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Sinking

10K views 88 replies 20 participants last post by  smackdaddy 
#1 ·
A boat called Freefall sank 100 miles of the Atlantic city coast. one dead 2 survive. Rescue swimmer injured but O.K.
 
#2 ·
Well, no Freefalls listed in the USCG documentation database for the East Coast... so no idea what the boat is. According to this story off the coast guard news site... it was a 44' sailboat.
 
#3 · (Edited)
It was an almost new 44 foot Swan that was recently purchased. These boats are tanks. Must have been just horrible conditions. It was being delivered by an extremely experienced crew, including the gentleman that perished. It just goes to show that it can happen to any boat and crew in the wrong kinds of conditions. The Coast Guard press release said 40+ knots of wind and 40-50 foot seas.

My most sincere gratitude to the USCG and most sincere condolences to the gentleman's family.
 
#6 ·
bubb-

I think that's the same story on a different site that I linked to above..
 
#10 ·
What an unfortunate boat name. Very sad :(
 
#11 ·
40 - 50 foot seas and 40 - 50 knot winds seem a little incongruous. Still I guess the CG folks are good at estimating this sort of stuff.

Must be a wave train from an earlier blow that came across these unfortunate folks.
 
#12 ·
40 - 50 foot seas and 40 - 50 knot winds seem a little incongruous....
Not off the mid-Atlantic or New England coasts of the United States. This time of year and continuing through the winter, we get freight train cold fronts that come down from Canada. They are not swirling low-pressure systems, but rather straight line winds that persist for several days from the same direction (north-north-west).

Complicating this is that the Gulf Stream current is pushing it's way north in this patch of water at a speed of several knots, so the wind and current are contrary. They can pile high and tight very quickly -- best to be no-where in the vicinity during these conditions.

Next time we get a good norther, check some of the readings at these off-shore buoys. It's sobering.

NDBC - Northeast USA Recent Marine Data
 
#13 ·
Andre-

If the winds were opposing an existing wave train, they could easily build up that high... :)


Bubb-

My bad.. same first graf threw me off.. yours has names.
 
#14 ·
It's extremely unfortunate - but worthy of note - that the man perished by leaving the boat (for perfectly valid reasons obviously) for his rescue - even though it was sinking. I recall from the Anti-BFS thread several people talking about how even a beat down boat can typically withstand a hell of a lot of punishment - even in insane conditions like this. Seems to prove that point once again as the others waited out the next attempt. What a lousy way to go, man.
 
#19 ·
I am purely speculating, but...

Often times folks that are moving boats south along the U.S. east coast, from New York or New England, wait for a front to pass that will bring north-north-west winds. In summer, these fronts are usually mild enough that they don't pack a huge punch, but provide a nice boost on the way south. In winter, they are generally pretty severe, but fortunately no one is moving boats south at that point.

These unfortunate incidents occur most often in autumn, particularly late
October/early November, when some of the stragglers are making the leap south. Like anyone else, they prefer a tailwind. The crapshoot is how strong will the front be? It could be just a nice strong favorable blow, or much worse. Sometimes they are well predicted, others, the forecast gets it wrong.

In this case, the cold front ended up dumping snow (over a foot in many places) from North Carolina to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to New York and Vermont. In October!! This ended up being a much stronger, colder, longer lasting gale than they had predicted. Nasty conditions to be at sea.
 
#17 ·
Not everything can be avoided... mother nature still is a bit unpredictable when it comes to weather.
 
#23 ·
I leave (weather permitting) to take my boat from the Long Island Sound to Annapolis on November 7th. Even though I'll have three experienced crew, one daysailor and myself on board, reading about situations like this makes me stress even more about the trip. We'll be running close to shore and taking the "inside" route from the sound through the East River, but mother nature can have a foul temper this time of year so we'll be monitoring weather and sea conditions very closely. In big seas and winds, entering Manasquan, Atlantic City or Cape May can be almost impossible. We'll see how it goes. Moving a boat is not worth your life.
 
#26 ·
#29 ·
Dawg/Bubb...I don't know about the Maine stuff...want to read more on that. My initial reaction is that a tsunami type wave would have not even been noticed well out to sea and I can't sea storm driven waves doing the rapid rise and fall reported in Maine. I would thing the two are thus unrelated.
But I have read that a wave TWICE the size of prevailing conditions occurs once in every one thousand waves. So...if the waves are 30 feet with a period of 10 seconds, you will see a 60 foot wave once every 10,000 seconds...or about once every THREE HOURS...less if the period is shorter. Truly gigantic rogue waves are quite a bit rarer though more frequent than previously thought...but the idea of a 60 foot wave occurring once every 3 hours in a real storm at sea is pretty intimidating in and of itself.
 
#31 ·
Bubb...you got that right. I've been looking at what CAUSED them to be out there in that weather as that is the real question. These were experienced sailors so one would assume that they had done their homework on weather given the time of year and the north atlantic.
Ocean Prediction Center - Product Loops
If you look at the individual maps on this last 14 day loop of offshore wind wave forecasts you will note that the forecast made on 12UTC the 26th looks rough for the 28th but nothing a good boat and crew can't handle...30-35kts on a reach with 10-15ft. seas. By the next forecast on 00utc on the 27th...the two day forcast called for 40-45knots from abeam and 15-20ft. seas...higher gusts and waves of course to be expected. By then it was too late to seek shelter and the expected conditions are what the coast guard reported.
In summary...the weather forcast deteriorated rapidly while they were out to sea and I can't see any lack of judgement based on the evidence at hand. The Atlantic can sneek up on you quickly at this time of year...and in this case, it appears that despite having a premium blue water boat...the boat did not stand up to the sea as welll as the crew. Of significance it that is was a bilge pump that let them down on a new to them boat. Lesson: Never go to sea without multiple bilge pump backups and a LARGE manual pump.
 
#40 ·
These were experienced sailors so one would assume that they had done their homework on weather given the time of year and the north atlantic.
Cam, We can't 2sd guess a seasoned Capt. and a well found boat.
Cam and Bubb,

These kinds of statements are what I'm talking about. They are truly perplexing in light of the starting place of judgement for other SAR events we've discussed. I'm just saying this kind of sentiment is not at all objective. Will the USCG (or other maritime orgs) begin investigations of such incidents with this kind of initial bias? I certainly wouldn't think so. But I'd love to hear from a coastie about that if there are any around here.

Another specific example is in Skip A's story. As a newbie, I've read here in many places that tethering to a rail is a very bad idea. Jody got a bit of the old dressing down for that one. Yet Skip did so in a serious storm according to his ship's log.

There just seems to be more nuance to all this than is being presented.
 
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