[hpeer]

A sailboat hit a wbale in the Pacific and quickly sank.
There is a long stories about the event, sounds like a big hull failure.

Anyone know what kind of boat it was?

 

[Johncc]

1976 Kelly Peterson 44

 

[paulk]

A sailboat hit a wbale in the Pacific and quickly sank.
There is a long stories about the event, sounds like a big hull failure.

Anyone know what kind of boat it was?

link?

 

[Johncc]

Here’s one on Substack:

Whale Sinks YouTube Sailors Mid-Pacific. (Unauthorized) Starlink to the Rescue

Facebook, WhatsApp Used To Coordinate After EPIRB Failure

loosecannon.substack.com

 

[CrispyCringle]

Im not doubting that it could happen, but how does that happen? I cant see a whale somehow cracking a hole in the hull. Maybe it tried to surface while under the boat and held it in a capsized position for a period of time. I hope there is more follow up from the crew.

Article says " At one point in the account below, a crew member is quoted as saying, “We hit a whale,” but the damage was at the rudder area of the boat,..."

 

[Ineptune]

Im not doubting that it could happen, but how does that happen? I cant see a whale somehow cracking a hole in the hull. Maybe it tried to surface while under the boat and held it in a capsized position for a period of time. I hope there is more follow up from the crew.

Article says " At one point in the account below, a crew member is quoted as saying, “We hit a whale,” but the damage was at the rudder area of the boat,..."

Well, he said that there was a big hole around the prop shaft. I guess the prop hit the whale's spine, which is stronger than the hull, and the stainless prop shaft wrecked out a big hole around itself.

 

[terrybuda]

Here’s one on Substack:

Whale Sinks YouTube Sailors Mid-Pacific. (Unauthorized) Starlink to the Rescue

Facebook, WhatsApp Used To Coordinate After EPIRB Failure

loosecannon.substack.com

Valuable lessons learned about cruising.

 

[MikeOReilly]

I read the story and was amazed at the rapidity of the the vessel going down. It must have been a very specific hit to the boat; a pro shaft getting ripped out, but if you look at the boat's design, it looks like this would be hard to achieve. Anyway, certainly glad no lives were lost, and the article sure gives Starlink and other satellite comms a big .

On the negative side, what happened with the EPIRB, and why was the rescue not coordinated through the international rescue system?

 

[MikeOReilly]

what more did you want them to do from in a life raft towing a dinghy. iridium go batteries were low enough to concern the crew with signal intensity and they could only send position every couple hours. what were you looking for them to have done??
the better question, mike, is what would YOU have done??

I'm not sure why you're asking me this Zee. I didn't suggest they did anything wrong, or that I would do anything different. I just noted that, looking at the boat, losing the pro shaft from a whale strike looks difficult to achieve.

But my main query is around the apparent failure of the SARSAT system.

 

[Johncc]

Apparently the story has been updated reflecting that the EPIRB did, in fact, work. No other details yet.

 

[hpeer]

1976 Kelly Peterson 44

John
Thanks for that.

Mike,
I agree that the reported failure is surprising with that boat. I would have thought the drive well protected.

Interesting and a little disturbing.

 

[capta]

Wow, I always considered the Peterson 44 to be a well built boat. We hit a whale @ about 7 knots on the way to Hawaii, and did no damage to the boat or the whale. She was a Phil Rhodes racer of wood and it threw everyone forward without warning, giving one girl below a broken rib but the rest of us only had some pretty bad bruises. It was quite obvious as we hit something soft, not a hard object such as a container. We actually rolled over, as we went over it, and it dove as we passed over it. We were extremely lucky it didn't hit us with its tail as it dove away.
From that experience, I would question the validity of their account (especially the part of blood streaming from the whale) unless the Peterson was in very bad shape.

 

[MikeOReilly]

Agreed Capta. It just doesn't ring fully true -- or as is often the case, there's more to the story. Regardless, it seems the crew, and the rescuers, did a great job.

I'd still like to hear more about lack of coordination via the SARSAT system. They had an EPIRB, and it apparently worked. But it sounds like tools like Whatsapp, via Starlink, was more useful. Does this say anything about the future of the international marine rescue system?

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

The international rescue system is very slow. The EPIRBs are slow too. And AMVER can't be fast. Then there's the distance.
I haven't had time to read it yet. How many NMs were they off somewhere? Between Marquess and French Pol? Why would that be Peru's area?

I think the future might have a more instant satellite communicated method.
Lucky there was a rally gojbg through the area.

Mark

 

[MikeOReilly]

That's where this leads me as well Mark. Has the older EPIRB-based international system been overtaken by newer technology?

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

EPIRBs are obsolete anyway. If someone is sinking 10 miles away you would never know and sail right by.
If you were told, you still wouldn't get a blip on your screen. You can't home into an EPIRB.

But now Class B AIS signals are able to be picked up by sensitive satellites / beamed up by Starlink, it really makes that the fastest way to send and disseminate SOS information. Isn't it?

BTW, this post is sent by Starlink because we are at sea 🌊

Mark

 

[zeehag]

for future sailors of pacific ocean ther exist the migratory patterns of whales .. feeding patterns birthing patterns and migration for migration sake patterns..easy to find..now that you know the pacific isnot so peaceful perhaps ome folks doubting the destructive capability of whales may possibly look before leaping across to marquesas from galapagos, which is in the middle of more than one of the migratory paths for more than one of our many species of whale.

hopefully a chart might be of use for sailors in need of knowing where the whales are swimming

 

[MikeOReilly]

There's a similar thread over at CF, and in response to my query about "where was the SARSAT system?" this poster, who says he was part of the rescue effort, wrote:

"They were more than 2000nm away, that's where. They made some calls and a cargo ship did divert toward the scene, but there were at least a dozen private yachts closer than that ship and one of them arrived first and scooped the Raindancer crew from their liferaft. The land based resources alerted by the EPIRB were helpful in notifying the family and coordinating communications to some extent, but what else do you expect from them?"

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

Most world cruising routes are not cargo routes.

I remember coming out of Panama heading to Galapagos... And didn't see a ship for weeks. Cargo ships go to/from Asia. Look at marine tafffic. Com

 

[zeehag]

the story from lat 38

March 15, 2023 - Latitude38

www.latitude38.com