At approximately 1900 hrs on Sat eve June 22, 2009 a skipper and crew set out on his fairly nice Hobie 18.

At approximately 1930, the boat capsized in 18 knots of breeze and calm seas and the skipper was separated from the boat, and it was moving away from him faster than he could swim. The crew climbed the mast and purposely turtled the boat to slow headway, the skipper swam to the boat and boarded.

At approximately 2030 as the sun was setting, the 70' sailing vessel Chardonay II, with 49 passengers aboard saw the vessel in distress and altered course. Chardonay II made contact with the Vessel, radioed the Santa Cruz Harbor Patrol and stood on scene until the Harbor rescue vessel arrived.

The crew was taken aboard and the last known coordinates were reported to the Coast Guard.

Vessel Assist was hired the next morning and started a 6 hour search. Additional coordinates were given to Vessel Assist from a Coast Guard plane that happened to be searching for an overturned fishing boat in the same area.

The boat wasn't found until today in this condition:





These guys were lucky. The water is about 56F, that's a cold night in the water!

What could they have had aboard to facilitate their own rescue?

J

From the looks of that boat, water temperature would not have been a problem. I wonder what ran over it.

I think the safest thing, when sailing on open water, is to always sail on the buddy system, with another boat.

As far as what they could have had aboard to help them, I would think a VHF radio and/or a cell phone and a GPS unit.

Shame, its a proper Boomer too!

The guys did well to stay together. A phone in a waterproof zip bag would have made things easier.

I know stuff breaks or goes wrong, but if you are sailing alone you should always be confident that you can right the boat in all conditions. One of Ricks righting poles or a water bag should have been on board.

Hopefully the dicks that think it is ok to single-hand a 2-hander will take this on board too.

a drogue chute would have keep the boat from drifting so fast. Being able to right the boat from a turtle would have helped as well, but this means that the mast needed to be sealed.

The drift is fastest when the trampoline is perpendicular to the wind. So you can also slow the drift by getting up on the bow and dragging feet (and whatever else you can find to drag), to turn the bows into the wind. And sometimes the boat will even right itself when you do this. I wouldn't count on that happening, but at least the drift will be slowed considerably when the trampoline is in line with the wind instead of crossways.

Things they forgot:

VHF Radio
GPS
Cell Phone
Brains

It's idiots like that that give catamaran sailors a bad reputation.

Ditto.

Ditto to Matt's point

Do you think they even have a clue how to right the boat from a turtle?

Do you think they had a plan B.

A lot of the rec sailors on my beach have never thought about these seamanship issues much less read or talked to someone about these issues.

Good question that might save someone's life.

Never go out on a Yellow Hobie 18 in Santa Cruz. This is just like last time almost an identicle 18 did the same thing.

Have someone on the beach to know your planned arrival time. Always go out with more than 1 boat. Always carry safety gear, Any time I'm in the ocean I have a marine radio, phone, gps, flares , whistle , mirror and flashlight.
If your flares get old then buy new ones and set them off on the 4th of July.

Dude, that must have been a big shark to leave those teeth marks...

[...playing Jaws theme...]

You're going to need a bigger boat!

Smarter people!

Well, one thing they had going for them was that there were two of them. If they had a clue how to right the boat, they would have been all set (assuming the mast was sealed). People really need to practice this before they go anywhere.

As a former idiot, who tried this trick single-handed once (my third time ever on my first Hobie), and wound up out overnight on the bottom of a Hobie 16, I totally agree with Matt's list. At a minimum, the VHF, tied to you, is critical. I used to get laughs and stares when I showed up at fleet events with my VHF, until I told people this story. Amazingly, no one thinks it could happen to them, so not one other person went out and got a VHF to sail with routinely. I won't even go out without one anymore.

Anyway, as for their boat, mine got back in the same shape, and the damage was done by the Coast Guard. They didn't know how to right it, so they tried to drag it in (sideways, I presume). My guess would be that they used grappling hooks, because I've seen them up close, when they show up with a 41-footer, they have zero plans of going in the water to do anything...

Mike

Ok, boat flips and skipper gets seperated. Crew turtles boat and skipper gets back on board. It appears an hour passed and the cruise boat makes contact. We are to understand that the TheMightyHobie18 could not be brought out of the turtle and righted. There is no mention of hyperthermia so they must have been dressed for the water temp.

Either no righting system was on the boat or they just didn't know how to right it.

How much damage was done by the contact and was contact an hour after the initial flip or did they right it and flip again prior to the collision with the cruise boat?

Thread jack - So I've never managed to turtle a boat. How does one actually right from a turtle?

Hawaii state law requires either a VHF radio or EPIRB on every boat.

Which supports the previous conclusion that the missing equipment were brains. Even one brain would have been enough.

Stuff to faciliate their own resuce:

1. Sealed mast and practice righting from turtle
2. A water bag for solo righting (if the skipper had not got back to the boat

Stuff to facilitate a rescue by others:
1. VHF radio - hail on Ch 16
2. SPOT or EPIRB
3. Flares
4. Cell phone in water proof bag (I use the $20 AT&T Go phone from Walmart - my AT&T sim card works in it).

I'm a little shocked at the rude comments by some of the posters on this thread. I'm sure you have probably done some foolish things yourselves in the past. Does anyone know what safety equipment (if any) was on board this boat?

To right a boat from turtle - get it on its side and then right as normal.

To get it from turtle onto its side take the righting line, pass under one hull and over the top (as you would if righting it from on its side). Then lean on the rope off the other hull. If your mast is sealed you will get the boat back up on its side. It can be a little akward maintaining footing on the curved hull surface while leaning out far enough to make her come back up.

I have seen people trying to both lean off the rear cross bar, or off the righting line direct from the dolphin striker without going round the other hull first. Neither approach seems succesful.

To check the seal on your mast, throw it in the water and see if bubbles come out. It should float. Correct leaks with a quality sealent and recheck. If your mast leaks then it can fill with water when you turtle and you may not be able to right it - even with assistance from a power boat. At that point you may have to derig the mast and sails, wrap the lot up, place it aboard and get towed the lot back to shore with the platform still upside down. (Don't ask me how I know this).

Chris.

When you try to right from a turtle. Make sure you get on the stern of the "leward" hull. Your windage will push the boat sideways and the sails in the water will act as sea anchor - slowly lifting the boat to its side.

Hypothermia was a factor, but the crew were dressed for the occasion. No initial damage by rescue efforts, there was no collision with cruising boat. They had a righting line.

Skipper released shroud pins when boat was upside down in an attempt to get it from turtle position.

I post things like this to get us all thinking. I think it's a good exercise to ponder all of the variables in a real-life rescue scenario.

J