Edelweiss
Guru
Interesting Article in Seaworthy Magazine:
Photo: Daniel Carpenter
The aptly named Running Free washed up on a sandy beach on Martha's Vineyard on July 5, 54 days after being abandoned off Bermuda. The boat's owner, Bill Heldenbrand, left Jacksonville, Florida alone in May, bound for the U.K. with a planned layover in Bermuda. On the seventh day, he encountered heavy weather some 400 miles west of Bermuda. After battling 40-knot sustained winds and 15- to 20-foot waves for 18 hours, he hove to in order to get some rest. He woke to find the jib sheet chafed through and the jib flogging. A passing tanker offered to take him off the boat, and given the continuing deterioration in the weather, he decided to leave his belongings and the uninsured vessel, never expecting to see either one again.
But, as so often happens, boats prove to be much stronger and more capable than sailors expect. Not only did Running Free manage to survive the storm, but she ran the gamut of the busy East Coast shipping lanes, dodged the myriad rocky ledges and outcroppings along the New England coast, and beached herself on a sandy shore some 700 miles from where she was abandoned. The jib was shredded and the boom broken, but otherwise she was in fine shape. The solar panels had kept the batteries fully charged, and the electronics were all still working when Daniel Carpenter from TowBoatUS Falmouth set to work freeing her. "It took three days to remove, and the hull was still in very good shape," Carpenter told Seaworthy.
Photo: Daniel Carpenter
But, as so often happens, boats prove to be much stronger and more capable than sailors expect. Not only did Running Free manage to survive the storm, but she ran the gamut of the busy East Coast shipping lanes, dodged the myriad rocky ledges and outcroppings along the New England coast, and beached herself on a sandy shore some 700 miles from where she was abandoned. The jib was shredded and the boom broken, but otherwise she was in fine shape. The solar panels had kept the batteries fully charged, and the electronics were all still working when Daniel Carpenter from TowBoatUS Falmouth set to work freeing her. "It took three days to remove, and the hull was still in very good shape," Carpenter told Seaworthy.