The Vestas Wind wreck...

Interestin' article in the January issue of Northwest Yachting magazine regarding the loss of the 65 foot racing sailboat Vestas Wind. It seems the "professional crew" relied on electronic charts and ran aground on the Cargado Carajos shoals in the Indian Ocean. According to the article, they did not zoom in enough to see the shoals. "At the zoom level chosen on the electronic chart, Cargados Carajos was not visible." Now there is a lesson to be learned.

Not just that. They had enough breeze to manage this tricky maneuver at something like 17 knots. You would think that would create enough waves to make breakers visible over the reef. I deliver boats all over the place, and even in wide open oceans, like half way to Hawaii, etc. We still keep a visual watch. On the longer trips I've made single handed, I heave-to when I need to sleep anywhere near a land mass. If I wrecked a boat on a delivery, I would need a way better excuse, or I would be out of work for real.

Here's some film of the crash and the day after.


When we were in Fiji the same thing happened. A delivery crew ran a boat up on a reef. When you zoomed in your charts, you could see it. A tug out of Suva wanted $50K to show up with no guarantees. The insurance company told everyone to get off and leave the boat. The navy picked up the crew.

We listened to the whole thing unfold on the ham radio. After the mayday the owner was notified via a ham patch. Nothing like a few hundred people listening in. This was before sat phones.

OMG - TY Larry. Zoom In... Statement needs repeating!

Art said:

Zoom In... Statement needs repeating!

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...and repeating again - ZOOM IN!!!!!

Egad...

Boat has been removed from reef, loaded on Maersk Stockholm and headed home for repairs. Video on youtube of crash.

When we were cruising the south pacific we always heard repeated warnings that the atoll's and their gps positions were off by up to 4 miles in some circumstances. It is clear the crew was looking so something the either heard or felt just prior to the grounding. Fatigue may have had a hand in it as the crews run at full throttle and get low quality sleep off watch.

I was aboard a couple Whitbread boats once and the living conditions were atrocious. It was as dark inside the hull as a elephants ass and smelled what I was told was as bad as the aforementioned sphincter.

I have been following the race and I see the skipper still appears to have his job and the boat is expected to be able to compete in the last two legs in June.

As to the employment of the Navigator I have not heard the status.

As far as bashing the crew for their unfortunate tack.. I had a friend that lost his boat in the Tuamotu's and his personal shame made it hard to give him any additional crap. All he got from his wreck were the clothes on his back.
HOLLYWOOD

Navigators error is understandable, but not excusable. Those plotters can do weird things depending on what the scale setting is. And out there in the boonies charts are iffy anyway. Gots to be soooper careful. Nav was not.

It was eye opening watching a demonstration of scale changes on the plotter. Shoals simply vanished.

Back in my submarine days, an error like that meant the CO was replaced on the dock five minutes after tying up. Regardless if the error was made by a junior officer or whatever. A failure meant the CO did not run his crew properly. Tough program.

MurrayM said:

...and repeating again - ZOOM IN!!!!!

Egad...

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THe OP explains it

Ski in NC said:

Navigators error is understandable, but not excusable. Those plotters can do weird things depending on what the scale setting is. And out there in the boonies charts are iffy anyway. Gots to be soooper careful. Nav was not.

It was eye opening watching a demonstration of scale changes on the plotter. Shoals simply vanished.

Back in my submarine days, an error like that meant the CO was replaced on the dock five minutes after tying up. Regardless if the error was made by a junior officer or whatever. A failure meant the CO did not run his crew properly. Tough program.

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And that's why he's the CO.

But as in the USAF, this sometimes a gets out of hand, as the bureaucracy gets rid of anyone who makes the slightest mistake. And that said bureaucracy never puts it's own ass on the line.

But the problem is we win wars by taking chances.

"The Admirals-Nimitz-Halsey-King" is a great book and case in point. I believe Nimitz ran his destroyer aground,but got another chance. Then years later, when one of our younger stars made some mistake, Nimitz remembered and gave him another chance also.

http://www.amazon.com/Admirals-Nimi...8&qid=1421751442&sr=1-1&keywords=the+admirals

Guys, this was the Volvo Ocean round the world race, on the leg from Capetown to Abu Dhabi. They were sailing, as instructed, outside a special marked exclusion zone, meant to keep them clear of most, (but clearly not all), reefs and atolls. It was pitch black at night when they hit, and there was no warning they could hear or see over their own wash, spray and noise. In that race, you don't heave to at night - you keep racing. However, the point is well made. Check paper charts as well - and keep zooming in for more detail. I'm not sure if those yachts can use RADAR, as it might get in the way of the sails. That might also have helped. Very sad. I bet the navigator feels a real goose all right. Everyone else managed to miss it - most by chance, I suspect.

Ski in NC said:

Back in my submarine days, an error like that meant the CO was replaced on the dock five minutes after tying up. Regardless if the error was made by a junior officer or whatever. A failure meant the CO did not run his crew properly. Tough program.

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I don't recall what happened to the USS San Francisco's skipper after his boat ran into an undersea mountain, but I'm sure it was a "career limiting event".

Greetings,
That'll buff out...

Peter B said:

...I'm not sure if those yachts can use RADAR, as it might get in the way of the sails. That might also have helped. Very sad. I bet the navigator feels a real goose all right. Everyone else managed to miss it - most by chance, I suspect.

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All the boats have B&G 4G Broadband Radar. The 4G is suppose to be good up close. I guess you need to be looking though.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
That'll buff out...

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No doubt!

BaltimoreLurker said:

I don't recall what happened to the USS San Francisco's skipper after his boat ran into an undersea mountain, but I'm sure it was a "career limiting event".

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That damage looks more like you get from some close quarter "cat and mouse". Damage to the side of sonar. So he was running under an overhanging cliff?? Hmmm.

Larry M said:

All the boats have B&G 4G Broadband Radar. The 4G is suppose to be good up close. I guess you need to be looking though.

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That reef looked to be underwater at high tide. Radar won't see that.

If they had vector charts on the plotter, the reef would have disappeared in long zoom settings. Raster charts don't do that. The smart boats do their route planning on vector charts but drive with a raster visible on the screen.