Boating chit chat thread.

Anyone watch Pat Lawless arrival and interview here? https://youtu.be/eTC5YuggfP4

Bit of a clusterduck by the interviewers getting their act together and a lot of repetitive "good to see you" and "it's over". But to his enormous credit he was very calm and collected. He'd clearly come to terms with it ending in the five days he'd spent initially trying to fix it and then sailing in without the self steering.

I was surprised to hear his Aries pendulum system was nearly as old as the boat and had not had all bearings replaced. At that age, I'd be replacing the entire system for a circumnavigation for fear of fatigue cracking or invisible corrosion. Plus I'd have gone for the hydrovane because there's A) a lot less complexity/moving parts and B) being independent of the main rudder it offers a fall back steering system.

Incidentally Pat's approach into the marina was a bit hard to understand to say the least! Fatigue or night blindness from media lights?

He did us proud and I hope he tries again as he put a great package together and would probably do even better in heavier conditions overall like they got in 2018.

Jaysus 😮

ETA - from a GGR facebook post

UPDATE : TAPIO DISTRESS.... Tapio is communicating with the YB3 Tracker-Texting device from the life raft..The YB3 tracker is giving positions with the EPIRB and PLB. He has no Glasses, so hard to read and send messages. He has the GRAB BAG. He is in his survival Suit. Asterias went down stern first in 5 minutes. Press release shortly with more information. #GGR2022

You'd be doing well to get yourself into a survival suit, grab the grab bag, get at liferaft, launch and board liferaft, all within 5 minutes!

I'm sure that took longer than five minutes to try to find and deal with the source and have to assess it as beyond saving, activate the Epirb, suit up and abandon ship. Could easily have been twenty minutes but would have passed in a flash with the adrenaline and stress.

Even though it went down stern first, the water could have come from anywhere but the speed I'd venture brand a through bill fitting failed. The head, engine intake, shaft seal or rudder bearing. He's very lucky the incident didn't occur in heavy weather or he'd have had no chance with the boat likely swamping or rolling with little warning with all that water moving the CoG about.

The rescue contingency planning was as good as you could hope for -to the organisers credit👍

Sounds like the boat was already well on its way to sinking when he heard the bang rather than that was the start of ingress. That bang was very likely a hatch or compartment cover getting blown off by water pressure as it came in. The speed at which it filled from when he got moving suggests something more than a through hull fitting, like the hull integrity itself was compromised.

He was very lucky and also made some very good decisions under pressure, e.g. not going back below deck for additional grab bags believing he'd be picked up quickly.

I was a bit shocked that Kirsten wasn't carrying a survival suit. Clearly not mandatory - probably because they're so bulky but......

So many experts there it's worse than a post-match discussion! What seems clear is that lots of 'stuff' is not replaced or upgraded or (apparently) properly tested before setting off onbevents like this. I know it costs, the people are on a tight budget, begging sponsorship but to expect to go that far on old gear is staggering!

On a more positive note, SY Eleanora (the classic yacht rammed & sunk in Tarragona) has been bought by a work colleague of the former owner (Zak) and is being brought to the Netherlands for a comprehensive structural repair and full refit. New owner is from Glencore, so has deep pockets and it will be great to see her afloat again.

Sydney Hobart mickey swinging contest started over night. Short vid and full 90 minute start vid

Well, the in-port race for the start of the Ocean Race was the most boring telly I've seen in quite some time!

They only showed the IMOCA race, but I believe the VO 65s were even worse, only one finished.

Sailing is a terrible spectator sport at the best of times - this will have done nothing for its reputation!!

It's a desperate event this time around. I use to have alot of interest in it but couldn't care less about it this time. The organisers seem more interested in pushing out fluffy press releases about the environment & Green agenda then promoting a yacht race. Its going to look very bad if only or 3 finish the race the imocas are delicate boats that have a reputation for breaking easily. As for the 65s I dunno what the point in them is apart from fluffing things out and causing a distraction.

Just realised I,ll be in Cape Town during the stop over there in February. Not getting my hopes up on a great race village but will pop down and have a look around. Was at the stop over in Sydney back in 2001 and that was shoved into a quiet spot down the harbour with not much going on and I doubt things will have changed in 20 years

The 65s started 2 hours before the imoca's. Think the 65s are just a sideshow distraction that have been getting very little attention. Whole things a bit of a **** show compared to what it used to be.

They tried showing the start live...

Some time ago there was mention in this forum of a marine accident – a 15 yr. old girl killed when a rib collided at speed with a large buoy. The helmsman, a Mr. Lawrence,(nicknamed 'Mr. Safe') was for 14 seconds ‘taking a selfie’ when he hit the buoy at 42 mph. At Winchester Crown Court last week he was cleared of manslaughter (which he denied) but was convicted on two safety charges and was given an 18-week custodial sentence suspended for two years, provoking nasty scenes in court from the dead girl’s family.