How does this happen?

[dlochner]

In that situation, it is better to turn in the direction the approaching vessel.

If the boat had turned to port, the stern of the boat would have entered the path of the vessel. By turning to starboard both the bow and stern are out of the oncoming vessels path.

 

[Davidasailor26]

By turning to starboard both the bow and stern are out of the oncoming vessels path

Except they aren't.

It looked to me like when the ship first came into the frame they still had room to turn to port. Doing that wouldn't have required a tack, just a quick bear off. After the long delay maybe you're right that there wouldn't be room to turn down without the stern swinging out into the cargo ship, but I think I still would've tried it over the impossible attempt to cross.

 

[jon hansen]

clearly the sailboat should have taken the ship on two whistles. the ship even went to his port to give the sailboat more room.
now you know why motor vessels hate "stupid sailboaters". why would one sail a boat like that in a confined shipping lane.

 

[Jim26m]

Why did they turn to starboard? I heard what I thought was somebody yelling "turn to port" but then I saw a gaggle of guys pushing the tiller to port!!!

Surely it couldn’t be that simple. I listened to it again after reading your post, and heard what I thought was “hard to port”. You don’t think that the crew interpreted that as “shove the tiller to port”? Is the vessel a sightseeing affair with non-sailing crew? I would not interpret “hard to port” as meaning a starboard turn.

 

[Tally Ho]

Watched it several times. Couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Everyone appeared to see what was coming and nobody was trying to avoid. Then, the choice of action was to cut across the ship’s path. Incredible.

Yeah, when I watched the video, it appeared that they moved the tiller to go right in front of the ship...I have a wheel, so I had to look a few times to be sure I was seeing it correctly.

Wow.

Greg

 

[Tally Ho]

That’s almost criminal negligence. 2 seconds into it and you can tell there is no cross.

If anyone had died, maybe it would have prosecuted. Sounds like injuries, but no fatalities.

Amazing.

Greg

 

[Rick486]

I just saw the video. As said by many above, it is just unbelievable malfeasance by the skipper of the sailboat. He waited way, way too long to maneuver. The motor vessel clearly had right of way in the restricted waterway. And when he did maneuver, he went the wrong way. The only thing I can think is that he believed the ship was burdened. Some old guys just don't understand the rules.

 

[Will Gilmore]

If the boat had turned to port, the stern of the boat would have entered the path of the vessel. By turning to starboard both the bow and stern are out of the oncoming vessels path.

I heartily disagree with this. Perhaps if they had tried a full jibe, the stern would have come around into the path of the cargo ship, but if the goal was simply to pass to stern of the oncoming ship, the stern would never have been in the path of collision, they would have just been two vessels passing starboard to starboard.
We don't even know if it was the captain who grabbed the tiller. It may have been a mate on watch. It does look like they had no idea which way to push the tiller to turn to port.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[dlochner]

I heartily disagree with this. Perhaps if they had tried a full jibe, the stern would have come around into the path of the cargo ship, but if the goal was simply to pass to stern of the oncoming ship, the stern would never have been in the path of collision, they would have just been two vessels passing starboard to starboard.
We don't even know if it was the captain who grabbed the tiller. It may have been a mate on watch. It does look like they had no idea which way to push the tiller to turn to port.

-Will (Dragonfly)

It works because boats turn from the stern, not the bow. Cars turn from the front so the back of the car follows the front in a smaller radius turn. Boats turn from the stern so the stern pushes the bow and carves a larger radius turn than the bow.

Another way to look at it is to track the course of the pivot point of the boat. In this case turning to port would put the pivot point of the boat closer to the oncoming vessel. Turning to starboard, the pivot point moves away from the oncoming boat and giving the boat more time to complete the turn and get out of the way.

Yes, it is completely counter intuitive.

 

[shemandr]

Everyone sees something different from a video like that. The number one thing I took out is that Elbe 5 had way on and steerage as she approached the container ship. Number two is that the video is a good example of the "Constant bearing, closing distance" rule to determine a collision course.
Who signaled with the 2 sets of five horns?

 

[Jim26m]

The stern will swing out from the center of forward travel, however, the forward motion of the boat continues, pulling the stern along with it ( unless something really bad has happened). The slight offset of the stern by the rudder, in combination with the keel’s lateral resistance is what makes the turn - if you have enough forward motion for steerage. The stern does not have to outrun the keel to make a turn. Had they executed a hard turn to port at any time - up to the fatal hard to starboard, I’m fairly certain we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

 

[Davidasailor26]

The stern will swing out from the center of forward travel, however, the forward motion of the boat continues, pulling the stern along with it ( unless something really bad has happened). The slight offset of the stern by the rudder, in combination with the keel’s lateral resistance is what makes the turn - if you have enough forward motion for steerage. The stern does not have to outrun the keel to make a turn. Had they executed a hard turn to port at any time - up to the fatal hard to starboard, I’m fairly certain we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

I agree. While the stern will go a bit to starboard to make the turn, as soon as you travel a boat length you've made up for that. They were moving pretty quick, so they could've made the turn and made up that boat length to port pretty quick.

Who signaled with the 2 sets of five horns?

Discussion on other forums is that the schooner made the signals. Would've been time better spent avoiding the oncoming unstoppable object.

 

[Tally Ho]

Hard to tell who was in charge of the schooner. I did not really see anyone in charge, unless it was the guy sounding the horn.

Greg

 

[shemandr]

...Would've been time better spent avoiding the oncoming unstoppable object.

Agreed. I'd be surprised if the container ship bridge would even hear that. If the Elbe made the signal it implies that they thought the ship would alter course for the sailing yacht. Delusional really.

 

[Will Gilmore]

It works because boats turn from the stern, not the bow.

Absolutely agree and understand what you mean, however to avoid collision, in this case, the schooner would not need to turn to a bearing away from the freighter, only one parallel. Therefore, the stern would never need to cross in front of the freighter.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Jim26m]

Excellent point.
Even if it was too late, I'd rather risk a slight chance at glancing contact with my quarter over an almost certain World Class T-bone.

 

[dlochner]

This afternoon I sailed on the St. Lawrence II (and here). One of the crew had sailed on the Elbe and in the same river. Both the Captain and First Mate are as puzzled, mystified, and horrified by the video and accident as we are.

 

[agprice22]

Wow. There are so many problems apparent in that video. The captain either is unqualified, or he was not doing his job.

 

[agprice22]

The man in the black sweater, who is seen running aft at the beginning, appears later and goes to a pedestal where he signals the 5 blasts on a pathetic horn when considered they are cross-wind of a freighter with a sealed bridge. And what exactly was he expecting the freighter to do at that point? “Early and obvious” was lost in this. The schooner was on a close reach, reefed in high winds. I don’t think he was gonna make that tack. He needed to bear off to leeward long before or tack to windward and match the freighter’s direction much earlier.

 

[NotCook]

The video suggests the skipper waited too long to get out of the way. Running aground would have been a far preferable action to getting run over by a ship.