Sailor Lost off NY....

DHaranSailor · May 7, 2014

It is a sad thing. I feel sorry for his family.

RECESS · May 7, 2014

Based on the launch ramp, it must have been a light sailboat. Sad news.

Gunni · May 7, 2014

The Coast Guard said Stellges called Riverhead Town police about 12:16 p.m. Sunday to report he was piloting a 26-foot sailboat named MAC from James Creek on Peconic Bay to Port Washington and that the boat was taking on water off Jacobs Point. The Coast Guard was notified at 12:27 p.m. at which time the water temperature was 46 degrees, with 3 to 4 feet seas and winds about 15 to 20 knots, Disco said. Based on factors such as age, health condition, type of clothing worn, and if the person was wearing a life jacket, survival time in such seas could have been "roughly nine hours," she said. Stellges was wearing a life jacket when he was found, she said.

46 degree water does not leave a margin for error if you end up in the water. I know it has been a long winter, and the air feels warm, but the water is deadly.

DHaranSailor · May 7, 2014

That is cold water. Did they find the boat? I know the statement was made that it was taking on water, but did it go under or did he abandon ship to early?

Scott T-Bird · May 7, 2014

I don't know how you can survive in 46 degree water for 9 hours. It seems to me that survival would be limited to a far shorter time period without a wetsuit, maybe a few hours at best. Losing strength would be very rapid for a normal person his age, making swimming to shore a long shot. It is very sad.

That said, Sunday was hardly pleasant in this area ... sunny, yes, but coooolllllddd wind.

RECESS · May 7, 2014

I just read that in 50 degree water it takes 12 minutes for the body to start showing the signs of hypothermia.

shemandr · May 7, 2014

There is the rule of fifties: A fifty year old can live for fifty minutes in fifty degree water. So…
Recess: I'm not sure, but I think that picture is where the police/fire dept. launched their rescue boat. It's a tough ramp to use due to the usual waves. I'm guessing the article cited is inaccurate regarding launching the boat. If the boat was on a trailer, why not just drive it to Manhasset rather than launching it and taking a arduous and dangerous trip on the water. That doesn't make sense. It would only be an hour and a half drive.
It doesn't look that rough in that picture… but that launch "Ramp" is in the lee of Roanoke Point and not really indicative of the conditions out in the Sound. And it may be a file picture that's not even from that day.

RECESS · May 8, 2014

Pictures rarely show how rough it really is. We have been offshore and taken pictures of the seas building and then decided the pictures do not show the scale of things at all.

Gunni · May 8, 2014

Scott T-Bird said:
I don't know how you can survive in 46 degree water for 9 hours. It seems to me that survival would be limited to a far shorter time period without a wetsuit, maybe a few hours at best. Losing strength would be very rapid for a normal person his age, making swimming to shore a long shot. It is very sad.

That said, Sunday was hardly pleasant in this area ... sunny, yes, but coooolllllddd wind.

I thought the same thing. Maybe 2 hours. I doubt the poor guy made it to sunset, his PFD just provided the family with a body for the funeral. The Navy used to generate these kinds of stats out of their UDT program, and fit, healthy young men. 9 hours would represent something like a 1% survival rate, and that likely includes unconscious and brain damaged.

I have some ugly experience with cold water and hypothermia. I have seen good swimmers unable to swim in 45 deg water. When I single-hand in the shoulder seasons I wear a HydroSkin top and shorts under my sailing clothes. Lot of sailors don't know about it, the kayakers swear by it. HydroSkin is comfortable double-side neoprene with a reflective weave that provides me with an extra margin of heat retention. Not stiff and clammy like diving neoprene. That, and a handheld VHF clipped to an PFD is plan B, and C. Plan A being, stay on the boat.

Scott T-Bird · May 8, 2014

I think that's smart, and I think I'll get that outfit for myself.

CalebD · May 8, 2014

Sad indeed.
I've been out on the LI Sound with gusts up to 50 knots; it is kind of scary with 6' swells & white horses everywhere. Not that the wind was that strong that day but it was not calm that day either. It was a poor choice of weather to make that trip by boat, in that boat.
Sheer speculation but it may have been a water ballasted boat (eg, MacGregor 26'). I have sailed on a Mac 26' S and the water ballast works nicely, as long as the seals for the ballast compartment do their job. We'll probably never know what happened as it appears that the boat was not recovered.

Very sad.

sailaway78 · May 9, 2014

I went into the water

A couple years ago, I went into the water off a dock. Water temp in the low 50's. Fully clothed, and no life jacket, I was at the time 73 yo. I can tell you for a fact, that it takes only a very few minutes for the cold to start sapping your strength. From my experience I would think that within a very frew minutes in 46 degree water, an older person would be pretty much helpless.