Appena ho visto la barca ho pensato: "troppo piccola per il nord Atlantico", ma poi mi sono ricordato di Trekka con cui John Guzzwell ha fatto il giro del mondo, e poi i coniugi Lin and Larry Pardey... ma erano altri tempi e altre barche, molto più robuste delle barche di oggi e più equilibrate al punto di vista velico. Concordo con te che il danno al timone era con tutta probabilità dovuto al fatto che l'hai spinta troppo, ma in realtà non sappiano, ne io né tu, cosa sarebbe sucesso comunque anche con una gestione più prudente. E la tua diagnosi per il lancio del SOS è esatta e "classica", in questi casi a cedere prima non è quasi mai la barca ma il fisico e la psiche del navigatore. Come non possiamo pretendere nulla di più di quello che la barca può dare, così non possiamo pretendere nulla di più da noi stessi. Quando lo stress supera un certo limite siamo destinati a rinunciare. Proprio per questo diventa importante la scelta della barca giusta, cioè una barca che non solo sia robusta ma che sia anche comoda (con spazio funzionale) e che ci regali navigazioni "lisce" che ci consentono di riposare e anche cucinare. Sonno e cibo sono essenziali per avere resistenza fisica e psichica. Le barche di oggi, veloci e comode in porto, sono stressanti al largo in condizioni meteo estreme e non aiutano il navigante in difficoltà. Comunque tanto di cappello per quello che hai fatto!!!
Analisi perfetta, hai messo in parole i miei pensieri meglio di quello che ho potuto fare! Il scafo era ben disegnato e con un timone più solido avrebbe potuto fare molto. L'interno era accettabile a parte per l'umidità e il manco di "headroom". In futuro vorrei un barca ove posso stare in piedi e sarebbe molto utile una cupola di plexiglas simile a quella di Moitessier, per dare una sbirciata attorno alla barca senza dovere uscire a bagnarsi. Ero partito in mare con questa barca perché l'avevo comprata per quattro soldi, e come al solito mi sono lanciato senza troppo preoccuparmi (può essere un difetto o una qualità, dipende dai casi). Insomma, una bellissima aventura che mi ha insegnato moltissimo!
@@Antipodean33 It might sound weird, but it WAS very cool. The storm has been the best hours of my life by far... that is, until the moment the rudder decided to quit
In SSS transpac all racers are required to have a fully independent steering system. It is always possible to steer a boat to some degree with drogues - you gave up too early.
There is ALWAYS a way to go on if you have the energy and motivation. Having a satellite SOS device onboard, it made it a little too easy for me to bail out.
@@FedericoLucchi Looks like it would have been safer to stay on the yacht than get to and on the ship ! That looks way sacrier. The yacht looked to be coping ok. I was going to say that I hoped you had scuttled the yacht, but I can see that you would have had no time to go below and cut a hose.
Thank you for being honest enough to tell your tale. Perhaps next time, make sure you have a drogue and fittings to suit. Read Roger Taylor, MingMing, a 21’ boat, survived a few storms off Greenland
I read all of Moitessier's books, thanks for the suggestions! This adventure definitely taught me more than 1 year of incident-less sailing could have taught me. Next time I'll be sure to set out on a better boat, and better fitted!
I was able to recover it, and I might have been able to repair it somehow once the storm passed. I abandoned ship mostly due to fatigue, fear, and not being overly fond of that particular sailboat (I still have marks on my head from all the times I bumped it on the cramped interior). It has been a good lesson, and next time I'll be able to prepare better (my clothing wasn't too well adapted for a storm either), and think it over longer before sending an S.O.S.
Federico, merci pour ces images impressionnantes. Il semblerait que votre safran ait cédé au niveau des ferrures. Merci pour votre modestie, car oui, facile de donner des conseil depuis le canapé du salon. Vous avez fait le mieux que vous pouviez faire dans l'état d'épuisement, de peur, de perte de confiance dans lequel vous vous êtes trouvé. Votre petit bateau a peut être survécu, fait le bouchon, vous avez renoncé à l'accompagner car vous n'en aviez plus la force. Votre vie est sauve, bravo à tous ces marins, belle leçon.
Not really, but I dragged some lines, which is almost an alternative. Definitely on my shopping list for the next adventure, although it wasn't a must in this case. I was going at 9-10 knots and never came close to pitching in an incoming wave. I was at the helm though, making sure I climbed each wave at the right angle.
@@FedericoLucchi Tips: 1. Sea anchor deployed from bow if drifting to dangerous lee shore. Alternatively 2. Drogue deployed at stern if no obvious danger down wind. A small snippet of sail on the fore stay may help keep the bow down wind. 3. Go below and strap yourself in and wait until the storm settles.
Doesn't surprise me about that rudder! Fin keel NOT a long keel with the rudder mounted to IT rather than a transom only mount. There isn't even a skeg mount for that rudder. This is NOT an offshore boat! Yeah compare this to ANY Cape Dory or even a 20 foot Flicka (both long keeled boats with lead ballast a lot more evenly distributed AND with much less slippage to leeward. Not having better steerage didn't help either with such a prolonged storm situation. The real problem though was a woosy rudder mount. yeah you shoulda been running bare poled (or with a reefed storm jib in those kinda winds) and downwind with a decent vane. Did you recover the boat?
Totally agree, I sailed with what I had, but a full-keeler is obviously way stronger. My point in the video is that the boat was lost because I pushed it way beyond its limits. Had I been more conservative, I'm pretty sure it would have fared well. That little boat was way sturdier than it might seem! Nope, boat was lost. I was picked up in the middle of a storm, in the night, 400 miles off land. I was "allowed" to leave the tanker after 2 weeks. Finding the boat again would have been an absolute miracle. Besides, I left the hatch open so as to allow it to sink ASAP, to avoid some other solo sailor colliding with it.
Properly engineered spade rudders can & do circumnavigate and travel to far flung places. Don't confuse bad engineering with bad design. And when sailing fin keel boats make less leeway than long keel boats, because its a more efficient shape, the only time the long keel boat would make less leeway is when drifting / dead in the water, as it ceases to become an aerofoil & just becomes a barn door. I've owned a few boats now & the only one I had trouble with, was a skeg hung rudder, cracks were forming in the skeg root & needed extensive repair work. Of course this was a weakness in the engineering of the skeg, not the design concept, much like a poorly engineered or poorly maintained spade rudder failing.
@@ceirwan Got it! Thanks for the explanation. I'm not very knowledgeable in boat design, but I came to the conclusion that my boat's rudder was definitely not meant for this. Still, I don't want to simply shift the blame on the equipment (very typical of poor seamanship), I'd rather admit that most fault was actually mine for not sailing my boat the way it should have been sailed.
@@FedericoLucchi Thing is, your boat is quite old. I don't mean that in a bad way, just that it means that stuff that was adequate when new, is probably old, worn and needing inspection now. Cars get inspected yearly, and parts replaced all the time, but sailors very rarely drop and inspect rudders for example, can you imagine driving in a 40 year old car that had never had the suspension checked out? Sure long keels and skeg hung rudders allow you to get away with less maintenance and inspection, but they're also poorly manoeuvrable, slow sailors compared to newer designs. I think your rudder will be more than suitable for offshore work once its been properly repaired to a good standard.
Been sea like this 60 Km west Santa Barbara in 25-35 it's NW blow. Sunny and dangerous. Accidentally jibed 4 times in a 14- 18 trough. Lucky for me I was on my trusty ocean machine, a 51 Formosa. Fell off and made for Two Harbours. Just two of us.
I had one accidental jibe during the storm, due to falling asleep at the helm. The boom grazed my head... made me slap my face a few times to make sure it doesn't happen again. Small mistakes can be fatal when sailing solo!
Appena ho visto la barca ho pensato: "troppo piccola per il nord Atlantico", ma poi mi sono ricordato di Trekka con cui John Guzzwell ha fatto il giro del mondo, e poi i coniugi Lin and Larry Pardey... ma erano altri tempi e altre barche, molto più robuste delle barche di oggi e più equilibrate al punto di vista velico. Concordo con te che il danno al timone era con tutta probabilità dovuto al fatto che l'hai spinta troppo, ma in realtà non sappiano, ne io né tu, cosa sarebbe sucesso comunque anche con una gestione più prudente. E la tua diagnosi per il lancio del SOS è esatta e "classica", in questi casi a cedere prima non è quasi mai la barca ma il fisico e la psiche del navigatore. Come non possiamo pretendere nulla di più di quello che la barca può dare, così non possiamo pretendere nulla di più da noi stessi. Quando lo stress supera un certo limite siamo destinati a rinunciare. Proprio per questo diventa importante la scelta della barca giusta, cioè una barca che non solo sia robusta ma che sia anche comoda (con spazio funzionale) e che ci regali navigazioni "lisce" che ci consentono di riposare e anche cucinare. Sonno e cibo sono essenziali per avere resistenza fisica e psichica. Le barche di oggi, veloci e comode in porto, sono stressanti al largo in condizioni meteo estreme e non aiutano il navigante in difficoltà. Comunque tanto di cappello per quello che hai fatto!!!
Analisi perfetta, hai messo in parole i miei pensieri meglio di quello che ho potuto fare! Il scafo era ben disegnato e con un timone più solido avrebbe potuto fare molto. L'interno era accettabile a parte per l'umidità e il manco di "headroom". In futuro vorrei un barca ove posso stare in piedi e sarebbe molto utile una cupola di plexiglas simile a quella di Moitessier, per dare una sbirciata attorno alla barca senza dovere uscire a bagnarsi.
Ero partito in mare con questa barca perché l'avevo comprata per quattro soldi, e come al solito mi sono lanciato senza troppo preoccuparmi (può essere un difetto o una qualità, dipende dai casi).
Insomma, una bellissima aventura che mi ha insegnato moltissimo!
@@FedericoLucchiparenti a Bologna??
Excellent documentary...as always 👍
Absolutely awesome. Very cool. I sail the great lakes on a 26' Mirage. Cheers!
"very cool" what are you talking about, are you a psychopath
@@Antipodean33 It might sound weird, but it WAS very cool. The storm has been the best hours of my life by far... that is, until the moment the rudder decided to quit
Simply wow! I'm glad you're telling the tale, hats off to the rescuers. I'm curious what model of boat you were in?
I found it from your other video a sonic 23
@@newfiescreech7328 You were faster than me! Cheers! ;-)
In SSS transpac all racers are required to have a fully independent steering system. It is always possible to steer a boat to some degree with drogues - you gave up too early.
There is ALWAYS a way to go on if you have the energy and motivation. Having a satellite SOS device onboard, it made it a little too easy for me to bail out.
@@FedericoLucchi Looks like it would have been safer to stay on the yacht than get to and on the ship ! That looks way sacrier.
The yacht looked to be coping ok.
I was going to say that I hoped you had scuttled the yacht, but I can see that you would have had no time to go below and cut a hose.
Thank you for being honest enough to tell your tale.
Perhaps next time, make sure you have a drogue and fittings to suit. Read Roger Taylor, MingMing, a 21’ boat, survived a few storms off Greenland
I read all of Moitessier's books, thanks for the suggestions! This adventure definitely taught me more than 1 year of incident-less sailing could have taught me. Next time I'll be sure to set out on a better boat, and better fitted!
did you loose the ruddrer completly. or it just broke off ?
I was able to recover it, and I might have been able to repair it somehow once the storm passed. I abandoned ship mostly due to fatigue, fear, and not being overly fond of that particular sailboat (I still have marks on my head from all the times I bumped it on the cramped interior). It has been a good lesson, and next time I'll be able to prepare better (my clothing wasn't too well adapted for a storm either), and think it over longer before sending an S.O.S.
Federico, merci pour ces images impressionnantes. Il semblerait que votre safran ait cédé au niveau des ferrures. Merci pour votre modestie, car oui, facile de donner des conseil depuis le canapé du salon. Vous avez fait le mieux que vous pouviez faire dans l'état d'épuisement, de peur, de perte de confiance dans lequel vous vous êtes trouvé. Votre petit bateau a peut être survécu, fait le bouchon, vous avez renoncé à l'accompagner car vous n'en aviez plus la force. Votre vie est sauve, bravo à tous ces marins, belle leçon.
You had no sea anchor ??
Not really, but I dragged some lines, which is almost an alternative. Definitely on my shopping list for the next adventure, although it wasn't a must in this case. I was going at 9-10 knots and never came close to pitching in an incoming wave. I was at the helm though, making sure I climbed each wave at the right angle.
@@FedericoLucchi Tips: 1. Sea anchor deployed from bow if drifting to dangerous lee shore. Alternatively 2. Drogue deployed at stern if no obvious danger down wind. A small snippet of sail on the fore stay may help keep the bow down wind. 3. Go below and strap yourself in and wait until the storm settles.
Doesn't surprise me about that rudder! Fin keel NOT a long keel with the rudder mounted to IT rather than a transom only mount. There isn't even a skeg mount for that rudder. This is NOT an offshore boat! Yeah compare this to ANY Cape Dory or even a 20 foot Flicka (both long keeled boats with lead ballast a lot more evenly distributed AND with much less slippage to leeward. Not having better steerage didn't help either with such a prolonged storm situation. The real problem though was a woosy rudder mount. yeah you shoulda been running bare poled (or with a reefed storm jib in those kinda winds) and downwind with a decent vane. Did you recover the boat?
Totally agree, I sailed with what I had, but a full-keeler is obviously way stronger. My point in the video is that the boat was lost because I pushed it way beyond its limits. Had I been more conservative, I'm pretty sure it would have fared well. That little boat was way sturdier than it might seem!
Nope, boat was lost. I was picked up in the middle of a storm, in the night, 400 miles off land. I was "allowed" to leave the tanker after 2 weeks. Finding the boat again would have been an absolute miracle. Besides, I left the hatch open so as to allow it to sink ASAP, to avoid some other solo sailor colliding with it.
Properly engineered spade rudders can & do circumnavigate and travel to far flung places. Don't confuse bad engineering with bad design.
And when sailing fin keel boats make less leeway than long keel boats, because its a more efficient shape, the only time the long keel boat would make less leeway is when drifting / dead in the water, as it ceases to become an aerofoil & just becomes a barn door.
I've owned a few boats now & the only one I had trouble with, was a skeg hung rudder, cracks were forming in the skeg root & needed extensive repair work. Of course this was a weakness in the engineering of the skeg, not the design concept, much like a poorly engineered or poorly maintained spade rudder failing.
@@ceirwan Got it! Thanks for the explanation. I'm not very knowledgeable in boat design, but I came to the conclusion that my boat's rudder was definitely not meant for this.
Still, I don't want to simply shift the blame on the equipment (very typical of poor seamanship), I'd rather admit that most fault was actually mine for not sailing my boat the way it should have been sailed.
@@FedericoLucchi Thing is, your boat is quite old. I don't mean that in a bad way, just that it means that stuff that was adequate when new, is probably old, worn and needing inspection now.
Cars get inspected yearly, and parts replaced all the time, but sailors very rarely drop and inspect rudders for example, can you imagine driving in a 40 year old car that had never had the suspension checked out?
Sure long keels and skeg hung rudders allow you to get away with less maintenance and inspection, but they're also poorly manoeuvrable, slow sailors compared to newer designs.
I think your rudder will be more than suitable for offshore work once its been properly repaired to a good standard.
Been sea like this 60 Km west Santa Barbara in 25-35 it's NW blow. Sunny and dangerous. Accidentally jibed 4 times in a 14- 18 trough. Lucky for me I was on my trusty ocean machine, a 51 Formosa. Fell off and made for Two Harbours. Just two of us.
I had one accidental jibe during the storm, due to falling asleep at the helm. The boom grazed my head... made me slap my face a few times to make sure it doesn't happen again. Small mistakes can be fatal when sailing solo!