US yachtie on the rocks

[chris_gee]

The guy spent 2 years or so building his boat. Left NZ for Hawaii a few days ago. Got a hundred miles or so and hit a big island while asleep. Well off course with weather of 30-40 knots and likely to last so he could have decided to seek shelter but even so. Good video at Yachtie rescued by helicopter on Great Barrier Island | NATIONAL | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz

[sailingdog]

It was three years... and it's a damn shame. Charlie's boat was named Resolution, but it's basically scrap now. He had a series of articles in SCA magazine regarding the building of the boat.

[Martinini]

He was smart that he planned his safety items(EPIRB)etc. Lucky his boat didn't sink outright, and what about a shake down cruise to make sure everything functions properly, did he do one?

[eMKay]

That's too bad, I followed the building with interest in the magazine.

[chris_gee]

Another boat has just been found. A 73 year old German solo sailor en route from NZ to New Caledonia was lost to contact for 3 weeks. The boat had evidently been rolled and the owner's safety line was found over the side suggesting he was lost over and unable to get back. Makes you think how would a solo get back onboard? The only way I can think of is to uncouple and use the second line around a lifeline to work to the rear and a ladder which would be difficult uncoupling and recoupling at each stanchion unless you had a second jackline outside the stanchions. I get the impression that a disproportionate number of these unfortunate losses are non NZ boats. Maybe they underestimate the weather.

[Stillraining]

Hes handeling it better then I would....Id be having a big old cry about now I'm afraid.

[tdw]

Chris , you may well be right about underestimating the weather.

What I'm finding hard to understand is how he ended up on Barrier. Those storms lashing NZ have been coming up from the south havn't they ? That would have presumably meant he was being blown away from NZ not onto the coast.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm merely confused as to how he ended up where he did. Even if he was hugging the coast before heading out to sea he was in a strange location and if he knew where he was, it was not a good time to have a lie down.

That said , tiredness can cause anyone to nod off unexpectantly, I know.

Anyway, I do feel sorry for the bloke.

[chris_gee]

Normally one would head east from Tauranga to Hawaii and go via Tahiti but there are a variety of ways depending on where one wants to go to windward. Normally with all the depressions and fronts going through one would get NW swinging W then SW and S so all the more reason to go East.
Evidently he actually got somewhat North, probably a bit past North Cape before having a fuel leak and encountering rough weather.
He would have had a variety of choices but the Bay of Islands is closest.
He may have opted to stay close to land to shelter from a W but the S would be coming apart from anything else.
Sure fatigue comes into it but of all the choices going to sleep approaching a substantial Island and close to land anyway probably is not the most desirable. Nor is taking the long route to shelter.
The other point is the weather was predictable in that time frame. The weather map for the last several days has looked ugly.

[chucklesR]

Maybe somewhere in all the epoxy sanding he forgot the autopilot?

Hairy chested, conquer the world attitudes aside this is one of the reasons I strongly object to single handed passagemaking.

[Valiente]

I don't object to them, but then I wouldn't expect to be rescued without paying for it, either.

Technically, of course, it's illegal to single-hand as a passagemaker, because you can't keep a watch 24/7. But if we held to the letter of the law, we'd lose all those solo sail racing events, and Liberian-registered shipping would have to have some Third World crewman watching the radar all the time. And that's just not economical!