, most of them, and they
were getting up on the seas. And the seas were about 45 feet. Not what
we around here call big. (Bob: I love that statment!)

They got up on these seas and they were running. When the boats were
starting to broach, what the helmsmen were doing was hauling on the
rudders to stop them from broaching. They were putting too much bloody
strain on the rudders, and they had to go.

Yes, I know they were racing sailors, not cruising men, but that’s no
excuse. We went out that night and we passed a little old hooker sort
of thing with a family of kids aboard and they were going away to
Ireland with no trouble at all….”
(The Yacht, April 1987)
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Read an learn from the more wise.
Bob

Bob, I am not arguing with any of that but just want to make it clear that
the RNLI has nothing to do with the Royal Navy. The RNLI is entirely funded
by voluntary collections in pubs and fundraising functions held all over UK
and by legacies from people who know what fine work they do. They get no
money from the Government at all.
All the crews are volunteers, selected by those with whom they will jointly
risk their lives at short notice anytime.
When not at sea they hold down a range of ordinary jobs ashore, not all
water based.. They just have to live near enough to the quay to be afloat
within minutes of being called, formerly by maroons, now usually cellphones.
The only one who gets paid anything is the mechanic, who has to ensure the
boat is constantly ready for service.
Their primary task is to save lives but they almost never have claimed
salvage even when they have saved a vessel as well as its crew, from
disaster.
If someone is in trouble they will go out whatever the weather and thanks to
the generosity of the British public their boats are state-of- the art and
lack nothing that will help them do their work.