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NJ Capsize

11K views 64 replies 19 participants last post by  Fedesail 
#1 ·
Saw this in the Coast Guard News. Looks like he did good by having a survival suit and staying with the boat. May not of had an EPIRB or VHF he could get to. Must be a multi to stay upside down or else there was a terrible failure. Thought you might be interested and was wondering if anybody had any more news about the incident.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - A Good Samaritan and the Coast Guard rescued a sailor today after the sailboat he was on capsized Friday about eight miles southeast of Corsons Inlet, N.J.
Rescued was Brian Mann, 57, of Edgartown, Mass.
Mann was discovered in a survival suit, sitting atop his overturned sailboat by the pilot of the Pulp Fishing, a recreational fishing boat. The Good Samaritan contacted the Coast Guard at about 9 a.m. today, who launched rescue boat crews from Coast Guard Stations Great Egg and Townsend Inlet, N.J.
The rescue crew from Station Great Egg arrived on scene, and took Mann back to their station in Ocean City, N.J., to awaiting EMS personnel.
Mann was examined and released by medical personnel at the station.
Mann was aboard his 31-foot sailboat transiting from Cape May, N.J., to Massachusetts when his boat capsized off the New Jersey Coast at about 6 p.m. Friday.
Mann was wearing a survival suit and stayed with his boat, which greatly contributed to his survival, said David Umberger, search and rescue coordinator at Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay in Philadelphia.
Mann is currently working with salvage crews from Sea Tow to develop a salvage plan for his boat.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Looks like a Corsair 31 trimaran. You can see what is left of the boat in the video that is linked to the story here. It looks like his rigging gave out...and the mast went down, whether it was during the capsize, before it or afterwards, I can't say. If they righted the boat by pulling on it laterally, they may have dismasted here during the righting process. Most multihulls should be righted by pulling them bow over stern or stern over bow... not laterally.
 
#4 ·
That is a very nice area with sand dunes near Ocean city, NJ. I could not find any more information about the sailor.
 
#8 ·
Sounds like he was well prepared though. Happy ending. Unless you're the boat!

Makes you wonder how he turned turtle. One of those multihull things? The AC teams seem to do it on a pretty regular basis.
 
#9 ·
Here's a screen shot of the video showing his boat.



and a photo of another Corsair 31 trimaran

 
#10 ·
It's a real shame about the boat but I'm very glad no one got hurt. The guy did good to stay calm and with the boat. Thanks for digging up the additional info.
 
#11 ·
Wow!! This guy was at our marina a few days ago and I had a long chat with him. Glad he is OK.
He was indeed in a Corsair and was a very experienced sailor. He sailed from Mass to BVI last fall offshore and mad it in SIX days...racing sails and totally rigged to single hand. He told me that the boat was not built to weather storms at sea so he relied heavily on a good wind forcast that let him out run anything nasty. He seemed like a very confident but quiet guy who had his own well thought out way for going to sea. That survival suit says he knew the risks and was prepared.

The coast guard is calling for at least two other sail boats here for the last few hours in a full blown gale and tornado warnings up. Crazy weather to be out in.
 
#12 ·
Chances are likely he got caught overcanvassed and over she went. :( I'm a bit surprised he didn't have a drogue or something similar as a last-ditch storm survival measure.
 
#27 ·
Chances are likely he got caught overcanvassed and over she went. :( I'm a bit surprised he didn't have a drogue or something similar as a last-ditch storm survival measure.
I wonder if he was using an autopilot and a gust caught him unaware and away from the helm. I have had some moments of concern while single-handing my Corsair. I need to use the autopilot while doing some of the line handling. If he was pushing things and flying a hull, one gust in combination with an unfriendly wave could ruin your whole day.
 
#15 ·
I also found it suspicious that just hours after such gale force winds a very leasurly looking couple would go fishing :) Glad I am not alone on that one. Weather on Sat. night was pretty nice down here (and appeared to be so all over the coast, I just glanced at the forecast then). Strange.
 
#14 ·
hmm... that puts things in a very different light. I wonder what the real story is then?
 
#16 ·
I live in southern New Jersey and while it did rain some and the wind blew a little, I didn't recall it being that terrible of a day.
 
#19 · (Edited)
teshannon,

You may be right about the date mixup. Re-reading everything, it does seem that the incident took place on Friday evening, the 9th.

However, it really doesn't change things much. The highest winds recorded by the AVAN4 data tower in Avalon, NJ...near his reported location...were in the range of 15-22 knots.

(wind in m/sec -- double for kts; time is UTC)
Quote
Year Mo Da Hr Min Dir Wd Gust
2008 05 09 23 00 10 5.1 9.3
2008 05 09 21 59 20 6.2 9.8
2008 05 09 20 59 20 7.2 10.8
2008 05 09 19 59 20 6.2 10.8
Unquote

Whatever.

Anyway, no question that it's blowing now and looks just terrible on the wind charts. See PassageWeather - Wind, Wave and Weather Forecasts for Sailors and Adventurers

Bill
 
#30 ·
dog,

Yeah, maybe. I don't know much about that corsair trimaran, though.

I assume he was headed north, since he reportedly left Cape May in the morning and was capsized aways up the coast. Wind was NNE. If the true wind was gusting, say, 25 knots that could be something over 30 knots across the deck. Shouldn't that -- combined with the reported 'very steep sea' -- be enough to give that little tri some difficulty?

Bill
 
#31 ·
It depends on how much sail he had up. Can't tell from the photos if the boat was reefed or not, but if he was sailing close hauled in 25 knots of wind and heavy seas, yes, it might be enough to capsize the boat if he had too much sail up....especially if the boat was on autopilot and the autopilot made a course correction at the wrong moment.
 
#34 ·
GRRR... You're on thin ice leadmine boy.
 
#35 ·
where are those 20kt numbers coming from? Here is the line from buoy data off shore at Delaware bay:
2008 05 09 05 50 160 5.0 6.0 1.0 7 4.6 MM 1007.6 15.2 13.6 14.8 MM -1.6 MM
this is about the strongest wind was on that day. 5 m/s with gusts up to 6 m/s. for those used to knots this means 9-11kts :) And wave heights of 1 meter (that's 3 feet for metrically challenged).
 
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