Stringies at it again!

[Hockham Admiral]

No use calling for "Water" here!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... gatta.html

[MY littleboat]

I love the reply that someone has posted ;

"Don't worry Maud, power gives way to sail"

[Guest]

I used to visit the IOW frequently, and have seen quite a few Cowes weeks.

The stupidity of some of the participants has to be seen to be believed.

There are many "near misses" every year, and have even been quite few sinkings that don't make the national press.

[goodall_m1]

The BBC Hamsphire site has a video of the collision

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-14433732

No other yachts anywhere near on a similar course so I don't think that the yacht was actually racing at that time.

Looks as if the yacht, Atlanta of Chester, was heading into Cowes under spinnaker and did absoloutly nothing to avoid the collision!

Someone wasn't keeping a good lookout under their sails if they didn't see over 125,000 tonnes of ORANGE painted tanker doing over 10 knots.

If they had seen her and thought they could safely cross in front of her then they seriously underestimated her speed.

The collision happened off Eygpt Point, which is just west of Cowes so the tanker was inbound for Esso Fawley and by that stage was, by local bye-laws, "a moving exclusion zone" which prohibts other craft from going within 1000 metres in front, 100 metres abeam or 500 metres astern of any vessel that is over 150 metres in length.

This is also an area where the big vessels have to make a dog-leg turn to starboard to enter Southampton Water, which can surprise some sailors who are not expecting it, but from the angle of the video I wouldn't have said that the tanker had started her turn yet.

I have been crewing on a yacht in the Solent when the skipper took a bit too close across the bows of a large container ship.

We were east of Cowes and hence outside the area where "the moving exclusion zone" applies but getting close enough to 200,000 tonnes of steel for her helmsman to give "5 short blasts", (Offically, "Your intentions are not understood", but in reality "What the ***** hell do you thing you are doing") is not recommended.

One other point to note:

If you zoom in on the photos on John's link from the Daily Mail site you will find one other significant fact:

Can anyone see any life jackets?

A couple of seconds were all that were between these muppets and the boat being rolled over by the tanker and them all being in the water.

A Life-jacket won't help you if you aren't wearing it!

If the anchor hadn't caught in the rigging this collision wouldn't have been as spectacular.

If someone hadn't taken the photos it probably wouldn't have made the news.

If it had been a multiple fatality it might of been seen as more "newsworthy" than some model's latest dress, or even who is going to be on Big Brother...

But even so as an example of what not to do it will now probably appear a lot in the boating world!

and I reckon that more than one skipper will learn a lot from this incident!

[Guest]

"5 short blasts"

aaahh... memories...

A regular sound in Cowes Roads from the Red Funnel Ferry edging its way through a mass of sails.

So many helmsmen steadfastly ignoring the poor s*d trying to go about his official business.

[pks1702]

We were relayed a tale a couple of weekends ago by folks in the know that a yacht was under the bows of Stena Britannica in the vicinity of Shotley Spit causing the master to go full astern. The master was understandably unimpressed and this incident has been reported; at best a raggie is going to get a stern warning.

[Hockham Admiral]

We were relayed a tale a couple of weekends ago by folks in the know that a yacht was under the bows of Stena Britannica in the vicinity of Shotley Spit causing the master to go full astern. The master was understandably unimpressed and this incident has been reported; at best a raggie is going to get a stern warning.

He's lucky he didn't get a bow-warning!

[Hockham Admiral]

To quote one of our tug skippers:

He s right as well as if there is a raggie in the vicinity when I am manoeuvring I am always nagging the tugs to keep an eye on him and tell me where he is.

Rod

With 300m of ship under me, Rod, I'd let him worry about where he was!