West Coast Cat Disaster

[Geoff Johnson]

And why wouldn't the rescue vessel take the boat in tow? And what happened to the rig? From the one sorry experience I had, I learned that it remains very much attached to the boat.

 

[Brisdon]

This guy was too green for the trip. That's what I get from reading his log and his after the fact summation. I would have been on a Monitor windvane in the first place and not sleeping with an electric autoplot at the helm. They don't recover quickly enough. From his last entry in the log to the time he set off the epirb was long enough that we can't really know what he did with the quantity of sail before he went to bed. In his last entry he discribes climbing up the mast half way to cut a tangled downhaul to free the main so he could lower it. I wonder why he couldn't have raised the sail back up and then pulled it down by yanking on the luff. Beats going up the mast. I don't get the feeling he had a bright enough spot light to spot the rig and analize the problem before making a dangerous climb and cutting away. In those conditions, my idea of going to sleep at night consists of closing my eyes for a few minutes in the quarter berth, ready to jump out the hatch and fix something. Sounds like he was way up in the focsil in his PJ's, really divorced from the situation. Now, the part that really gets me is the scuttle. What was that about? The craft was obviously substantially intact and not about to go down. Someone would have towed it in.

 

[Greg Ross]

Scuttling

Quote;
"Now, the part that really gets me is the scuttle. What was that about? The craft was obviously substantially intact and not about to go down. Someone would have towed it in."

I read elsewhere he didn't have Hull Insurance, he may not have carried P & I either. Suspect he may have wanted to avoid any liability for leaving the "Hazard to Navigation" and further avoiding the Salvors' charges that may have come his way. I don't claim to understand Maritime Law but I think, anyone salvaging doesn't necessarily have to claim title to the salvage but are entitled to recover their costs.