man overboard sw of rarotonga

[idlerboat 116]

..........."reminder to myself....DONT fall over......."....

[Guest]

It's should be a 14m (46ft), Sailing Vessel (Sloop). I have been in contact with the skipper of a boat with the same name who have planed the same route at the same time.

 

I have a special thought for them.

[Guest]

Do you have any news? If yes thanks to send me an email palaeuffer (at) hotmail.com

[Guest]

I have found this information by myself:

 

 

http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2010/11/search-suspended-for-man-overboard/

[idlerboat 116]

.....our thoughts to the crew family and friends.

please dont take any of my comments as critisisms of any circumstances, they are of only another boat and our "ideal" practices. Things can go wrong so quickly, so easily.

[wheels 543]

please dont take any of my comments as critisisms of any circumstances,

No one ever would IB. And the same for all of us. These situations open converstation that serves as education for all of us and the discussions never purposely critisise the individual/crew/situation, apart from maybe critique the methods involved in the hope that we may do better.

It is very sad that someone has been lost. However, we also have to bring to mind that the wildness, remoteness, dangers and threats out there are also what lure many of us. If crossing the ocean was as simple as driving from Auckland to Bluff, the Ocean would be full of boats and idiots.

[cam 0]

please dont take any of my comments as critisisms of any circumstances,

 

Yes agreed, same here, personally I'd rather not learn entirely by my own mistakes, cos crikey I make more than enough of those. Things can and do go wrong for all sorts of reasons and there is a lot to be learned (and re-learned) from the experience when they do for us all.

 

 

Esp in cases such as these, with "an experienced skipper, calm conditions....". I see they are also claiming there was poor communication between vessel and aircraft as "they only had a vhf radio". I would have thought a VHF was a pretty good choice for talking to an overhead plane. Be interested to see what the comms problems were. (eg. Perhaps the plane was not actually overhead at the time)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10685931

 

As always there could be much misquoting involved, often what was reported and what was actually said are 2 very different things. Not always the media favouring the sensational over the mundane (altho sometimes it is hard to avoid coming to this conclusion), but sometimes it probably is just a stuff up.

[wheels 543]

Of course I am just guessing, but if the crew were not experienced enough to see through a succesful recue, I wonder if they had no idea how to communicate properly either. It is so easy to fall to pieces in such an event and lose all focus on giving clear and concise communication. You have to divorce yourself from the situation for a moment and be "proffesional" in how you carry everything out. Of course that is easy for me to say sitting here. I have had to deal with emergency situations before, but never somone close to me. But anyway, I could just imagine people aboard in a state of Panic, grief, fear and struggling to operate the Radio correctly.

I am assuming this boat is continuing the trip here with just those aboard? Like, no experienced sailor has been dropped aboard has there???

[Bimini Babe 0]

If crossing the ocean was as simple as driving from Auckland to Bluff, the Ocean would be full of boats and idiots.

Statistically speaking, crossing the ocean is probably far safer than driving from Auckland to Bluff.

 

MOB in the middle of the ocean is my all-time worst nightmare though. Probably even more so than going overboard myself is waking up from off-watch to find myself alone on the boat, and not knowing at what point within the last three hours my partner disappeared. Makes me shudder just thinking about it. My rule is therefore:

 

Out of the cockpit? Clip in.

After sunset? Clip in.

On your own? Clip in.

No ifs, buts or maybes.

[w44vi 17]

Out of the cockpit? Clip in.

After sunset? Clip in.

On your own? Clip in.

No ifs, buts or maybes.

 

yes quite fond of staying with the boat

[cam 0]

Of course I am just guessing, but if the crew were not experienced enough to see through a succesful recue, I wonder if they had no idea how to communicate properly either.

 

I gathered from the article the skipper was experienced actually.

So hard to speculate on what happened, perhaps he was on deck alone at the time he went over, it will come out in time no doubt.

 

It is so easy to fall to pieces in such an event and lose all focus on giving clear and concise communication. You have to divorce yourself from the situation for a moment and be "proffesional" in how you carry everything out. Of course that is easy for me to say sitting here. I have had to deal with emergency situations before, but never somone close to me. But anyway, I could just imagine people aboard in a state of Panic, grief, fear and struggling to operate the Radio correctly.

 

agreed but you think eventually the critical information would get passed on despite initial panic.

 

I am assuming this boat is continuing the trip here with just those aboard? Like, no experienced sailor has been dropped aboard has there???

 

sounds like it is just the remaining crew from the most recent article.

[Grinna 2]

Out of the cockpit? Clip in.

After sunset? Clip in.

On your own? Clip in.

No ifs, buts or maybes.

 

Having experienced an "off the boat" incident myself I can only reinforce Bimin Babe's rules. It's easy to stay with the boat, very hard to get back to it and to back on it if you leave it by accident.

 

I'll take the hassles and discomfort of harnesses, tethers and clipping in over the prospect of watching the boat sail away from me every time.

[Bad Kitty 252]

Out of the cockpit? Clip in.

After sunset? Clip in.

On your own? Clip in.

No ifs, buts or maybes.

 

Having experienced an "off the boat" incident myself I can only reinforce Bimin Babe's rules. It's easy to stay with the boat, very hard to get back to it and to back on it if you leave it by accident.

 

I'll take the hassles and discomfort of harnesses, tethers and clipping in over the prospect of watching the boat sail away from me every time.

 

Amen Brother!

 

Inflatable jacket with harness built in is pretty comfortable anyway.

[smithy09 50]

Latest from Stuff:

 

The partner of a yachtie who disappeared overboard south of Rarotonga is in the Cook Islands looking for answers to his disappearance.

 

Wellington man Rex Fearon, 41, vanished on November 3 from the yacht Wild Goose 279 kilometres south of Rarotonga as it was heading to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand.

 

Both the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the French Navy searched for him without success.

 

The Cook Islands News reports that his partner, Fiona Macfarlane, and friend, Damon De Berry, have been in Rarotonga looking for answers.

 

"We're doing as much investigation as we can because there are so many questions that haven't been answered," Macfarlane told the daily.

 

"The information we've been given has got so many holes in it."

 

She said the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in New Zealand had told them the Wild Goose's skipper and another crew member apparently "threw him a line and he let go".

 

"They said by the time they turned around he had disappeared," she said.

 

"I just don't understand. Why would Rex let go of the line? How did he fall in the first place? Why wasn't there a lifesaver?"

 

She said as the yacht was just a day and a half out of Rarotonga, it could have turned back but instead continued its journey to New Zealand, nearly two weeks away. It arrives in Opua on Saturday.

 

Fearon was listed on a professional crew website and listed his places of residence as Roseneath and Newtown in Wellington.

 

He described himself as unmarried builder and fitness instructor and was looking for work "anywhere in the Pacific islands" from October.

 

Fearon said on the site that he had excellent health but suffered asthma "only when in New Zealand".

 

He had extensive sailing qualifications, including a boat master's certificate.

[Guest]

Latest from Stuff:

 

 

 

"We're doing as much investigation as we can because there are so many questions that haven't been answered," Macfarlane told the daily.

 

"The information we've been given has got so many holes in it."

 

She said the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in New Zealand had told them the Wild Goose's skipper and another crew member apparently "threw him a line and he let go".

 

"They said by the time they turned around he had disappeared," she said.

 

"I just don't understand. Why would Rex let go of the line? How did he fall in the first place? Why wasn't there a lifesaver?"

Coz he was near drowning and had no energy left?

 

She said as the yacht was just a day and a half out of Rarotonga, it could have turned back but instead continued its journey to New Zealand, nearly two weeks away. It arrives in Opua on Saturday.

,

Why turn back - he wasn't there,and no decent anchorage in cyclone season

 

 

 

You have to feel sorry for the family, but their questions only demonstrate their lack of understanding, someone should explain to them that there was nothing untoward in the reports.

An olympic swimmer fell off a boat and drowned in minutes inside San Francisco Harbour. There was nothing to gain and lots to loose by returning to Raro.

[Guest]

Does anyone know any more about this event? Wild Goose must be long back by now, was there any more information about how the crewman managed to be lost overboard?