RAINMAKER DISMASTED OFF HATTERAS IN GALE

[Edith Bicknell]

I crewed on RAINMAKER from NY to Newport with Chris and Jon Ollwerther and spent some time with George (all three crew members). In my opinion they made the right calls. I can guarantee there was no lack of attention to detail. As I was on watch with Jon from NY To Newport he always had his eye on the water. And that was in calm weather. I know Chris has as much experience as just about anyone on a GB. All of you can say what you want. It's just HATE, HATE, HATE from a bunch of haters that more than likely would have shit their pants in the situation. These guys are A+ pro sailors, especially on GuBs. For everyone backing GB and crew, thank you. Mr. Clean, thanks for the story. For any left over haters in here right now that don't have anybody to hate on, feel free to hate on me. Your a bunch of cunts.

SaltyChef

image.jpg

Feel better now?

Well. It's settled then! One of the most treacherous passages in the world done and dusted!

Haha, you are one of the ignorant cunts Im talking about. Bring on the hate bitch. Never said that it was a "treacherous passage". The point was that Jon was is paying. Attention In calm seas, I can imagine how focused he was in the weather they were in.

I'm sure your friends are well qualified. But 3-4 guys on a delivery in Long Island Sound and one of them is paying attention to what's in front of them. What are the chances? What a ringing endorsement! Thanks for contributing !

 

[DryArmour]

The crew reports there were no dark clouds in Clean's part 2 report. The only thing I can come up with is that the front is approaching and the wind suddenly shifts from 110AWA to 70AWA and increases from 28 to say 45+ in a gust that rapidly builds to 68 knots as the report suggests. Auto pilot bares away hard, leeward bow compresses, boat goes into the back of a tall, square wave and the rig blows under massive momentary loads.

So, was it good seamanship to let the autopilot drive in those conditions?

I am very old school when it comes to multihulls in almost ALL conditions. In solid breeze (16knts+) I never cleat the main, I never use autopilot and I have eyes forward and windward (Mine) and eyes to leeward (Crew) and eyes astern (Crew) and if available, eyes on the radar. With an AWA at 110 and boatspeed at 18knts the shit is going to come from behind you.

 

[Raked Aft\\]

A few thoughts,

Do the GB's include a barometer?? I've done many many offshore miles without outside weather assistance for most of them.

the one thing we watched like a hawk was the barometer. One i sailed w had an alarm for a preset pressure drop over a set time.

if that alarm went off, you knew there was trouble on the horizon. it was ALWAYS correct. It would have given RM plenty of time to get to bare poles before the squall line.

Why the troubles w the starboard motor? boat's basically new and a paid capt on board to run the ship. That motor should have been rock solid reliable!

Why not pick up a tow from the freighter to more protected waters? They were able to get lines tossed aboard.

 

[billy backstay]

The Go or No-Go decision may not have the the A+Pros decision to make. Pure speculation here but it is possible, neigh very likely they protested, but at the end of the day they are the employees of the the Owner.

Again, Pure Speculation on my part......

 

[TwoLegged]

The crew reports there were no dark clouds in Clean's part 2 report. The only thing I can come up with is that the front is approaching and the wind suddenly shifts from 110AWA to 70AWA and increases from 28 to say 45+ in a gust that rapidly builds to 68 knots as the report suggests. Auto pilot bares away hard, leeward bow compresses, boat goes into the back of a tall, square wave and the rig blows under massive momentary loads.

So, was it good seamanship to let the autopilot drive in those conditions?

I am very old school when it comes to multihulls in almost ALL conditions. In solid breeze (16knts+) I never cleat the main, I never use autopilot and I have eyes forward and windward (Mine) and eyes to leeward (Crew) and eyes astern (Crew) and if available, eyes on the radar. With an AWA at 110 and boatspeed at 18knts the shit is going to come from behind you.

I have never sailed a multihull, but your approach sounds wise.

With the benefit of hindsight, it does suggest a misjudgement by Rainmaker's skipper.

 

[longy]

What kind of standing rigging did that Hall spar have?

 

[billy backstay]

What kind of standing rigging did that Hall spar have?

Info probably available in the boats specs online if you want to know; just sayin'......

 

[Edith Bicknell]

The Go or No-Go decision may not have the the A+Pros decision to make. Pure speculation here but it is possible, neigh very likely they protested, but at the end of the day they are the employees of the the Owner.

Again, Pure Speculation on my part......

Come on Billy. Already well discussed. Thats why this thread is bigger now than the Espo Is A Dick Thread. No A+Pro experienced Captain is going totake a job where he is not the final decision maker on departure, routing, safety equipment, etc. That chain of command is settled before you

leave the dock. There will always be another rich guy who needs a boat moved. No job is worth compromising your safety. As someone said, risk assesmnet

is part of the job. However it all goes back to the biggest issue being the rigging failure. Otherwise chances are these guys would have been ok. Someone told me a guy crossed the Pacific on a balsa raft once.

 

[TwoLegged]

The Go or No-Go decision may not have the the A+Pros decision to make. Pure speculation here but it is possible, neigh very likely they protested, but at the end of the day they are the employees of the the Owner.

Again, Pure Speculation on my part......

We don't know whether any pressure was applied. But even if it was, it's no defence.

The decision to sail was the professional captain's decision, regardless of how pressure he may have been subjected to. The captain has responsibility for the safety of the vessel, and if he felt it was unsafe to travel, he should have stood his ground. That might have cost him his job, but being willing and able to stand your ground in that sort of situation is one of the responsibilities of the job.

 

[Edith Bicknell]

A few thoughts,

Do the GB's include a barometer?? I've done many many offshore miles without outside weather assistance for most of them.

the one thing we watched like a hawk was the barometer. One i sailed w had an alarm for a preset pressure drop over a set time.

if that alarm went off, you knew there was trouble on the horizon. it was ALWAYS correct. It would have given RM plenty of time to get to bare poles before the squall line.

Why the troubles w the starboard motor? boat's basically new and a paid capt on board to run the ship. That motor should have been rock solid reliable!

Why not pick up a tow from the freighter to more protected waters? They were able to get lines tossed aboard.

Commercial freighters dont tow yachts around the ocean for lots of reasons. You get a a free ride to their next scheduled port. Or they will divert for medical issues.

 

[billy backstay]

The Go or No-Go decision may not have the the A+Pros decision to make. Pure speculation here but it is possible, neigh very likely they protested, but at the end of the day they are the employees of the the Owner.

Again, Pure Speculation on my part......

Come on Billy. Already well discussed. Thats why this thread is bigger now than the Espo Is A Dick Thread. No A+Pro experienced Captain is going totake a job where he is not the final decision maker on departure, routing, safety equipment, etc. That chain of command is settled before you

leave the dock. There will always be another rich guy who needs a boat moved. No job is worth compromising your safety. As someone said, risk assesmnet

is part of the job. However it all goes back to the biggest issue being the rigging failure. Otherwise chances are these guys would have been ok. Someone told me a guy crossed the Pacific on a balsa raft once.

Same guy did a different Ocean crossing on one made out of paper, I heard that at a sailors bar many years ago!

 

[alphafb552]

Someone even did it on an SJ24!

 

[DryArmour]

I was told by people more knowledgeable on GBs than I am that it is common practice to let the autopilot steer in 30+ knots of TWS given the appropriate amount of rag is up (Storm blade and triple reef). Again, I am old school. I wouldn't do it but it is entirely possible that i am just naive on the state of the art autopilots these days and their ability to safely drive the boat.

 

[billy backstay]

Someone even did it on an SJ24!

heard a Hallberg Rassy did too. bit not without some adventure, drama, and a lot of cash

BJ still has the flick keys, ya know Edie??

 

[Ed Lada]

Someone even did it on an SJ24!

heard a Hallberg Rassy did too. bit not without some adventure, drama, and a lot of cash

BJ still has the flick keys, ya know Edie??

Edith is either having PMS or her period perpetually She is on a 24/7/365 cycle. You would think she would have bled to death now.

 

[RKoch]

PJ can pitch it as a Condomaran then

[quote name="Trickypig" post="4856949" timestamp="1424915263

I've always loved the gunboats but PJ's presentation.........

"Indoors" "moonroof" etc etc That's condo speak.

It pretty much is, and he pretty much does.

 

[mcsailor0303]

Wonder how much video footage of that adventure will surface someday? The kid probably had a GoPro running most of the time.

+1

 

[billy backstay]

Wonder how much video footage of that adventure will surface someday? The kid probably had a GoPro running most of the time.

+1

If Dad hasn't grabbed the Go=Pro could be on Fakebook already??

 

[DDW]

Well I don't think you can hand hold the main sheet on a GB 55. As I understand it, the sheet is controlled by a hydraulic cylinder driving a reverse purchase tackle inside the boom. You could "hand hold" the buttons, but I wonder how fast it actually moves.

In that area I have experienced wind shifts of 90 degrees in a matter of 5 or 10 seconds, so the scenario proposed by Dry seems plausible. The microbursts I have seen (in the mountains) required quite a lot of vertical development, and would probably have been seen on radar or XM doppler radar.

 

[Bryanjb]

I wonder if a replacement GB 55 is on order?