QF Captain on missing yacht

[teresa green]

It would appear that Capt. Graeme Woodhouse is missing aboard the "Blessed Be" A 42ft Yacht that left Fiji a fortnight ago. Graeme retired in July and was a very experienced yachtman, one can only hope the vessel has washed up somewhere, and with radio out of ops is waiting for rescue. He was accompanied by another very experienced yachtsman, so the best outcome could be a sighting somewhere, anywhere, for the sake of their families who are really suffering as you can imagine.

[ACMS]

Goodness, I hope he is ok.

Was he carrying an EPIRB? Seems that in this day and age you'd be silly not to have one straped to you at all times AND a SAT phone too.

[ravan]

Blessed Be was apparently well equipped with communications gear including two (I think) EPIRBs and SAT phone. Last contact was about three weeks ago 150nm east of Moreton Island and all was ops normal. Since then not a peep.

Last week an extensive search operation involving up to 14 fixed wing aircraft, a number of rotary wing rescue aircraft, a P3 and a Coastwatch Dash 8 searching from well north of Fraser Island south to Forster NSW failed to locate either the yacht, a liferaft or debris.

Hoping for good news sooner rather than later.

[teresa green]

Latest report states that the vessel did a 180 roll in heavy seas, (a radio report from the yacht) after that nothing. I know containers floating just below the surface have become a problem for yachts, obviously because of the keel position, ( a friend has just completed a trip from Fiji to Southport and said they saw at least 4 containers floating, to say nothing of whales of which there were a plenty) and added to that small container ships some of doubtful parentage, that would not stop to help, in fact don't bother with a capable "watch" and could well run you down, it makes for a somewhat dangerous journey at times, even for experienced yachties. Just hope she is limping home somewhere.

[Brian Abraham]

Some old hands may remember the cargo ship coming into Sydney with the mast of a yacht hanging from the anchor. Ship was not aware until the mast was pointed out to them.

[Miraz]

I have first hand experience of what happens when a 40 ft yacht struck a submerged container in a reasonable swell - it sunk in under 3 minutes!

3 weeks with no contact is pretty dire - given that the prevailing current from their last known location is running south at 3-4 knots then the drift would place them well south of Forster at the time of the search.

[B772]

From memory an ex Ansett Airlines of South Australia pilot lost his life at sea soon after receiving the "bag of gold".

[QSK?]

Gee:

Considering the subject of this thread, the Google Banner Ad at the top of the screen advertising charter yachts is a bit insensitive, isn't it?

[Victor India]

QSK,

I'm sure pprune didn't plan it that way. Anyway... I respect your view but I'm not sure I agree.

I feel Graeme wouldn't want all sailors to 'down tools' on his account. The world would surely grind to a halt if we were to shut down every activity that ever experienced a setback...

Fingers crossed for the crew.

VI

[Sunfish]

Being rolled should leave you upright perhaps with no mast, but hopefully with no water coming in anywhere.

There has been no EPIRB signal, which means either they are limping somewhere with a jury rig and saving the EPIRB for a real emergency - which is what I would do if all I'd lost was the stick, or the EPIRB's on the bottom.

Son reports lots of whales on the coast as far as Hammy Island last few weeks.

It's easy to fit a "poor mans radar" AIS receiver (automatic identification system - marine ADSB) which should protect you from getting clobbered by anything over 300 tonnes.

Containers? All you can do is pray, those bloody things need some sort of a release mechanism to make them sink.