Another Sailor Lost at Sea.

[sailingdog]

Captain William Thorns was lost at sea when the Emma Goldman, a 45' wooden ketch, was damaged on en route from Martha's Vineyard to Bermuda. More on it here.

[sailjunkie]

Thanks for posting this, SD. The tragedy is the loss of a good sailor, father and friend.

[Harborless]

Wow. I wonder.. If the boat had been fiberglass do you think the mast would have had a better shot at staying attached to the footing? This of course is under the assumption that the mast on their boat was made of wood and not aluminum or another metal. I just wonder if the rigging and mast on a fiberglass boat of equal size could have handled the strain better then a boat that relies on wood anchoring.
What a terrible way to lose ones father.. I feel like there were at least a few ways it could have all been avoided though you know? Had they hove to and let it pass or just went more inland or even waited another few days for the system to pass... I know I know, hind sight is always 20-20 and playing the what-if game is of no use now but it is frustrating to read these types of stories because we have the knowledge and the technology to avoid putting our selves in these types of situations.
Unfortunately, their decision to push-on cost them dearly.

[sailordave]

That would have been about the time a deep Low was bouncing around between Bermuda, New England and Chesapeake Bay (roughly) and caused the Caribbean 1500 fleet to delay their departure until 11/8. Even then they stayed west of the Stream until south of Hatteras (passing between Diamond Shoals and the Stream) I was on a boat that DIDN'T leave because we were delayed until 11/10 and conditions were worsening. Quite frankly I find it hard to believe ANYONE set sail from New England bound for Bermuda at any time the first two weeks of Nov.

[sailingdog]

Unfortunately, the day they left, I don't think the forecast was all that forbidding...and the change in the weather really screwed them.

[ffiill]

Whats really scary is just how mant yachts are lost all be it their crews rescued out in the Atlantic.I had just been watching on UK TV a film of a sucessfull rescue mid Atlantic.Unusually a crew member on the rescue ship had filmed the event.
I was going to put a link on here but when I googled something like "yachts crew rescued mid atlantic" I was shocked to see how many different incidents came up including the one on this thread..

[sailingdog]

What is more scary is how many aren't ever found...and just disappear without a trace.

[seabreeze_97]

Harborless, if the article is correct the main mast broke above deck so I don't think the hull material and the way it was secured really matters.

[PCP]

That's a terrible story and emphasizes the importance of staying on the boat. It seems that the captain was harnessed to the boat but that the "line" was too long and permitted him to go overboard. The right stuff to have are the ones that have two lines, one clipped at each side of the steering wheel.

Really sad:

Regards

Paulo

[RTB]

There is a pretty moving video with the captain on this link.

www.royalgazette.com Bermuda News Site