Vendee Globe boat in trouble

[cb32863]

Hitting a container at 17kts or so does a bit of damage.

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/17287/thomas-ruyant-in-serious-difficulty

 

[kloudie1]

Bummer!

 

[Justin_NSA]

Wow! That huge ocean and he hits something. I think one year a competitor hit a whale.

 

[wyctoronto]

That's 8 boats out now?

 

[Jackdaw]

The ocean is huge, and also full of junk. I'll be surprised of any of the foilers finish without hitting something.

 

[justsomeguy]

That's 8 boats out now?

Thomas Ruyant is the ninth, according to Sailfeed.

 

[Rick D]

IMHO, he needs to make arrangements to get off that thing now. Whatever is holding that thing together isn't going to sustain a lot of flexing. He's got an adrenaline surge; understandable.

 

[Roland5048]

Came within a nm of hitting a container just before sunrise many years ago while cruising. Scary stuff. I couldn't imagine hitting one at 17 or so knots.

 

[Rick D]

Came within a nm of hitting a container just before sunrise many years ago while cruising. Scary stuff. I couldn't imagine hitting one at 17 or so knots.

Was 100 miles off the coast of Mexico, about 50 miles south of Baja, getting ready to turn southeast for Banderas Bay. Passed about 50' from a whole dock floating there, semi-submerged, maybe 30' long. Didn't even see it until maybe 100' away. These guys seem to be sailing through patches, given the collision damage to the fleet.

 

[Gunni]

Single hand sailing in the Southern ocean while sleeping below...what could go wrong? Never seen a boat take that kind of impact damage. Massive.

 

[Navicula]

looks like he hit the side of a container ship.......not the container......holy crap

 

[Apex]

re: Jackdaw
Alex tore Hugo Boss' starboard foil off hitting something.


....and dont forget that Robert Redford hit a container a couple years ago ....

 

[SFS]

And apparently slept right through it.

 

[cb32863]

Current update translated from French;

"The Skipper of the "Le Souffle Du Nord pour Le Projet Imagine / Vendée Globe" is currently trying to get his sailboat heavily injured, due to a collision, to a safe harbour namely bluff in New Zealand. Thomas Ruyant has developed well that night, he arrived in the area "protected" by the southern tip and is currently 80 miles of the ultimate goal. He moves between 8 and 12 knots but the situation is particularly difficult."

 

[Gunni]

And I guarantee he is not getting any sleep! This is an insanely dangerous sailboat race.

 

[Scott B]

IMHO, he needs to make arrangements to get off that thing now. Whatever is holding that thing together isn't going to sustain a lot of flexing. He's got an adrenaline surge; understandable.

At one point he was down below with his finger on the distress button to bail. Luckily he was within helicopter distant and had watertight bulkheads below to wait things out if the hull disintegrated. Last I saw he was in the protection of the island and had Coast Guard come out with 2 other sailors and came on board to strengthen the hull and help him pump out.

 

[RussC]

A little duct tape and that will be fine.

 

[Daveinet]

Is anyone ever held legally liable for junk left floating in the ocean?

 

[SFS]

A little duct tape and that will be fine.

I'm thinking it will buff right out.

 

[CloudDiver]

This is why I want forward scanning sonar on any passage making vessel... A racer might be moving too fast to take evasive action after the collision alarm is sounded, but at least you get a warning at all.
My only frame of reference for this (because I have not used any commercially available forward scan sonar) is the sonar on a Guided Missile Destroyer. Since one mission of a DDG is to hunt subs, I'm pretty sure we have the most powerful active sonar arrays out there, plus SPY radar can be tuned to pick up even smaller surface targets than we typically expect, like the corner of a partially submerged container poking up from the swells. On a 505 ft 100,000 shaft HP ship with that kind of power in sensors, yes we got a warning and had time to maneuver even at 30kts, but our typical 'cruise' speed on Pacific crossing was 14-17 knots.