Yachting World

My Word!!

Word has it that they hit another whale!

http://www.maxicatamaran-orange.com/

ANOTHER whale? Where did you see that? I didn't see anything on their page. They stopped now to finally take a look at what damage they sustained in the first whale encounter. This is the first chance they've had because of the wave and wind strength in the prior days.

On another note...did anyone read Bruno's comments about Steve Fossett?

I just flew past Steve Fossett a couple hours ago, he was returning to Salina, Kansas after completing his solo, round the world, non stop flight in Global Voyager. We were in a Delta 767 at FL 370, doing about 500mph ground speed, he was up at FL 450 but only going 210mph gs. Who is sailing his big cat Chyanne around the world in that other race? Or, did he already sell it?

David Scully is skippering Cheyenne. David was one of the watch captains from the Round the World record run. The boat has not sold.

The info about another whale came from scuttlebutt

>>ORANGE II

For the third time since the start and only two days since their last collision the maxi-catamaran has hit another UFO. At 20 knots, they were traveling at a lower speed than on Sunday, when they hit an Orca at 30 knots. Once again it is likely to have been a cetacean that the boat collided with and it was the same rudder and the same port daggerboard which felt the shock. The crew is continuing on their way, but have slowed down for the time being.<<

Is this mating season, or what? I thought whales were endangered species.

Hmmm, that makes me think... What do you get when you mate Orange with a whale? Maybe little Hobie 16s?


Ok guys, it's a joke, don't get to riled... I still have a Hobie 16.

Mate a whale with Orange? Well... mating at over 30 knots... enough parts to make a bunch of Hobie 16s anyway!

You know the animal rights guys will be asking for a speed limit soon.

It's worse. The word has spread throughout western Atlantic ocean community about this mammal-bashing boat speeding northward, and now 60 dolphins have beached themselves in the Keys. They obviously are paralyzed with fear of the "great Orange predator."

Sorry. I don't mean to make light of what is a very serious situation for these dolphins. Five of them have already died despite the best efforts of dolphin rescue people. And now another 20 have beached themselves farther south on the Keys. But most of them are expected to survive and a number of them are being moved to a rehabilitation facility.

But when the ocean is as big as it is and when one, solitary boat colides with two different whales and when dolphins come ashore in droves, it seems like something strange is happening.

You know, I've had bottlenose dolphins "follow" my H17 as if they were attracted to it or something.

I'm guessing that it might be the cavitation humming that maybe they find intriguing. Perhaps theres something about Orange that the whales like.

You may have something there, An Indian proffessor fortold the Tsunami using whales.

http://www.oceania.org.au/soundnet/feb05/did.html

Gareth
www.fourhulls.com

I`d much prefer they start hitting partially submerged containers, and stop clubbing whales. Maybe then the`yd switch the freakin` radar on.

I think you will find the rader is usewd to assist in avoiding things above the water

If they have a depthfinder, how would it react if there was a whale under the boat? I mean, would it suddenly register shallow depth?

Mary, I think a depthfinder would tell them they`ve hit a whale, after they`ve hit it.
Simon, I thought radar could pick up sub-surface objects close to the surface. Maybe a fish-finder type of device would work ? (or won`t it pick up mammals ? )

Maybe that's what I was thinking of, a fishfinder. Whatever it is they use to try to find the Loch Ness Monster.

That was the fastest reply I`ve ever had on a posting !! By the time I was "returned to the forum", you had already replied. How am I supposed to keep my name up as the latest post when you do that ???

Sorry, Steve.

With all these sailboats speeding around the world, faster and faster, it seems as though they would have some sort of device that can give them advance warning of underwater objects in their path, like containers and whales.

Ahhh...go to sleep Steve!

Seriously though, there has been a bit of debate regarding sonar on racing boats to detect animals and submerged objects. There are a few problems:

A) Any sonar sensor would have a hard time getting steady readings on a Mega Catamaran that's thrashing through the waves at 30knots.

B) There's some theory that sonar signals are unhealthy to some organizms in the sea.

After all, if they could detect subsurface iceburgs and growlers with some sort of device you think they would jump on it in a hurry! The closer they can get to the ice field means a shorter trip around the globe.