Mambo42
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2021
- Messages
- 927
- Vessel Name
- Endless Summer
- Vessel Make
- 1979 Defever 49
To be honest i don't think anyone else was capable of handling the boat, so leaving someone on the boat is thereby out of the question. Only one staying onboard would be the owner himself.Doesn't this bother anyone else ?
If you were on a lee shore and the mooring breaks, the boat goes out to sea and waves don't "crash on the beach" The decision of where to leave the boat was a bad one. The decision not to leave someone on a boat that is moored within swimming distance of crashing surf too big to land a dinghy was another bad decision. If I had the choice of trying to save my boat, or film it's destruction I would have chosen differently. No matter how futile I would have boarded her and ground the props to their hubs trying to back off that beach.
Was it wise to moor the boat in that sea ? I would not do it, but as he stated, he had been on that buoy before and don't forget he is not as experienced as most of us.
Last year we were in a storm for 4 days, we always had one person onboard who knew what to do if something would happen. Here comes a charter boat, 8 guests onboard, 1 professional captain. Dropped their anchor about 30 mtrs in front of us, minimum amount of chain, everyone got in the dinghy and left for the shore. 30 kts steady G40 straight on our bow i.o.w. if he started to drag he would smash into our boat, perhaps pull our anchor out and we were 10 to 15 mtrs away from the rocks. Guy stuck up his middle finger when I asked him to move his boat.
I actually had to call his boss in Athens to get this idiot back onboard to move the boat to a safer place. He was angry that I had called his boss (lost his job as well btw). So experience does basically mean absolutely nothing.
When we are on anchor we (the two of us) leave the boat for the day and it has happened that bad weather all of a sudden sets in. Nothing we can do about it anymore, it happens. And I am pretty sure it has happened to others as well. So leaving the boat on a mooring buoy when there is a bit of a swell ? Not clever, but i can understand it, I see it all the time.
Saving the boat ?
There was nothing to save anymore, boat was following them to the shore and I really would like to see any of you trying to climb onto a pitching 54' catamaran which is heading for shore. Guy is 64 years old, he is the one that knows the boat, he is physically not able and so are many of us no longer able to do those things. We may think we are 25 year old, but we are not. So stop pretending.
We should all take a moment and remember the inherant bias of the only source of information here. This guy obviously has a horse in this race and a substantial talent for showmanship and presentation. I am sure if we were to hear from the insurance company, many significant differences would arise in the stories.
Having watched many of his videos I can say that if there is one thing this guy does not do is leave things out. He will show you absolutely everything, all his stupid mistakes, all the things he should not do or did not know, he simply shows it. Also in his explanation of what happened he is brutally honest and courteous. He has not mentioned the name of the salvage company, although he has every reason to do so.
Whatever everyone may come up with in the end it is still the same cause for the grounding.........the mooring ball / line / chain, broke and that caused the grounding of this vessel. If he would have been onboard he could have saved the boat and if he would not have taken that mooring ball it would have never happened. But he did and they went for lunch, those are the facts and the question then becomes if mooring to a legal buoy is insured or not.
That is the only question that is important and since the insurance refuses to talk to him I think we can conclude they are trying to duck this one.
Lastly, if there is anyone who still thinks he should have left the boat on the beach until the insurance company would have given him the OK...........that person has never ever been in the Caribbean. If you leave a boat, like that, on the beach overnight, in the morning that boat will be salvaged by the locals meaning the boat would be stripped empty.
I remember a case of a ocean going tug that had an engine failure South of Curacao. Captain beached the tug on the uninhabited island of small Curacao, went to the island of Curacao to arrange salvage, insurance etc. Came back early next morning, boat was stripped, there was nothing in the boat anymore. Even the fuel had been pumped out.
That is the reality in the Caribbean, you don't leave boats overnight stranded on the beach and it gets dark by 7 PM, so this owner had probably 4 hours to save his boat.