Boat rescue off Block Island

[gboase]

As dumb as they come

The sailboat Moonshine is shown at the dock at Coast Guard Station Montauk, N.Y. on
Saturday morning. The Coast Guard rescued the boat and its four-member crew Friday.
A helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod assisted in the successful rescue of four people aboard a storm-ravaged sailboat Friday, about 7 miles south of Block Island, R.I.
The crew of the 45-foot Moonshine left East Greenwich, R.I., Friday morning, bound for Puerto Rico, when they were caught in an offshore storm, which ripped their sails and disabled their propulsion. They activated their emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB). The Coast Guard received the signal and tracked their position.
The First District Command Center in Boston, launched a 47-foot motor lifeboat crew from Station Point Judith, R.I. and a helicopter crew from Air Station Cape Cod. Both crews arrived at about 1 a.m., at the last position the EPIRB indicated, but because of the 30 to 40 knot winds, the sailboat was drifting out of position faster than the beacon could transmit. Visibility was less than one mile, and the seas were 8 to 12 feet.
The crew of the Moonshine shot off a flare, and the rescue crews located the disabled sailboat and determined no one was injured.
The motor lifeboat crew took the Moonshine in tow. After a nearly 7-hour transit, they arrived near Montauk, N.Y., and transferred the tow to a Station Montauk lifeboat crew who took the Moonshine and crew safely to Montauk at about 9 a.m. today, Saturday.
"If they didn't have the EPIRB or flares, it would have been extremely hard to find them out there in the snow," said Lieut. j.g. Ben O'Loughlin, the watchstander at the command center in Boston.
Air temperature at the scene of the rescue was 39 degrees and the water, 42 degrees.

When I first saw this story, my first thought was .... you have GOT to be kidding! To go out on a day like this, with all the weather warnings and alerts going off all day and night, this was not sailing. It was suicide.

I'm from East Greenwich. First of all, they would have to pass Warwick Point. In those conditions, that alone should have scared the stuffings out of them. Then past the mouth of Narragansett Bay which again is no picnic on anything but a calm day. The fact that they went past those two coldruns and out into the open sea with the weather forcast for worsening conditions is just plain stupid.

I never thought I would ever say this, but evidently there are just some people who are simply too brain dead to be sailors. I sincerly hope the Coast Guard hands them an enormous bill thus preventing us taxpayers from funding such ignorance.

 

[Franklin]

As for the guy who lost his rudder...he could have waited it out if he had a Jordan Series Drogue and then try to rig something up to get the boat home in calmer conditions. I never go offshore without one.

 

[derektherigger]

Roller foolers as I refer to them. Unless installed, maintained and operated properly your bound to have problems, serious problems! Even then once you have reduced sail until it is no longer efficent and need to change down, good luck unrolling your big sail then lowering it to the deck not overboard. Ever heard of a hank on system failing?

 

[Franklin]

Roller foolers as I refer to them. Unless installed, maintained and operated properly your bound to have problems, serious problems! Even then once you have reduced sail until it is no longer efficent and need to change down, good luck unrolling your big sail then lowering it to the deck not overboard. Ever heard of a hank on system failing?

I have heard of crew falling overboard while changing sails.

Thats the great thing about fractional rigs...especially furling main ones. The jib is already just a working jib, so when it's furled to 50%, it's like a storm sail (almost). Main can be furled to 25% and jib furled to about 25% with foam luff. Never had mine fail on me in 5 years.

I used to have hank-ons on my first boat and hated leaving the helm to mess with the sail on deck. Now, I never have to leave the cockpit. Big difference as a single handler.

 

[mike2442]

Good time to check your gear they might want to add a radio that gets weather reports!

The sailboat Moonshine is shown at the dock at Coast Guard Station Montauk, N.Y. on
Saturday morning. The Coast Guard rescued the boat and its four-member crew Friday.
A helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod assisted in the successful rescue of four people aboard a storm-ravaged sailboat Friday, about 7 miles south of Block Island, R.I.
The crew of the 45-foot Moonshine left East Greenwich, R.I., Friday morning, bound for Puerto Rico, when they were caught in an offshore storm, which ripped their sails and disabled their propulsion. They activated their emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB). The Coast Guard received the signal and tracked their position.
The First District Command Center in Boston, launched a 47-foot motor lifeboat crew from Station Point Judith, R.I. and a helicopter crew from Air Station Cape Cod. Both crews arrived at about 1 a.m., at the last position the EPIRB indicated, but because of the 30 to 40 knot winds, the sailboat was drifting out of position faster than the beacon could transmit. Visibility was less than one mile, and the seas were 8 to 12 feet.
The crew of the Moonshine shot off a flare, and the rescue crews located the disabled sailboat and determined no one was injured.
The motor lifeboat crew took the Moonshine in tow. After a nearly 7-hour transit, they arrived near Montauk, N.Y., and transferred the tow to a Station Montauk lifeboat crew who took the Moonshine and crew safely to Montauk at about 9 a.m. today, Saturday.
"If they didn't have the EPIRB or flares, it would have been extremely hard to find them out there in the snow," said Lieut. j.g. Ben O'Loughlin, the watchstander at the command center in Boston.
Air temperature at the scene of the rescue was 39 degrees and the water, 42 degrees.

 

[Ross]

A question that I have raised many times in the past. Would people going to sea be much more careful in their planning and preparation if rescue was not such a reliable consideration and if insurance were not to be had. Putting life and property on the line changes the dynamic for me. It is never a "What have I got to lose" attitude when I venture. I know what I have to lose and I try very hard to minimize the risk.

 

[bdefrond]

I don't find the boat beat: Morgans have solid hulls and there are climbing steps on the mast, a sound offshore cruising feature. If I could ride a "fast developing gale" 9 days out of New York in the boisterous Gulf Stream with my 1977-old 32' Allied Seawind ketch (25.7' at the waterline but a solid 15,000 lb), with winds up to 65kts (where the windgage got stuck) and 40ft waves (exactly half the "Perfect Storm") including some rogue ones which raked the boat with green water as common in the Stream, this 45' boat should have easily ridden a 40mph/12' waves Nor'easter off Block Island all the way to Bermuda on anyone of their 2 foresails (rolled up genoa or innerstaysail)... Unless they were dressed for their destination and "died" of cold that can play games with your brain and stamina. If too uncomfortable, lowering one of the jibs, and then setting any sort of sea anchor (I have used a pair of oars crossed with a boyscout knot when no sea anchor) would have slowed down both ship speed and motion to a "breeze". There is no need for an engine under these conditions, it never occurred to me to start mind during the 30 hours that my storm lasted, as I was already running 10kts down the slopes of the big swells, 50% more than hull speed...

I cannot wait for the owner-skipper's debriefing to throw light on these mysteries.

 

[Sunbird22358]

I don't believe it is just the "easy button" of an EPIRB and the reliability of USCG Rescue that leads to fools venturing out on the oceans unprepared. I wonder how many of the boats that are abandoned at sea by foolish, unprepared "sailors" were uninsured? If you know that insurance will pay for the boat........why worry? I once heard, and I think this is good advice, the time to abandon ship, is when you need to step UP to get into the liferaft. I'm not in any way critisizing the fully prepared and competant voyagers who due to circumstances well beyond their control, are forced to abandon a seaworthy vessel and seek rescue, that DOES happen, but I'd venture a guess that not many truly prepared and competant offshore skippers have ever required rescue from a seaworthy vessel.

My own philosophy about sailing is that if I got myself into a dangerous situation......well, I sure as heck better be prepared to get myself out of that same situation WITHOUT outside help. Yes, if going offshore I would carry an EPIRB, as well as a VHF and if going far offshore, a SSB. But, it is important that I be prepared to rescue myself, just in case help can not get there in time. Again, I'm not knocking those who must be rescued due to a serious medical problem, or other unavoidable situation.

I don't usually sail on Narragansett Bay, but we did take our 14' powerboat (trailered) to East Greenwich once. It was a beautiful June Sunday afternoon, and Greenwich Cove was nice and calm. However, especially with 3 of us in the boat, we did not go much further out than Norton's Shipyard before the afternoon chop coming up the Bay was more than we were comfortable in, and so we turned around.
I sail out of Wareham, MA and at the north end of Buzzards Bay it can get nasty on a windy day, I have had a few rough passages from my mooring to the town boat ramp less than 2 miles upstream, why did I go? Well, it was haulout day.....and I didn't want to wait another week........was it a bad idea? Well, in retrospect....YES!! However, I continued on after getting out in the rough conditions due to it being even worse to turn around. How many times have I left my mooring during the season under full sail, only to return a few agonizing minutes later to tuck in a reef or reluctantly decide to stay in that day. The conditions in a sheltered cove can deceive any of us. I suspect though, that most of us would have turned right around at the mouth of Greenwich Cove last Friday..........strike that.....none of us would have gone out! Why didn't the MOONSHINE turn around?? The only thing I can assume is SCHEDULE, they HAD to head South Friday, it was their plan, they had planned to leave then and for some unfathomable reason, did not feel that a gale-force snowstorm was a reason not to go.

The skipper of Moonshine failed at RISK MANAGEMENT.

 

[DanW9494]

The best SAR in the world

is better because of rescues like this.

From their training programs:

SAR background statistics/information:
95% of all Coast Guard SAR occurs less than 20 nautical miles offshore.
Approximately 90% of cases involve assist/rescue only.
8% of cases involve minor searches (less than 24 hours).
2% of cases involve major searches (greater than 24 hours).
Those 10% of cases involving searches (minor and major) cost the Coast Guard more than $50 million annually.

SAR program objectives are:
Minimize loss of life, personnel injury, property loss and damage to the maritime environment.
Minimize search duration and crew risk during SAR missions.
Maintain a world leadership position in maritime SAR.

SAR program goals are (after Coast Guard notification):
Save at least 93% of those people at risk of death on the waters over which the Coast Guard has SAR responsibility.
Prevent the loss of at least 85% of the property at risk on the waters over which the Coast Guard has SAR responsibility.

Obviously, some rescues are more "justified" than others. But, all serve to train or maintain readiness of the SAR teams for the next rescue. Obviously, this website has a responsibility to discourage unprepared or ignorant sailors from sailing into high risk situations.

So, until the SAR teams are breaking down from fatigue from too many missions, inadequate personnel, vehicles, or maintenance due to leadership or funding, I don't think it matters whether it is an idiot going out or a fisherman trying to get back. A primary goal of these crews is to be able to not only save a few people, but to be able to coordinate the rescue of a downed airliner or cruiseship in any weather as well. So, I'm thankful that they do go out, and that they are trained, equipped, and led such that they came back.

My questions:

EPIRBs are typically set off in storms like this with high winds and leeward drift. Is this case typical where it only got them close, or was it just the very poor visibility? And if horrible visibility, how could a flare help unless you were close? How close will the EPIRB get the rescuers in such conditions? How close do you have to be to see a flare in bad fog or a blizzard?

Why wasn't the motor lifeboat dispatched from Montauk if that was the closest site?

How often do sailboats get towed by USCG? My guess is the lifeboat was launched due to very poor visibility, thinking the helicopter may not be able to see the boat, and since it was there, they got the tow. Without the snow, only a helicopter would have been sent, and the boat left out there.

 

[Roger Long]

I'd venture a guess that not many truly prepared and competant offshore skippers have ever required rescue from a seaworthy vessel.

A USCG rescue swimmer who retired a year or two ago was quoted as saying that he had never in his career had to rescue anyone from a vessel that had a drogue or sea anchor.

It's not necessarily the drogue that makes the difference but the fact that people who understand what they are getting into and are prepared in many other ways will have that gear on board.

 

[Hermit Scott]

Saildog, I can definitely see the need for a bridge deck on your Telstar. In the before picture it looks like there is only 3" or 4" step up from the cockpit floor. Did you do the work yourself? It looks nice. Do you have a website for your boat?
That Ronnie guy that lost his boat did have a drouge , but I don't think he ever trained with it or used it.

 

[RAD]

Quoted from Sunbird

"The only thing I can assume is SCHEDULE, they HAD to head South Friday, it was their plan, they had planned to leave then and for some unfathomable reason, did not feel that a gale-force snowstorm was a reason not to go."
I'd bet money on that theory cause giving the time of the year skipper and crew had time off from Friday to after the New Year weekend which is Jan 4th so thats 16 days to get to Bermuda

 

[EagleSailTwo]

The Moonshine skipper kinda looked like this guy!

 

[Franklin]

A USCG rescue swimmer who retired a year or two ago was quoted as saying that he had never in his career had to rescue anyone from a vessel that had a drogue or sea anchor.

It's not necessarily the drogue that makes the difference but the fact that people who understand what they are getting into and are prepared in many other ways will have that gear on board.

I think a good drogue makes a big difference. The day I was laying mine out on the dock to inspect it, an old salt came by, who never said anything to me before, said "I used one of those twice. One time it was just to get some rest and the other time it was of necessity in the North Sea. It's the best tool you can have."

Combine that with my knowledge of how different it feels mentally being down below vrs on deck and I'd have to say that the fears go away after being on the drogue and I think it's the fear that pushes the button.

 

[pquacker]

Bad timing?

Friday ? Leave Friday ? With a strong Nor'easter predicted and showing up on radar. Real bad idea to leave "before the storm". Better to err on the side of caution.

 

[sailingdog]

Thanks Scott... yes, I did the work myself. The concept photos weren't quite so pretty... and looked like this:

Then I realized, I could save myself a lot of work by raising the bridgedeck a tiny bit and not installing cleats to support it, but making the top section much wider and simply epoxying the top board to the two square steps that you see flush with the mockup. That was a brilliant idea, and greatly simplified the installation.

I do have a website for my boat. It is located here.

BTW, I do have a Jordan Series Drogue, which I have practiced with, but don't generally carry aboard. I'm in the process of designing proper chainplates to use as attachment points for the JSD's bridle.

Saildog, I can definitely see the need for a bridge deck on your Telstar. In the before picture it looks like there is only 3" or 4" step up from the cockpit floor. Did you do the work yourself? It looks nice. Do you have a website for your boat?
That Ronnie guy that lost his boat did have a drouge , but I don't think he ever trained with it or used it.

 

[Sunbird22358]

Why was the MLB sent from Pt. Judith? well, it sounds like the initial EPIRB position was off Block Island (no wintertime USCG assets there), I assume STA Pt Judith was closer to the position than STA Montauk would have been? But perhaps much more important, with a Northeast wind it would be a more downwind run from Pt Judith, rather than heading into the wind from STA Montauk. Same reason that the vessel was towed to STA Montauk.......downwind from scene, even to tow to Block Island would have meant towing into the wind and seas, I assume.

The newer 406 EPIRBS (transmit on 406 Mhz) have a pretty close to pinpoint accuracy if linked to a (or have a built-in) GPS. However, they rely on a satelite to track them initially, once the USCG has been alerted I think they can home in on a signal from the EPIRB, but the initial contact actually relies on an orbiting satelite that makes passes over the area. The passes occur every hour or so. The article also did not say whether the Moonshine had registered their EPIRB or not, the mandatory registration of a 406 EPIRB is the key to it's function, the registration puts the EPIRB in the database of the satelite monitoring and logs the boat name and description, owner's name and address and a contact number to verify that the EPIRB has not been accidently set-off. Also, was the EPIRB interfaced with an accurate GPS (or was there a GPS receiver built into the EPIRB)? I believe that if connected to a GPS the EPIRB will send out a position to rescuers, rather than relying only on the satelite's hit on the EPIRB for a position. Perhaps, the EPIRB was dislodged from it's bracket in the storm and that severed the link to the GPS, thus defaulting to the last known position? (I admit that I'm a bit fuzzy on EPIRB operational details)

One final note, the USCG has mostly recovered from the problems, but in the months after 9/11 they were putting more hours on all assets than normal, and yes..things were definitely breaking down due to overuse! Luckily, they have started to receive a bit more funding now under DHS leadership, and as I say...things are settling down. I also have to agree that although babysitting the unprepared has got to be hard on the USCG boat and aircraft crews, it is EXCELLENT training for the "real" rescues!

While I fully agree that it is not the USCG's responsibility to respond to every boat-out-of-gas case (Much better to send a commercial tow out, somehow paying for a tow in seems like a good lesson?) those "fluff" tows did serve as training for the real rescues too.

 

[sailingdog]

Sunbird—

The new 406 Mhz EPIRBs also transmit a 121.5 kHz SART signal, allowing assets in the area to pinpoint it fairly easily.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

It's way too easy to pass judgment as some have done here without knowing the facts which is why I tend to ignore these type discussions, however, there was a story in today's Providence Journal which shed some light on the real story. Although this boat is from our neighboring marina, I don't have any personal knowledge of either the crew or the boat.

In today's paper, the writer cited the fact that all crew except the skipper, who had been sailing for many years, were seasick and that alone resulted in their distress call as none of the crew were able to help sail the boat - probably resulting in the headsail damage evident in the pictures.

While it is commons sense to not leave port in a storm, it is also equally common to leave sufficiently ahead of it to take advantage of favorable wind direction and while 35 knot winds and 10-12 ft seas are not comfortable, those conditions are quite manageable if the crew was healthy.

I find it much more dubious for someone who has never sailed offshore to question the wisdom of those who do.

 

[BaySailerBill]

Latest Article from the Providence Journel Today


Storm leaves sails, voyage to Puerto Rico in tatters


[SIZE=-1]09:36 AM EST on Tuesday, December 23, 2008

[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]By Lisa Vernon-Sparks

Journal Staff Writer[/SIZE]

Little is left of the headsail of the 45-foot sloop Moonshine, docked at the Coast Guard station in Montauk, N.Y., on Saturday.

> U.S. Coast Guard photo

The wind howled at nearly 40 knots, and snow fell on the waters off Narragansett Friday evening. In the fury, a distress call came in to the Coast Guard from south of Block Island. A sailboat was in trouble.
At 7:45 p.m., the Coast Guard’s command center in Boston launched a crew from Point Judith.
“We knew with the conditions, it would be challenging,” Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Timothy J. Burns recalled yesterday from the Coast Guard station at Point Judith.
Burns and three other Guardsmen suited up and headed south in their 47-foot motor vessel. For hours the crew searched the waters, each time reaching a place where the sailboat’s emergency radio said it should have been, but it wasn’t there.
“Each time we got to a signal, it was further south and further west,” Burns said.
A helicopter from the Coast Guard’s Air Station on Cape Cod thwacked above. At about 1 a.m. Saturday, its crew spotted a flare, then another.
“They proceeded toward the flares and we tried to follow them,” Burns recalled.
Underneath the helicopter, the 45-foot sloop Moonshine rocked in the turbulent 42-degree water. Its sails had been shredded and the auxiliary engine had shut down.
Jacob A. Freedman, 27, of East Greenwich, the owner, was the skipper. Also on board were his dad, Michael Freedman, 57, and two others. The group had set sail for Puerto Rico from a marina in East Greenwich Friday morning.
Jacob had planned the trip months ago, his mother, Linda Freedman, said yesterday. She said her son is an archaeologist and supervises digs for Gray & Pape, cultural resource consultants, which has offices in Providence. He wanted to take the trip after hurricane season, which formally ended Nov. 30.
But the crew ran into an offshore storm and into trouble, according to a Coast Guard report released yesterday. The storm’s 30-to-40-knot winds and 12-foot waves were an overwhelming opponent.
The sailboat’s emergency radio beacon let the Coast Guard know what kind of vessel it was and to whom it was registered. Jacob Freedman, had listed Brooklin, Maine, where his mother lives, as its home port.
The Coast Guard called Linda Freedman, in Brooklin, at about 8 p.m. Friday.
“The Coast Guard said they couldn’t find them,” Linda Freedman said. “They were drifting away at a high speed.”
As the search crews combed the waters around Block Island and family members in Maine and Connecticut traded telephone calls, Jacob and Michael Freedman repeatedly called 911 on their cell phones, Linda Freedman said.
At about 11 p.m., a 911 call was received at the East Hampton Village Police Department, on New York’s Long Island.
The voice of the caller, using a cell phone, sounded broken up. All anyone at the Police Department understood was “Coast Guard,” according to a police report.
The call may have been garbled, but as far as Linda Freedman was concerned, it was the stroke of luck that helped pinpoint the location of her son’s sailboat. When the police did not get an answer back on the cell phone, the department traced the number back to Linda Freedman. She told the police that her son and his father were on a boat.
“Luckily their cell phones really pulled through at the top of the wave,” Linda Freedman said. “They were getting a signal out and the police heard their voices. It was recorded at the station. They each got 911 calls off their cell phones.”
Freedman also launched flares from his boat. The Coast Guard spotted the Moonshine about seven miles south of Block Island. Burns’ rescue crew towed the Moonshine for nearly seven hours until it was near Montauk, N.Y., at the eastern tip of Long Island, where another crew brought it to the harbor.
Linda Freedman said yesterday that her son, who has been sailing since he was 15, told her that the boat was never at risk. She said he told her that his father and their two sailing companions, a college friend and older friend of his friend, had gotten seasick.
“It was so rough, they didn’t have the strength to help him,” Linda Freedman said.
Yesterday, she said, the men were still in Montauk.
“They are making plans to haul (the boat) out of the water Wednesday” she said. “It’s not seaworthy.”
lsparks@projo.com