Atlantic Beach FL grounding !

[MitchM]

a 51 foot sailboat upbound from west palm beach grounded in the breakers off atlantic beach. the 2 men aboard claimed their engine failed. the USCG rescued them. sometime after the rescue , owners claim thieves came aboard at low tide and stole thousands of dollars worth of tools.

51-foot sailboat to remain grounded in Atlantic Beach another day

A 51-foot sailboat named Spirit of Liberty remained grounded Monday afternoon in Atlantic Beach after it lost power and washed ashore over the weekend.

www.news4jax.com

i'm looking forward to the discussion on this one....

 

[Davidasailor26]

Anyone have weather reports from last weekend in that area? Best I can tell is that winds were ESE in the high 20’s, so not too extreme. If that’s the case it seems they could’ve stayed off the beach with just some sail on a reach. Looks like at least the headsail is rigged.

 

[Jim26m]

There's definitely a sail on the furler at the forestay. Can't imagine a 51 footer not being able to handle high 20's. Can't imagine going out in that weather without more sail ready either. Like @Davidasailor26, I don't understand why they weren't sailing. Sounds like a brutal condition to motor in, while sailing would have been much better.

Seems like they got in a hurry to move it. Maybe inexperienced? Standing rigging in poor condition? Hope there is more to the story. Maybe they can get her off the shore before she's too badly damaged. Hate it for them. Surely no one is surprised at the theft... if they left her unattended, I'm surprised she wasn't stripped clean.

 

[capta]

Sail?
I kinda thought that when disabled, for any reason, one might have ground tackle that would prevent this sort of ineptness on a sandy beach long before the keel hit the sand, in winds and the accompanying seas to at least 45 or 50 knots.
Then it would have been a pretty simple thing to fix the engine, or as it appears, clear the polypro from the wheel. Or call Sea Tow/BoatUS?

 

[ggrizzard]

I have some friends in the area. Rumor has it the two men bought the boat in Fla and planned to move to it to Georgia for refit and to "learn" about the boat. They made it to Jax for an overnight and encountered the problems the next morning attempting to exit Mayport. They called a "Towing Service" who, once they arrived on scene, called the Coast Guard. The two men were taken off their boat by the Coast Guard out of Jax and are safe.

There is a question about their sailing experience. They may have felt unsure of their sailing skills in 10 ft seas and 20 to 30 kts of wind. But why they didn't deploy their ground tackle is a mystery. Perhaps they were too fatigued or the wx was more than they could handle on the pitching foredeck or the CG crew insisted on the rescue, rather than an assist.

We were planning to leave Ponce Inlet for Jax that day as well, but felt the stress on the boat and two crew would not make for a 'FUN' experience. So we are waiting for the next wx window.

Hopefully they will be able to recover the boat intact.

 

[Gene Neill]

I don't understand what people seem to have against anchoring.

 

[Hondo76251]

I don't understand what people seem to have against anchoring.

Right?

Seems like this usually happens to someone from a power boat background when they get on a sailboat... the sailors always wonder why they didn't try to sail out of danger... but, like you, I cant fathom that most boaters dont have some emergency engine out procedure in the back of their minds...

 

[SFS]

...There is a question about their sailing experience. They may have felt unsure of their sailing skills in 10 ft seas and 20 to 30 kts of wind. But why they didn't deploy their ground tackle is a mystery. Perhaps they were too fatigued or the wx was more than they could handle on the pitching foredeck or the CG crew insisted on the rescue, rather than an assist....

I'm a proponent of the concept that what can get you in trouble in any unfamiliar endeavor is "not knowing what it is you don't know". If these folks really were newbies, it is not impossible to imagine they would never have thought about dropping an anchor. It is also not impossible to imagine that someone with no experience, after a few minutes of the up and down motion that larger seas create, thinking that anchoring would allow the waves to beat the boat to death. We know better, but did they?

Psychologists have known for a long time that when humans are threatened, their perception narrows to the threat itself. That can be good, but it can also be bad, if it limits your thinking, and by extension, your options. More importantly, if you can't avoid losing your cool, you can lose everything. Training helps in such situations. Which brings us back to how much training and experience they had or didn't have.

I feel for them. It's a hard lesson, but they survived to remember (and use) it.

 

[MitchM]

i once watched a 'captain' throw out his anchor off the foredeck in an emergency, only to realize too late that it was not attached inside the anchor locker...