Here is wreck that happened just south of me. What in hell were they doing in 40 foot seas?
http://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/21/139863/

ugh, that is nauseating really.

Very sad - is the crew still missing ?

Click on the "News and Info/Press Releases" tabs.

Here's the latest:

http://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/21/139920

My mind is racing at all the possibilities. I will probably lay in bed tonight with my eyes wide open trying to not let my imagination run. Deploying two anchors... rope found around the prop... I can't begin to think of how many ways this could have gone south so quickly. My prayers are with their families.

-Rob V.

Long bridle and sea anchor on about 200 metres of line at least for a boat like that. Get an axe and free the locator beacon. Life boat and if none, pad out an area and stay there. keep radioing position.
Don't know that normal anchors wouldn't just make matters worse. If no sea anchor..make one..matresses and sails?
Second guessing poor bastards lost at sea is not kind but the more we discuss actions to be taken the better if we ever end up there.

From the picture on the CG press release, it looks like the crew ran the line from the prop to the opposite bow for somethng to hang on to after the boat turtled. With the seas and cold they were probably washed off. Just my opinion.

My experience with (some) delivery skippers is that they are over-confident and don't bother to act on weather forecasts, time is money.

The boat has to be at location X on a certain date so pressure has something to do with. Some skippers also like to sail with unexperienced crew (people looking for some adventure, students, etc) because they're cheap and dont question the skippers decisions.

Did anybody ever find out what kind and length of catamaran this was? And any other details about the whole incident?

Hi Mary, here is the full story:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/19/BAG8JN28GF1.DTL

Thanks, Tony.

Winds of 40mph, waves 20-25 feet.
Sad...
The possibility of a rogue wave of course, but those conditions don't say much for the sea worthiness of cruising cats.

It is pretty unusual to hear about a cruising catamaran capsizing. Seems to happen more often to cruising trimarans. Cruising catamarans are normally pretty heavy, undercanvassed, and relatively slow.

Because of the cruising and boat deliveries that Rick and I have done (in the distant past), I am VERY curious about what went wrong here.

They had time to drop their sails and throw a couple of anchors over and write about it in the log, so it sounds like they weren't concerned enough to radio to the Coast Guard and give their position and say they were in trouble. And they didn't even get out the epirb.

Here's my theory: They had a bunch of anchor line hanging down under the boat, one of which apparently tangled around a propeller. Possibly the lines got around one or more of the rudders, too, so they couldn't steer. So they got sideways to a big wave, the boat rolled over and demasted, and everybody was swept off the boat and separated from it in the capsize.

Sounds logical and possible to me, because they probably weren't tethered to jacklines.

If they had deployed a drogue/sea anchor off the bow or off the stern, it would have kept the boat more in line with the waves fore and aft.

Rogue wave, of course, coming it at another angle, all bets are off -- on ANY kind of boat. If the crew had all been below decks, and hatches closed, when it happened, they would probably have been okay.

I guess we will never know what really happened. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I DO know that when you are doing a boat delivery and are beng paid for X number of days to get the boat there, it is a whole lot different from "cruising," where you carefully plan your time to coincide with good weather. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Mary,

I have very little big cat experience, but..

If you are below with hatches closed during a capsize, is it common that floor boards etc. are secured so they dont hit you together with all the other loose stuff?
For a capsized multihull to be safe/possible to survive in, dont it need to be designed with this in mind with dry bunks when inverted and a way to stop surge? Isn't a emergency hatch for use when inverted also more or less a prerequisite?
Did the boat in question have these safety measures?

The report actually says that " Later that night, the swells reached 30 to 40 feet." That's some big freakin' waves. Anchors as drogues can plane if pulled hard enough and if they barreled unrestrained down a 30 or 40 foot wave, I can imagine their problem might have also happened in the trough.

Rolf,
I would rather be hit by a bunch of flying cushions, and maybe a teakettle, below deck than be thrown off the boat topsides.

There would be plenty of air in there to survive for a long time, and the boat is not going to sink for a long time, if at all. And you want to be COMFORTABLE AND DRY, too?

I don't know whether new cruising multihulls are made with an escape hatch on the bottom. I do know that if they had all been buttoned up inside the boat when it rolled, they probably would all still be alive. It wasn't very long before the boat was found.

The big point is that in bad conditions they should have at the very least been tethered to jack lines.

And a problem is that people tend to be complacent with a multihull because it SEEMS so stable. So they do not always take the precautions they would take on a monohull.

Yes Mary, the teakettle (a cold one I hope) and cushions are no worry. Floor panels, batteries and whatever is stored under them are something else. Like e.g. the owners diving gear. Wonder how a capsize would be if they were in the saloon: http://catamaransailing.com/images/voyage440ext.jpg

Sure I would want my cruising boat to be liveable if inverted. Staying dry is a prime requisite for surviving in cold water. I would also like at least a cutaway escape hatch. Not much use in being tethered to the boat unless you are able to enter it after the capsize. Diving in survival gear trough all the lines and possible fouled rigging to enter the boat dont sound like a good plan.

It beats being separated from the boat and facing a certain death.

Anyway, there is nothing stored under the floor in the main salon, because there is no storage space under there. Batteries and dive gear and stuff like that are normally stored in compartments outside and aft in the **** area -- not in the living quarters.

Have you ever been on a cruising catamaran? It's basically a condo with the garage on the back.

Mary
Firstly condolences to all those involved in this incedent.I hope that this thread is not seen as critcal of any of them, just us guys trying to learn from this terrible loss of life....

One report on another forum implied that the rope had been TIED to the saildrive leg. This would have been an attempt to have something to hang on to after the capsize. I have always been taught to have a rope tied under the bridge deck at all times because it is pretty much impossible to hang on to an upturned cat with out one.

Fixed keels are a no-no on any multihull. It is impossible to safely lie a hull on a drogue or hove too without the risk of the boat tripping on its leeward keel. Keels have become common place on cruising cats beacause they are cheaper to build than center/daggerboards and do not interfere with internal accommodation.

Similaly, it is more difficult to sell someone a nice safe cruising cat when the customer asks what the escape hatches are for!
You don't see masthead floats about any more do you! Who would buy a boat that needs one of them?

Sail safe everyone