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Boat Found - Crew Missing

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Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1913 Posts

Initially Posted - 04/20/2007 : 10:11:29

Here's a [url="http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editorial.dll?pnum=1&bfromind=7406&eeid=5166848&_sitecat=1505&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=0&ck=&ch=ne&rg=blsadstrgt&_lid=332&_lnm=tg+ne+topnews&ck=&cntp=beta"]story[/url] I just read about a sailing trip gone bad. The boat is found in good shape with all three crew missing.

1997 250 TR WK (sold)
1984 O'Day 28 (sold)
1979 SISU 22
Bath, NC.

Edited by - on

esailor
Navigator

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USA
118 Posts

Response Posted - 04/20/2007 : 10:41:41

That is really strange. All three falling off does not sound to plausible, but I guess anything is possible.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 04/20/2007 : 10:49:53

Hmmm... Headsail shredded, engine running, strong breeze... Sounds a little like a man-overboard operation went bad--possibly a hung-up headsail during a jibe to get back to the swimmer, then somebody getting ejected trying to fix the sail, then the remaining person getting pulled off trying to rescue one of the two swimmers...

Just a theory.

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 04/20/2007 10:50:39

esailor
Navigator

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USA
118 Posts

Response Posted - 04/20/2007 : 11:21:26

When the last person became alone on the boat should'nt the first order of business be to tie off to the boat? I would assume that but I am just an inland lake sailor. I think your scenario is very likely.

Edited by - on

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5895 Posts

Response Posted - 04/20/2007 : 11:40:00

With the facts we have, we can only speculate, but they might have been swept off by one event, and the only thing I can think of would be if all three were swept off the boat in an unintentional gybe.

Maybe one was at the helm while two were having lunch below. The old jib ripped in 22 mph winds, and they started the engine and all three (older men) went forward to take the mainsail down. While nobody was at the helm, the boat lurched and gybed, knocking all three into the water, and the boat motored away from them.

No matter how it happened, if only one of them had been tethered to the boat with a harness, they'd all probably be alive.

Edited by - on

Russ.Johnson
Commodore

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USA
843 Posts

Response Posted - 04/20/2007 : 11:41:22

I think Dave is right.
Sails up, engines running sounds like a man overboard.
People panic because it's so unexpected.
Too bad, the 3 men had planned "a trip of a lifetime".
I hope they find them.

Edited by - on

John Mason
Admiral

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USA
687 Posts

Response Posted - 04/20/2007 : 12:42:01

Read about another incident some time back about an unmanned sailboat drifting in the Caribbean. From the towels lying in the cockpit all they could figure was everyone jumped in to swim and forgot to put the ladder down. Freeboard was high enough that no one could get back on board if that was the case.

Edited by - on

Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1913 Posts

Response Posted - 04/20/2007 : 19:12:35

I found this interesting bit of info while reading another article on this story.

"Mr Hall said rescue workers had recovered the boat's global position system (GPS) device, which might give them more clues as to the crew's whereabouts. 'That will now enable us to track backwards where this yacht has actually been in the last few days, and we're hoping that can pinpoint the search area for the missing crew,' he said."

I never even thought about that! Just another reason to keep you GPS on.

Edited by - Tom Potter on 04/20/2007 19:15:21

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2007 : 06:45:56

Saw another picture of the yacht. This one showed fenders deployed...Hmmmm, Pirates?

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2007 : 07:00:30

Maybe they are ashore! Imagine the boat being brought alongside and all three stepped ashore to catch the ropes!

Paul

Edited by - on

Nautiduck
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3704 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2007 : 09:10:41

Looking at the photo I am struck by a substantial looking set of lifelines all around the deck. Also a cat usually has open transom which would allow crew to climb back on board. The fenders are the oddest thing. No one at sea would have their fenders out like that unless some one tied up to the or if they were docked.

Edited by - Nautiduck on 04/21/2007 09:12:07

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2007 : 19:15:59

I see dead people.

Edited by - on

atgep
Master Marine Consultant

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1009 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2007 : 23:33:27

Swimming with the fishes. That does not look good. I could only guess a drunk-midnight-swim gone bad.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2007 : 23:53:25

The fenders may have been deployed when the CG went aboard... or the guys forgot about 'em. Looks like, as with most bit cats, the transom of each hull has a swim platform and steps. But if she was under way, that wouldn't help much. I haven't heard of pirates around the N. coast of Australia.

Edited by - on

John Mason
Admiral

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USA
687 Posts

Response Posted - 04/22/2007 : 02:26:53

I've never seen a jib that shredded. Does the main look reefed?

Edited by - on

redviking
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1771 Posts

Response Posted - 04/22/2007 : 08:02:10

The Sunday Telegraph reported "The mast pole appeared to be broken but four sails were up and the engine was running." Hmmm... Table set - plates and cutlery in place and not thrown off the table. Fenders - hung with care. Note their placement. The placement of the fenders resembles the shape and needs of a vessel brought alongside. My bet is that they were transferred to another vessel. Why would you hang fenders in that position at a dock? It is hard to believe that they were all swept overboard just before sitting down to dinner. I believe they abandoned ship during calm weather and that the damage occured after that time.

They had just purchased the vessel - hmmmm... They were experienced sailors who would have clipped on before attempting any sail changes. A daughter of one of the men called them "idiots" to the press.

Keryn Grey, daughter of James Tunstead, told the Seven Network television on Friday her family was hoping the three were in a dinghy and that the catamaran had drifted away because they forgot to anchor it.

"That's what we are hoping, that they forgot to anchor it (the catamaran) and it's drifted off the three idiots and (they have) not been able to get back to it," she said.

Do I smell a hoax here? Wonder if these chaps had any life insurance policies that might provide for them in their advancing years.

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 04/22/2007 : 09:03:36

The search was suspended this morning.

If they were 'swept off by rough seas' then how come the food and cutlery were in place? I know it's a cat, but surely if the seas were that rough???

Paul

Edited by - on

Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2030 Posts

Response Posted - 04/22/2007 : 09:58:58

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">"That's what we are hoping, that they forgot to anchor it (the catamaran) and it's drifted off the three idiots and (they have) not been able to get back to it," she said.

Do I smell a hoax here? Wonder if these chaps had any life insurance policies that might provide for them in their advancing years.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I am guilty. I have jumped overboard in dead calms with sails up to cool down. An unexpected bit of wind and a Cat would be a quarter mile down the road quickly.....It could have happened.

The second statement is more the direction I would be looking. If the boat encountered weather bad enough to shred the jib, the table would indeed no longer be set.

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 04/22/2007 : 12:09:28

Oscar, you remind me of a time I was in the Indian Ocean, balmy heat, absolutely flat sea and a couple of mile of water beneath the boat. Half of us onboard jumped overboard for the experience.

Of course, it was on a British Aircraft Carrier

Paul

Edited by - on

bbriner
Captain

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349 Posts

Response Posted - 04/22/2007 : 12:24:27

I can imagine these guys motoring or motorsailing along, sails up waiting for some or more wind, getting ready to eat...then what? They all jump off for a swim? The articale didn't mention high winds just 'rough seas' (course they were near the Great Barrier Reef too). The jib is shredded sure but how long would it take for jib to shred if it was flogging for days on end? Anyway the article only says rough seas... so Steve's scenario seems most plausible - but it just seems so unlikely that they would all be swept off at once. I'm wondering too that since 'cutlery was still on the table' then how rough were the 'rough seas'? It doesn't have to be that rough to cause an accidental jibe - but this being a catamaran you'd have to be on deck to to get swept off. So with 2 on deck - going foward under autopilot?) to do what? - and getting swept off the deck. If all 3 were not swept off at once then you would think that the remaining person would be at the helm for MOB where he would not be caught by an accidental jibe. Could that person fall or get pulled off the rig trying to get another on-board? Maybe I've read too many crime novels (and I just saw Dead Calm for the first time a couple of weeks ago) but I think this smells of too many bad things happening to come up with an reasonable explanation.

Edited by - on

tinob
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1883 Posts

Response Posted - 04/22/2007 : 14:14:58

I've seen bay sailors sail off with fenders deployed but miles off the north east coast of Austrailia with table set for dinner. Doesn't add up. They were either abducted or a hoax was perpetuated.

Val on the hard DAGNABIT, #3936, Patchogue, N.Y.

Edited by - on

Tanglefoot
1st Mate

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USA
76 Posts

Response Posted - 04/23/2007 : 08:17:45

Has anyone seen Open Water II: Adrift?

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 04/23/2007 : 08:56:55

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by bbriner
 ...The jib is shredded sure but how long would it take for jib to shred if it was flogging for days on end?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Maybe it got caught on the TriLens radar reflector...

Edited by - on

esailor
Navigator

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USA
118 Posts

Response Posted - 04/23/2007 : 11:00:14

If it was MOB wouldn't that orange life ring have been deployed? Especially if there were 2 over the rail? Very strange indeed. Any rescue craft would have deployed there own bumpers right?

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 04/23/2007 : 11:03:38

Looks line a hole from canon fire.

Edited by - on

bbriner
Captain

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349 Posts

Response Posted - 04/23/2007 : 12:03:22

Here's the latest news story:

Families believe Australian 'ghost yacht' sailors still alive

The families of three men who disappeared mysteriously from a yacht
found drifting off the northeast Australian coast refused Monday to
give up hope of finding them alive.

The official search for the sailors was called off on Sunday, with
police saying the men could not have survived in the water for so
long, but their wives and children launched their own search on
Monday.

Police began an extensive air and sea search for the men last
Thursday after the catamaran was found drifting near the Great
Barrier Reef with engine and computers running and a table laid for a
meal but no one aboard.

The three men, skipper Derek Batten, 56, and brothers Peter and James
Tunstead, aged 69 and 63, have been described by their families as
experienced and cautious sailors whose disappearance is
incomprehensible.

Peter Tunstead's daughter, Donna, said her father was meticulous
about safety at sea and she believed he was still alive.

"There is not an 'i' he doesn't dot or a 't' he doesn't cross --
everything was planned," she told the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation.

"I just don't know what's happened. I know though, in my heart and in
my soul, and so does my whole family, they are fine and they are
safe," she said.

"My dad is going to do everything in his power to come home to my mum
and to us girls. My dad loves my mum so much."

James Tunstead's son, Shane, said three charter boats would Monday
begin a search of islands in the area in the hope the men could have
swum to safety.

"That's our hope. That's where we're going to concentrate today," he
said, adding he was disappointed that the official search had been
called off.

"Maybe they've all got knocked over by the boom, or something
happened at the back of the boat when they were fishing because we
know they were fishing at the time by video footage we've seen from
the Townsville police," he said.

Theories abound on the fate of the men -- from one or more falling
overboard and the others going to the rescue, to an attack by pirates.

But police detective inspector Warren Webber said that despite
extensive investigations the case remained a mystery.

"We can all come up with various hypotheses and theories as to what
may have happened," he said.

"But at this stage our investigations concentrate on just determining
exactly what facts we have.

"We will obviously draw some conclusions from that information and
that information will ultimately be provided to the coroner."

Forensic experts who searched the "Kaz II" after it was towed into
port on Saturday confirmed that it had a badly torn sail but found no
clues as to what had happened to the men.

"There is nothing to indicate other people were involved or there may
have been some kind of crime," Webber said.

It was also unlikely they became separated from the yacht while
swimming, Webber said, dismissing reports that clothes were found
neatly folded at the stern.

Batten had bought "Kaz II" in eastern Australia's Queensland state
shortly before he and his friends set off on April 15 to sail the
vessel around the north coast of Australia to their homes in Western
Australia.

Media in Australia have likened the puzzling case to the "Mary
Celeste," the ghost ship found drifting in the Atlantic in 1872 with
no sign of the 10 passengers and crew -- one of maritime history's
most enduring mysteries.

Edited by - on

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